Gina L. Vallis-Reason to Write_ Applying Critical Thinking to Academic Writing -Kona Publishing and Media Group (2011)

REASON TO WRITE

GINA L. VALLIS

REASON TO WRITE:

Applying critical thinking
to academic writing



REASON TO WRITE:

Applying critical thinking
to academic writing

T his handbook is a practical guide designed to offer students the means to
apply critical thinking to academic writing.

Critical thinking is a challenging term. Sometimes it is presented in relationship
to formal logic, which is too rigid to use as a strategy for writing instruction.
Sometimes critical thinking is made synonymous with analysis, although they
can be clearly differentiated as separate cognitive activities. Sometimes critical
thinking is reduced to writing prompts on selected readings, or exemplar asides.

Reason to Write introduces the critical question, a pre-writing strategy that
both stipulates a working definition for critical thinking, and, in doing so, reori-
ents the approach to academic writing as fundamentally inquiry-based.

Critical thinking provides specific strategies designed to help student writers to
work through the relationship between thinking and writing. When given the
opportunity to develop a line of inquiry based upon a question, students acquire
not only critical thinking skills, but also the means to be self-corrective in their
writing, and to transfer those skills into new contexts.

In three major sections, students are guided through steps that build upon foun-
dational critical thinking skills, and that reinforce academic writing as a practice
designed to answer a question, solve a problem, or resolve an issue.

Gina L. Vallis received her Ph.D. in Literature with an emphasis in critical
theory, and teaches Writing at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She
writes and presents on topics concerning rhetoric, communication, critical and
literary theory, and film and visual studies. She is certified in graphic design,
has published poetry, and vendors an intervention program for children with
ASD, in relationship to which she contributed a chapter for a book on autism
intervention. She is currently completing a pending publication of a collabora-
tive web-text for the praxis category of Kairos, as well as preparing a manuscript
concerning writing about film, titled Screening Arguments.

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Higher Education Division
Charlotte, North Carolina

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ISBN: 978-1-935987-09-3

REASON TO WRITE:

Applying critical thinking
to academic writing

Gina L. Vallis

KONA

p u b l i s h i n g & m e d i a g ro u p



contents 1

Acknowledgements xi
Preface xiii

SECTION I

CRITICAL QUESTION, CONTEXT, DEFINITION

1 a reason to write 3
Blinking Cursor Syndrome 4
Questions and Answers 5
The Case Against the Five-Paragraph Form 8
Process vs. Product 11
Review 14

2 critical thinking 19
What’s Different about Critical Thinking? 20
Critical Thinking and Logic 20
Critical Thinking and Academic Writing 23
Why is Critical Thinking Important? 25
The Role of Curiosity 27
The (Provisional) Case Against the Prompt 28
Writing is Risky Business 30
Review 34
The Critical Question 36
STEP 1 CRITICAL QUESTION GUIDE 36
Sample Critical Questions 37

3 questions in context 39
Revising Five Writing Rules 40
Review 49

The Question Map 52
Three Parts to the Question Map 53
Example Question Map 54

STEP 2 THE QUESTION MAP GUIDE 57

4 saying what we mean-meaning what we say 59
Writing has Words in it 60
Language and Associates 61
Metaphor: Words are Slithy Toves 67
Guard Rails for the Tricky Bits 69
Review 76
Ways to Define 77
Types of Definitions/Examples 78

STEP 3 WAYS TO DEFINE GUIDE 80
Example Completed Ways to Define Guide 82
The Shortcut 87

SECTION II 91

ANALYSIS, ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE, ARRANGEMENT

5 performing analysis 93
Two Principles of Analysis 94
Opinions, Facts, and Analysis 99
Types of Analysis: General Analysis 101
Analysis and Roller Skating 106
Formalist Analysis 109
Rhetorical Analysis 112
Review 114
Performing Analysis 116

STEP 4 ANALYSIS GUIDE, OR HOW TO
ROLLER SKATE 117

Example Analysis Guide 119

viii REASON TO WRITE

6 finding common ground 123 165
The Organizing Principle 124
First Things First: The Title 130
Exordium: “Yo” or “Lo” 131
Types of Openings 133
Review 136
Organizing/Opening the Essay 138

STEP 5 THE OPENING/ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE
GUIDE 139

7 arrangement 141
Beyond Exordium 142
Fancy Names and Functions 143
Formatting is Fun! -Not 151
Primary and Secondary Sources: Raw or Cooked 155
Review 157
The Draft 160

STEP 6 THE DRAFT GUIDE 162

SECTION III

RHETORIC, REVISION, PUBLICATION

8 communication and rhetoric 167
“That’s Just Rhetoric” 168
Appeals 172
Fallacies and Other Fallacies 175
Getting Our Darned Ice Cream Cone 177
Review 181

