Transcript The Writing Process - Skagit Valley College

Thinking Critically
 Most people associate “critical” with faultfinding, nit-
picking, and negativity.
 Critical comes from a Greek word meaning “to discern
or perceive, to separate, to understand.”
 To be critical means to look carefully at something, to
discover its parts and what it’s made of, and then,
sometimes, to evaluate—positively or negatively.
 I’m inquisitive. I ask questions of myself or others. I ask
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questions while I’m reading or looking at things.
I like to be well informed about all kinds of topics.
I trust my powers of reasoning to help me think clearly.
I’m open minded. I like to hear what others have to say,
even when I disagree with them.
I’m flexible. I’m willing to reconsider and even, sometimes,
to change my mind.
I’m usually honest about myself—what I think, want, and
feel.
I challenge my own assumptions.
 What goes into your writing may come from your own
knowledge or experience, or from a book or some other
source. Wherever they come from, these details, ideas,
and opinions need to be evaluated for accuracy,
meaning, and value.
 To sort things out, see the connections, and decide
what things add up to, employ the four methods of
critical thinking: analyzing, interpreting, evaluating,
and synthesizing.
 When you analyze something, you take it apart and
describe it, part by part, to understand it.
 There are three methods of analysis: descriptive
analysis, process analysis, and causal analysis.
 A descriptive analysis describes a subject in terms of its
parts.
 Example: The roles played by the various characters in
a short story or the various parts—root, stem, leaves,
and flower—of a particular plant.
 Try it out: Write a brief descriptive analysis of this
classroom.
 To divide an event or activity into stages or steps and
then describe their relationships is to make a process
analysis.
 Example: A recipe for chicken enchiladas—first do
this, then this, then this—or a play-by-play account of
a basketball game.
 Try it out: Write a brief process analysis about coming
to class.
 To examine events as patterns of cause and effect is to
make a causal analysis.
 Example: A study about why the polar ice caps are
melting or a look at traffic congestion at a particular
intersection.
 Try it out: Write a brief causal analysis describing why
you are in this class.
 To interpret means to explain, decode, or bring to
light.
 When you interpret something, you’re reading
between the lines and looking for “hidden meanings”
that will remain hidden until you reveal them through
interpretation.
 These “hidden meanings” can often be found by
examining assumptions, patterns, and implications.
 To read printed texts—or people—successfully, try to
discover their assumptions, the basic, often untested
beliefs that influence their outlook, opinion, or
behavior.
 Example: A person who argues that “The US
government should temporarily halt legal immigration
because our economy cannot absorb any more new
immigrants” is assuming but not actually saying that
immigrants drain economic resources rather than
adding them or having no effect.
 When you’re trying to understand something, look for
patterns—regularities or repetitions in information,
design, language, or occurrence. Patterns often reveal
the meaning of what you’re studying.
 Example: Imagine you have an acquaintance who
constantly speaks about money: how much he has or
doesn’t have, other people’s salaries, the cost of this or
that, etc. You probably would base your interpretation
of his personality on his overriding concern with
money, guessing his values and predicting his future
behavior accordingly.
 An implication is a connection, usually unstated,
between one thing and another.
 Often printed texts and people don’t come right out
and say exactly what they mean. Instead, they imply
something—that is, they suggest or point in a certain
direction.
 To discover implications, ask yourself, “Where is this
train of thought going? What is the next logical step?”
 When you evaluate, you measure something against
widely shared standards of value that indicate whether
something is good or not good.
 To write effectively, you’ll evaluate all that goes into
your writing to see that it is useful and trustworthy.
 Facts and statistics, opinions, and examples and
anecdotes all need to be evaluated before they are
included in your writing.
 A fact is something that can be verified.
 To decide whether you or other writers are using facts
effectively, apply these four standards (known as Rules
of Evidence):
1.
2.
3.
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Sufficiency—are there enough facts to support the
point being made?
Relevance—do these facts actually apply to the
situation being considered?