9 feedback and revision 185
Everyone’s a Critic 186
On Beyond Spellcheck: Editing vs. Revision 188
Mirroring Documents 189

Contents ix

The Secret of the Hard-Copy Edit 190
Revision 190

STEP 7 SELFDIAGNOSTIC GUIDE 191
10 joining the conversation 193

Kinds of Writing 194
Writing in Professional Contexts 195
Conference Presentation/Publication for Undergraduates 196
Joining the Conversation 199

STEP 8 CONFERENCE/JOURNAL PUBLICATION
GUIDE 200

Sample Undergraduate Conference CFP 201
Sample Undergraduate Journal CFP 202
recommended Readings 203
WORKS CITED 207

x REASON TO WRITE

acknowledgements

F irstly, I would like to say how grateful I am to Roy, both for building the fort,
and also for holding it down.
Secondly, I would like to thank my students for their generosity in allowing
me to use their writing in this text. All samples of student writing included in
this text were drawn from undergraduate, lower-division writing, primarily in
entry-level courses.
Finally, my thanks for the support of my colleagues.

xi



preface

O ne of the challenges facing writing instructors is that while students will
tend to recognize quality academic writing, they often do not appear to
translate that recognition into practice in relationship to their own prose.

Nor can an instructor assume that students will automatically adopt a habit of
inquiry merely by being exposed to the questions of others. In addition, this
form of instruction reinforces the idea that it is the student’s function to provide
answers, but it does not allow them to rehearse generating their own questions.

For as long as students are given tools for recognizing the elements that facili-
tate or inhibit academic inquiry, they can engage in critical thinking through
the composing of a question-based essay, from an initial point of curiosity.

Reason to Write makes a clear distinction between critical thinking, rhetoric,
informal and formal logic, and analysis, for the purpose of demonstrating various
connections between ways of thinking, and stages of writing. Writing exercises
are broken down into steps that engage with those relationships, from pre-writing
to final draft, as well as conference presentations and publication guidelines.

This handbook would be appropriate for use by any instructor engaged in entry-
level post-secondary education courses for the purpose of an introduction to
critical thinking and academic writing.

It can also be used as a supplement to course material, across disciplines, for
the purpose of writing instruction, provided that the course structure allows the
student to generate independent questions, upon which to write, based upon
the course topic.

How to use this text

Reason to Write is a practical guide, and is designed as a map to guide students
through steps to writing. Each chapter offers a clear explanation of a given way
of thinking, and matches it to a stage in the writing process, culminating in a
writing step that allows the student to put that relationship into practice.

Through these sequential stages, each step serves to advance the student toward
the final paper that will be produced, using the strategies covered in that sec-
tion. As such, while perfectly suitable for use in conjunction with other instruc-
tional material, all sections should be included, and taken in order.

xiii

SECTION I

CRITICAL QUESTION, CONTEXT, DEFINITION

A REASON TO WRITE

This section serves as an introduction to a basic reorientation of academic writ-
ing as inquiry-based, and opens by drawing attention to common difficulties
students face with the thesis statement.

The demand to produce a thesis in the first stage of writing often generates
confusion between the process of academic writing, which is inquiry-based,
and the final presentation of the written product. This final presentation is often
reorganized in a rewrite in order to forefront conclusions.

By putting the steps into their proper order, students come to understand that
thinking and writing are related acts, the components of which can be subse-
quently redistributed in the final draft stage, based upon the conventions within
a given discipline.

CRITICAL THINKING

After learning about the role of inquiry within academic writing, students are
introduced to a clear definition for critical thinking, its relationship to academic
writing, and common sources of cognitive bias that impede effective reasoning.

This section culminates in Step 1, the Critical Question Guide, in which the stu-
dent formulates a critical question based upon a set of guidelines that explain
how to formulate an area of inquiry upon which to write, providing the tools for
students to begin the pre-writing stage of independent inquiry into a specific
issue.

QUESTIONS IN CONTEXT

Because students have often been given contradictory or ambiguous directives
in relationship to academic writing, this chapter explores the reasoning behind
common writing rules. In doing so, it translates those rules into practical guides
for understanding the role of academic writing.

Once a student has a critical question upon which to begin to write, the stu-
dent then engages in Step 2, the Argument Map Guide, designed to refine the
question to an appropriate level of specificity for the length of the writing, and
to connect the question to a context from which to draw elements for analysis.

xiv REASON TO WRITE

SAYING WHAT WE MEANMEANING WHAT WE SAY

Until students have the opportunity to gain a basic understanding of how
language functions in written argumentation, they may not understand the
need for precision in the transmission of ideas, linked, as it is, to the metaphori-
cal quality of language.

In addition to providing a new way for students to evaluate the prose that they
produce, this chapter offers the opportunity for students to explore the notion
of stipulating the definition of a term, a practice that is common in writing
drawn from critical thinking.

This chapter provides Step 3 in the series, the Ways to Define Guide, in which
the student advances the critical question upon which he or she is working. The
student is given the opportunity to explore and engage in a controlled definition
of the terms of that question.

Finally, the end of Section 1 offers “The Shortcut,” a condensed model for
prewriting designed to initiate critical thinking in relationship to writing an
essay. This model can be quickly implemented for future writing in which
the student will engage, after the student has a working understanding of the
tools necessary to generate ideas, how to avoid common traps that impede
critical thinking, and has gained a sense of precision and control over aca-
demic prose.

SECTION II

ANALYSIS, ORGANIZING PRINCIPLE, ARRANGEMENT

PERFORMING ANALYSIS

In defining critical thinking as a strategy of informal logic designed to aid a
writer in remaining conscious of those elements that facilitate or inhibit clear
reasoning, analysis can be defined, for the student, in contradistinction.

As the primary act in which the student will engage in order to move from ques-
tion to answer within academic writing, analysis is treated as an act involving
the breaking down of an element into its constituent parts, for the purpose of
producing knowledge.

This chapter offers Step 4, the Steps to Analysis Guide, in which the student
completes four steps of analysis on the question that the student has posed,

Preface xv

in the process drawing conclusions that will eventually serve in the recursive
strategy of writing the body of the essay.

FINDING COMMON GROUND

In performing analysis, students will encounter categories through which to
produce an organizing principle for the essay. Bypassing common writing for-
mulas, the organizing principle develops from the unique quality of the answers
at which the student arrives, allowing a paper organization that follows from
that reasoning.

Thus, the essay may follow a pattern of hierarchical, comparative, categorical,
chronological, etc., organization, based upon the specific nature of the rela-
tionship between the questions and answers that the student produces within
analysis.

Once the student has established an organizing principle, strategies for
exordium—the paper’s opening—are reviewed, and the student begins the
paper by writing the opening paragraph, which includes elements the student
has acquired through previous exercises: the question at hand, context, and
definition. The student then provides a plan for the organization of the paper.
The execution of this plan comprises Step 5, the Opening/Organizing Principle
Guide.

ARRANGEMENT

Once the student has all of the requisite elements, and has introduced the paper,
the student is ready to produce a draft of the essay. In this chapter, students
initiate the first step of their organizing principle, and proceed through that
organization, returning each conclusion to the question at hand.

Students are also given information regarding typical elements found within
the critical essay, which the student comes to understand not as formulaic in
nature, but as specific functions that each serve a purpose within the communi-
cation of ideas within academic writing.

In previous exercises, students will already have worked on rhetorical elements
such as exordium, definitio, narratio, partitio, and amplificatio, and come to
understand those terms through the work they have already completed, in a way
that does not result in the alienation often produced by those terms. Students
are then exposed, in a straightforward manner, to refutatio, stasis, and epilogus

xvi REASON TO WRITE

as additional functions of the academic essay, which students can then plan in
the execution of their draft.

Because students will be engaged in the drafting stage of the paper, at this point
in the writing process, this chapter gives a brief explanation of established rules
that govern the citation of source material.

The resulting Step 6, the Essay Draft Guide, closes this section with the pro-
duction of a provisional essay of requisite length upon which students could
potentially receive feedback, and begin the process of revision and preparation
for publication.

SECTION III

RHETORIC, REVISION, PUBLICATION

COMMUNICATION AND RHETORIC

In many instructional situations, the student will be waiting to receive feedback
on a draft. In other situations, the student will be best served by combining
Chapter 7 (Arrangement) and Chapter 9 (Feedback/Revision), as well as Steps 6
and 7, before submission of a final paper.

This chapter covers further issues of rhetoric and its relationship to critical
thinking, by exploring those elements of rhetoric that provide information
regarding common sources of cognitive bias, and elements of communication,
including communication designed to produce suasion.

Students learn about the five elements of communication, rhetoric as a disci-
pline, fallacies, and appeals. Although not directly applicable to the advance-
ment of the production of the final essay, students are offered practice exercises
that deepen their understanding of these rhetorical concepts. These exercises
allow the student to engage with the notion of rhetoric as a discipline, provide
more sophisticated general tools for analysis of real-world issues, and reinforce
strategies for attending to the elements of communication situations.