Timeliness—are these facts up to date?
Variety—do these facts come from or are they verified
by a variety of sources?
 An opinion is a statement of belief or a conclusion.
 In your writing, you’ll use both facts and opinions, and
you’ll have to distinguish between them. When you
identify an opinion, evaluate its usefulness with these
questions:
1.
2.
3.
Is this opinion supported by sufficient facts? Mistrust
any opinions that aren’t.
Is the source of this opinion an expert or eyewitness?
Be careful with opinions from unqualified sources.
What are the opinions of other experts or
eyewitnesses? See how they compare.
 An example describes one member of a group in order
to explain the whole group.
 An anecdote is a brief story that makes a point.
 To use examples and anecdotes effectively, ask yourself
this question: Does my example or anecdote really
represent what it is supposed to illustrate?
 Synthesis comes from a Greek word meaning “to put
together, to integrate, to blend.”
 When you synthesize facts, ideas, and opinions, you
choose among them and put together your choices to
express your ideas and support your opinions. Your
thinking becomes the focus.
 To synthesize effectively, follow these guidelines:
o Make a working bibliography. When you take
materials from two or more sources, list your sources,
including complete publication information.
o Compare sources. Notice similarities and differences
in your sources’ use of key terms, in their thinking, and
in there use of facts and opinions.
o Choose the best sources. Consider how your readers
will respond to the sources you’ve chosen. Decide how
to respond to sources you disagree with.
o As you write, blend your sources smoothly, so they
support your ideas and opinions clearly and coherently.
Survey the Writing Situation
 Before you begin writing
any document or
assignment, you must
consider what you are
writing (scope), why you
are writing (purpose),
and who you are writing
it for (audience).
Purpose
Audience
Scope
 Scope focuses on the written product and includes questions
about the topic, genre, and the size of the project.
 When thinking about the scope of your writing project, ask
yourself the following:
o Has the topic been given to you as part of an assignment? Can you
adapt the topic to your interests? If you have to choose a topic,
what is a suitable topic for the assignment?
o What kind of writing does the assignment require: a letter, essay,
report, review, or some other form?
o Do you have to cover a broad topic? How focused must your writing
be because of reader interest or length and time restrictions? How
much detail will you have to use?
o What do you know about the topic? What kinds of information
need to be included: personal experience, facts and figures, or
expert opinions? Where will you get your information: from
memory, observation, reading, discussion?
 The purpose of a document is the reason it was written.
 When evaluating your purpose consider the following:
o What purpose does the wording of the assignment set for
you? Consider instructions such as “Write a personal
narrative,” “Write an informative essay,” “Explain,” “Evaluate,”
and “Take a position.”
o What writer’s role do you need to take? Can you play the role
of an autobiographer writing about yourself, a reporter
informing readers, a teacher explaining ideas or procedures,
a critic making an evaluation, or a persuader arguing for a
position?
 The audience is who you are writing the project for.
The teacher is not a sufficient audience.
 All members of an audience bring to their reading
specific knowledge, expectations, opinions, and
experiences that influence how they read. As you plan
your writing, envision the people in your target
audience:
o Who are they? What do they know about your topic?
What do they want or need from you?
Classify your readers. Are they (1) allies who will
accept almost anything you write, (2) potential
allies who need only to be informed to accept your
ideas, (3) disinterested observers who want
information above all else, (4) skeptics who expect
careful reasoning and detailed support, (5)
opponents who require abundant proof and may
not accept your ideas even if you provide it?
2. Identify what these readers know about your topic.
What assumption, biases, or knowledge gaps will
influence their responses?
1.
Determine what your readers expect from you:
personal experience, information, explanation,
evaluation, proof, or entertainment. What writing
style is appropriate for addressing them, informal or
formal?
4. Consider what these readers believe about your
sources of information. Which ones will they accept
as authoritative? Which might they reject as
superficial, biased, or inaccurate?
3.