FEEDBACK AND/OR REVISION

Either following the return of the first draft, or as rewrite strategy for the com-
pletion of a final essay, this chapter covers strategies for making use of feedback,

Preface xvii

rewriting, editing, proofreading, and global revision for the purpose of crafting
a fully developed final essay based upon critical thinking.
A careful distinction is made between those elements that pertain to all aca-
demic writing, across all disciplinary fields, and those elements that concern the
final presentation of the paper according to standardized conventions within a
discipline, and that may dictate rules concerning such things as format, tone of
voice, positioning of elements, etc.
In addition to the information provided regarding rewriting, this chapter pro-
vides Step 7, the Self-Diagnostic Guide. This guide presents a comprehensive
checklist of all information covered in this text, against which the student com-
pares the final writing that he or she has produced. It serves as a review of
important concepts of critical thinking, and a check for ways in which the stu-
dent may have engaged in areas of cognitive bias that impede the full explora-
tion of his or her question to produce a valid and true conclusion, or thesis.

JOINING THE CONVERSATION

In the final chapter of Reason to Write, students are offered a breakdown of dif-
ferent kinds of writing that occur in a variety of contexts, in order to emphasize
the role of academic writing in facilitating a conversation related to the produc-
tion of knowledge.
This is reinforced through discussion concerning conference presentation and
academic publication. This serves to redirect the notion of academic writing as
a classroom activity, instead of a scholarly dialogue in which students can, and
do, participate. It offers information regarding submitting a paper for submis-
sion for conference presentation or publication.
Reason to Write concludes with Step 8, the Submission Guidelines Page. While
this step does not require students to actually follow through in submitting
papers for presentation or publication, it does include preliminary work that
would be required to do so, including the acquisition of guidelines pertaining to
submissions to the specific conference or journal.

xviii REASON TO WRITE

SECTION I

CRITICAL QUESTION
CONTEXT

DEFINITION

Contents 1



Chapter 1

A Reason to Write
1 4BLINKING CURSOR SYNDROME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2 5QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3 THE CASE AGAINST THE FIVE-PARAGRAPH FORM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4 11PROCESS VS. PRODUCT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5 14REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3

1 blinking cursor syndrome

“Writing is easy: all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper
until drops of blood form on your forehead.”
—Gene Fowler

I f this book were to begin with one suggestion regarding how to begin writing an
essay, it would be this: Find common ground with your reader. In other words, it is
often helpful to open with a series of simple statements that a typical reader would
find reasonable and fair.

Of course, many students have been taught to summarize—and therefore com-
press—all of an essay’s argument into the opening paragraph. This is why one of the
more common complaints about the whole business of starting to write an essay is
something that one could call Blinking Cursor Syndrome. You sit down to write an
essay. You call up a new document in a word processing program. Within the frame,
the page is empty except for a single cursor that blinks with mechanical indifference.
It blinks for as long as it takes you to muster something to say. There you sit. There
it blinks.

Writers can experience this moment as a kind of pre-defeat. In part, this is because
the first thing that many students have often been taught is that they should begin
writing an essay with a strong, original idea, often called a “thesis statement.” The
second thing that students have often been taught is that it is their task, upon
the spontaneous arrival of this strong, original statement, to spend the rest of the
essay arguing for that statement until it has been proved to a reasonable reader’s
satisfaction.

EVER WONDERED? Yet our hypothetical writer may be a bit confused:
From what tree of inspiration, exactly, is one
A hyphen is used when two or supposed to pluck this strong, original statement?
more words are brought together Is one supposed to have an arsenal of such
to describe another word, as in statements at hand? A writer may even begin
“star-crossed lovers” or “plant- to suspect, having checked his or her internal
covered yard.” The hyphen is thesis-statement stockpile, and found it to be
NOT necessary if the descriptive rattling about with a few fairly interesting, but
word is an adverb, as in “lovely half-formed speculations, that a clever person
night” or “slippery walk.” There is a would have had a few good ones stashed away, for
difference between a hyphen and just such an occasion.
a dash.

4 REASON TO WRITE

In this case, Blinking Cursor Syndrome can sometimes turn into a source of
self-judgment, like: “I don’t really have anything important to say,” or “I’m just not
good at this kind of writing.” This often leads to the student to conclude: “If I must
perform this task, it is probably best to find a thesis statement that is easily defen-
sible. I will, therefore, pick one that is not too boring or difficult.”

One of the things covered in this text is that while academic writing may be hard
work, it is actually quite a logical process. If something about writing an essay doesn’t
make sense, there’s probably a reason. Critical thinking is designed to help writers to
recognize the way in which writing follows from thinking, not by memorizing a for-
mula, but by understanding that relationship. Critical thinking is a series of strate-
gies designed to help you to pay attention to the way you think through a given idea.

Most people, when faced with a problem to be DEFINITION
solved, will employ what is called a heuristic.
People have commonsensical ways in which to A heuristic is a word for the infor-
go about puzzling through a problem. This is mal ways in which most people go
because people are thinking, rational beings. about thinking when they solve
Critical thinking takes this a step further. Critical problems or answer questions.
thinking offers specific and sophisticated tools for Some are more effective than
paying attention to the way we think through a others.
question.
An example would be trial-and-
To illustrate, one could pose the question: error.

Why do so many students find it difficult, in begin- As an aside, one treats an “h” as a
ning to write, to spontaneously produce a thesis vowel (hence a heuristic) if the
statement? “h” sound is not aspirated (if you
do not hear the “h” sound in the
word). Thus, it would be an hour,
and a hat.

2 questions and answers

“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?”
—Graham Wallace

T he thesis, although not always a single “statement,” is an essential part of an
academic essay. One helpful general critical thinking tool is to carefully define
what one means by a given word or phrase. In this case, the question becomes: What
is a thesis statement?

SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write 5

Although students are taught to use a thesis, it is often not clearly defined. Without
looking it up, write a short, precise definition of a thesis statement:

A thesis statement is

Many students will use the phrase “thesis statement” synonymously with “topic” or
“argument,” or “opinion.”

DEFINITION Starting from what you might have written, here,
it is helpful to understand that there are many
A Negative Definition is a way of ways to define a word or phrase. One could go to
defining a word or a phrase by a dictionary. One could use examples. One could
comparing it to what it is not. offer synonyms. Each way of defining a word can
serve a specific purpose. One of ways to define a
Example: “An apple is not an word is called a Negative Definition.
orange, a peach, or a banana.”

A Negative Definition can help to clear up confusion when a word has an ambiguous
meaning, or is routinely misunderstood. Following is an example of negative defini-
tion, and how it can be useful.

• A Thesis is not the topic of an essay

A thesis is not the topic of an essay, because a topic refers to the paper’s area of
inquiry, or what the essay “is about.”

One could say: “The topic of the essay is global warming.”

One would not say: “The thesis of the essay is global warming.”

DEFINITION • A Thesis is not an argument

Logic is a systematic method for A thesis is only one part of an argument. The idea
establishing what is valid and of “argumentation” goes back to formal logic, and
true based upon inference from formal logic offers several parts to an argument,
premises. each of which serves a purpose.

6 REASON TO WRITE

The most formal system of logical argumentation uses something called the Logical
Syllogism.

It may be surprising to learn that formal logic is not very helpful in composing
academic writing. Formal logic is useful for evaluating existing arguments, but is too
rigid to use as a writing strategy. Logic is very precise; mathematics, for example, is
a subset of logic.

The following example of a logical syllogism should be familiar to you. All logical
syllogisms must be “True” (the premises are true) and “Valid” (the conclusion follows
the premises).

Major Premise: All Men (A) are Mortal (B) A=B

Minor Premise: Socrates (C) is a Man (A) C=A

Conclusion: Socrates (C) is Mortal (B)* C=B

✓ True (The Premises are True)

✓ Valid (The Conclusion follows from the Premises)

* Sadly, in fact, it is true: Socrates is dead.

In logic, a true conclusion follows from true premises. The conclusion is not, by
itself, the argument. It is the logical result of the inferences drawn from those
premises. The combination of all of these elements is, in total, an argument.

The conclusion of a syllogism is designed to answer a question. In this example, the
obvious (although unstated) question is: “Is Socrates Mortal?” The conclusion, or
answer, to this question, is supported by the premises, and could be written in the
following way: “Socrates is mortal because he is a man, and all men are mortal.” This
is classical formal argumentation.

Real-life questions are not always so straightforward. However, it is true that, because
academic writing is logical in nature, there are certain similarities. The essay serves
the same purpose as a syllogism: it answers a question that has been posed, based
upon valid conclusions that are derived from true premises, and results in an answer.
That answer serves as the thesis of the essay.

By coming to reasoned conclusions, academic writing answers questions, solves
problems, and resolves issues. A Thesis, then, is an answer to a question that the

SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write 7

writer poses. In syllogistic form, the question “What is a thesis?” would be answered
in the following way:

Major Premise: An Answer is the Result of a Question A = B

Minor Premise: A Thesis is an Answer C=A

Conclusion: A Thesis is the Result of a Question C=B

What all this means is that, in academic writing, or in any system of inquiry that

seeks to further knowledge, answers usually follow from questions, and not the other

way around. While this statement seems obvious, many students have been taught

to begin to write the academic essay with an answer. In other words, one cannot

EVER WONDERED? produce a thesis without first having a question,
and then working through that question in a rea-
Only italics are used for emphasis soned manner. This is because it is commonly
within an essay. Bold or underline understood that all academic writing is specifically
are never used to emphasize a designed to answer a question, solve a problem, or
word or sentence in an essay. resolve an issue.

3 the case against the five-paragraph form

“The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in shock-proof shit-detector.”
—Ernest Hemmingway

HERE IS A FORMULA WITH WHICH MANY OF YOU WILL BE FAMILIAR

Paragraph 1 Opening Introduce the thesis statement
Thesis Statement
A single, original statement to be
proved in the paper

Paragraph 2 Point 1 The “strongest” point that supports
example 1 the thesis statement

A single example of Point 1

Paragraph 3 Point 2 The next point that supports the
example 2 thesis statement

A single example of Point 2

8 REASON TO WRITE

Paragraph 4 Point 3 The next point that supports the
Paragraph 5 example 3 thesis statement
Conclusion A single example of Point 3

Restate the thesis statement with
the three main points included

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE ESSAY WRITTEN ACCORDING TO THAT FORMULA

Dogs Should Be Leashed

Opening Every year, thousands of people are bitten, pets are

lost, and people are exposed to health risks because

Thesis pet owners do not leash their dogs. All dogs should be

on a leash.

Point 1 Dogs that are unleashed are a danger to people.

example 1 Last year my neighbor’s dog bit my cousin. He had to get

stitches, and my aunt had to pay $300 for the hospital bill.

Point 2 Without a leash to restrain them, dogs will run away,

causing heartbroken owners who want them back.

example 2 You can hardly pass a street without seeing a “lost

dog” sign.

Point 3 Dogs that are allowed to wander can be a health

hazard to people. Wandering dogs can eliminate in public

parks. Dogs can carry some diseases, like rabies.

example 3 A child coming into contact with animal waste can

become very ill.

Conclusion In conclusion, all dogs should be on a leash. If not,

they are a danger to people, they can get lost, and they

can be a health hazard.

Unfortunately, such writing formulai do little to advance students as critical thinkers
and writers. In fact, because it privileges the structure of the essay over any kind of
content, as Rosenwasser and Stephen note, it actually disables critical thinking:

The five-paragraph form has the advantage of providing a mechanical
format that will give virtually any subject the appearance of order [but]
lops off a writer’s ideas before they have a chance to form…This simplis-
tic scheme blocks writers’ abilities to think deeply or logically, restrict-
ing rather than encouraging the development of complex ideas. (111)

SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write 9

EVER WONDERED?

A longer quotation from a source is set off from your text by the indenting the whole quotation
five spaces. There are no quotation marks needed. The period goes after the quotation, and
before any citation. How long a quotation should be before it must be put in this form depends
on the type of formatting that you are using in your essay. For example, in MLA style, it must be
over 4 lines before requiring indentation.

Academic writing is a lot like thinking, on paper. When one writes, one employs
logic. One groups, categorizes, finds similarities and differences, and makes sure to
account for all sides of a given issue.

If an instructor were to assign the example-essay titled: “Dogs Should Be Leashed”
as a reading for classroom discussion, students, being reasoning people, would prob-
ably immediately challenge the conclusion that is drawn. Students might ask:

Is a leash the only way to control a dog? What about keeping the dog in a
fenced yard, or in a house? What about a well-trained dog? Don’t wan-
dering dogs also increase the population of unwanted animals? Does a
dog need to be leashed on a farm?

In other words, even though this example essay provides the requisite structure for
a five-paragraph essay, including thesis statement, main points, and examples, it still
fails, logically. If a thesis is always an answer to a question that has been posed, it is
easier to understand why such an essay fails to support its thesis statement if one
knows the question that it answers.

Any statement can be turned into a question, and any question can be turned into a
statement. The statement “The ball is round” could be changed to the question: “Is
the ball round?” The question “Is the box square?” could be changed to the statement
“The box is square.” Between a question and a statement is the real issue at hand—
their “true” relationship to one another.

DEFINITION The statement in the example essay is: “All dogs
should be leashed.” It is the thesis of this essay, and
If something is implicit, it is not therefore it is an answer to a question. The implicit
stated outright, but offered question this thesis answers is: “Should all dogs be
indirectly. If something is explicit, leashed-yes or no?”
it is stated directly. All academic
writing is based upon a question, Let’s do a reality check. Most people, if asked, and
whether that question is implicit, given a moment or two to consider the question,
or explicit. would probably respond by saying that a far more

10 REASON TO WRITE

accurate and fair answer to that question would be: “Many dogs should be leashed,
under certain circumstances, but not all dogs.” That’s why this essay fails to prove its
thesis—not because it does not have a structure, but because it provides an inad-
equate answer to the question that it poses.

Yet far more important than the essay’s failure to prove its thesis is the fact that the
real answer to this question is obvious: one might as well produce a thesis from a
question querying the existence of rocks, or whether a human is a piece of fruit, or if
two-plus-two usually turns out to equal four.

In other words, the real flaw of this essay is: What’s the point? Who cares? This is
what happens when writers are required to provide an answer before being given the
opportunity to formulate a thoughtful question.

4 process vs. product

“We don’t write what we know. We write what we wonder about.”
—Richard Peck

A thesis is an essential part of an academic EVER WONDERED?
essay. The thesis is present even if it is
implicit. It is present even if it is explicit, no mat- Double quotation marks (“) are
ter where it is placed in the final draft—in the used to indicate that you are quot-
beginning, shortly after the beginning, or at the ing someone else’s words within
end of the paper. your prose. Single quotation marks
(‘) are used only to indicate that
So, too, a question always plays an essential part the person whom you are quoting
in academic writing. That question is present even is quoting someone else, as in
if it is implicit. It is present even if is explicit, and “Jane said ‘I like you.’”
wherever it is placed in the body of the paper,
although it usually shows up pretty early in the In general, all punctuation goes
writing, because the reader needs to know what’s inside of single or double quota-
in question. tion marks, like this. The only
exception is if there is an interrup-
Following are excerpts from three essays taken tion between the end of the words
from a textbook entitled: Making Sense: Essays in a sentence, and the end of the
on Art, Science, and Culture. The authors of sentence, as when “one is quoting
this  anthology included these essays because the from a source” (Author 11).

SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write 11

textbook is designed to provide examples, to students, of effective academic writing,
across disciplines.

In the excerpt of each essay, pay attention to how the writer treats the issue at hand:

• Sven Birkerts: “The Owl Has Flown”

Reading and thinking are kindred operations, if only because both are
invisible. …How do people experience the written word, and how have those
experiences, each necessarily unique, changed in larger collective ways down
the centuries? (70)

• Julie Charlip “A Real Class Act”

I once asked a sociology professor what he thought about the…middle class.
His definition was: If you earn thirty thousand dollars a year working in an
assembly plant, come home from work, open a beer and watch the game,
you are working class; if you earn twenty thousand dollars a year as a school
teacher, come home from work to a glass of white wine and PBS, you are mid-
dle class. How do we define class? Is it a matter of values, lifestyles, taste? Is it
the kind of work you do, you relationship to the means of production? Is it a
matter of how much money you earn? Are we allowed to choose? (79)

• Richard Florida

“The Transformation of Everyday Life”

Here’s a thought experiment. Take a typical man on the street from the year
1900 and drop him into the 1950’s. Then, take someone form the 1950’s and

EVER WONDERED?
Some writing instructors discourage the use of “I” (first-person voice) although it is used routinely
in published academic essays. George Orwell used first-person voice in his famous 1946 essay
“Politics in the English Language.”
Some instructors also discourage the use of passive voice, which is one of the best ways a writer
can avoid first-person voice. Passive voice is also frequently used in essays, because it produces
a certain effect: “The experiment was conducted” sounds more objective and credible than
“I conducted the experiment.”
Both are a stylistic and genre choice, and both are sometimes effective. How else could politicians
say things like: “Mistakes were made”? That said, there are a few things to keep in mind: 1) Always
follow your instructor’s guidelines; 2) “I” voice is no reason to make an essay a personal narrative;
3) Passive voice gets boring, very quickly, for the reader.

12 REASON TO WRITE

move him Austin Powers-style into the present day. Who would experience
the greater change? (194)

Obviously, there are no thesis statements in these opening paragraphs. Rather, the
writer poses an interesting question. In posing this question, the writer strikes an
attitude of curiosity and promises to try to answer this question in a thoughtful,
reasonable manner.

Some academic writing does, in the opening, offer an answer to the question that the
writing poses. However, that answer, or thesis, is not placed at the beginning because
the writer thought of the thesis when she he or she started to write.

Scholarship is the ability to ask smart questions, DEFINITION
and to answer them well. It is more than becoming
a walking encyclopedia of factual information; it is A convention is an established
to have a certain ability to put the knowledge that rule or set of rules that have
built up over time. Sometimes

one has acquired to good use. People do not place these conventions make sense,

answers in front of questions. Rather, the answer and sometimes they’re just the
is moved, in a rewrite, because disciplines have result of habit. Wearing a tie,
developed conventions in the writing that occurs for example, used to be for the
in certain academic disciplines. purpose of wiping one’s mouth
after dinner. Now it is merely a

Rather, the thesis is placed in the opening in the convention.

final draft, or revision. This is especially true in the

case of papers written within the sciences, including the social sciences. Often, this

answer comes in the form of an Abstract. The abstract covers:

1. What the writer was trying to accomplish

2. The results (answer, or thesis)

3. How those results could be applied

In the writing product, the abstract is presented first. In the writing process, the
abstract is almost always written last, because the writer wouldn’t know the answer
until after the question has been posed.

Writing that has an abstract usually occurs in APA style, and APA style is usually
used within the social and hard sciences, especially those that concentrate on quan-
titative data.

Writing in these disciplines routinely requires that the writer first submit what
is  called a Proposal, before even beginning the research, much less a draft of the

SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write 13

writing, itself. The proposal always covers the initial area of inquiry—or, in other
words, a question. The proposal covers:

1. The question to be posed, problem to be solved, or issue to be resolved

2. The method that will be used to answer that question or resolve that issue

3. Why answering that question or resolving that issue is important

Let’s say that a scientist is going to write an article, based upon an experiment in
a laboratory. No scientist steps into the laboratory, glances at the experiment, and
immediately turns to the computer to write an article on his or her findings. The
experiment is conducted around something in question, and the scientist must work
with that question before coming to a conclusion. In writing up his or her findings,
the scientist may produce a final article that places those conclusions on the first
page, but the process begins by identifying the question at hand.

5 review

“I don’t wait to be struck by lightning, and don’t need certain slants
of light in order to write.”
—Toni Morrison

CHAPTER REVIEW

The information to take from this chapter is that academic writing is for the purpose
of answering questions, solving problems, or resolving issues. No matter where the
thesis is presented in the final draft of the writing that you produce, the following will
always apply:

EVER WONDERED? • An answer is the logical end of the aca-
When listing, use bullets (or demic writing process

equivalent) if the order of the • A question is the logical beginning of the
items on the list doesn’t matter, academic writing process
and numbers if the order of the

items on the list does matter. That is because all academic thinking and writing

begins with the idea that something is in ques-

tion. If there were not something in question, well…there wouldn’t be a reason

to write.

14 REASON TO WRITE

GRAMMAR REVIEW

The Hyphen and Dash

The hyphen (-) is used to indicate that two or more words have been brought together
to provide a description. Thus, one can be a “no-nonsense person.”

The hyphen is also always used in numbers, which, unless they are very large, are
always spelled out (e.g.: “twenty-one”).

The hyphen is not needed if there is one adjective that is being used to describe the
word. Thus, one can have a “strict person.”

A hyphen is also not needed if the descriptive word is already an adverb, often
indicated by ending in -ly. Thus, one can have a “slovenly person.”

A Dash (–) is slightly longer than the hyphen. A dash should be used sparingly.
Basically, it indicates an interruption of thought—a kind of sideline—within the
writing. It can replace the colon, semi-colon, or the parenthesis, but be careful—it’s
difficult to use correctly, and can become tiresome for the reader. Use it only if you
understand the rules that govern what it replaces.

A dash is also used as a replacement for the word “to,” as in:

“January to March” becoming January—March

Emphasis

The preferred way to emphasize a word is to use italics. Just be consistent.

Bold and Underline are not used to emphasize words in academic writing.

Quotation Marks (’ or ”)

Double quotation marks serve the main purpose of telling the reader that you have
taken someone else’s writing, and inserted it into your own. It means that these are
not your words, but someone else’s, and you have copied them directly.

This is not the same as paraphrasing, which is an indirect quotation, and does not
need quotation marks. Warning! Do not paraphrase someone else’s words unless you
understand the rules that allow your reader to separate your words and ideas from
other people’s words and ideas.

Single quotation marks tell the reader that there is a quotation inside of a quo-
tation. In other words, you copied the words of someone who copied the words

SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write 15

of someone else. In either case, all punctuation goes inside of single or double
quotation marks.

Lengthy Quotations

Quotations that go on for more than a certain number of lines are set off from the rest
of the text. The number of lines depends on the formatting style you are using. Even
though these words are someone else’s, there is no need for quotation marks. The
left margin of the quotation is moved in five spaces to indicate that it is a quotation.
Check a style guide for exact rules.

First-Person and Passive Voice

There is a great deal of grumpy fighting about this one, so make sure you know what
your instructor expects in your writing. If you are instructed to use neither first-
person, nor passive voice, it’s going to be difficult, because one is used to avoid the
other. An example would be:

“I attended the conference on grammar.” (first-person)

“The conference on grammar was attended.” (passive voice)

So, you might have to get somewhat creative, as in: “At the conference on grammar,
speakers covered the use of first-person and passive voice.”

Bullets or Numbers

This is not a typical stylistic choice in academic writing, but it’s not bad to know that
when thinking about the visual presentation of a document, one should use bullets
for a list when the order doesn’t matter, and numbers when the order of the items
does matter.

A human requires:

• food

• water

• shelter

When boiling water, one should:

1. fill the pan with water

2. put the pan on the stove

3. light the fire under the pan

16 REASON TO WRITE

VOCABULARY REVIEW

heuristic
The informal ways in which most people go about solving problems or answering
questions, including such things as trial-and-error, speculation, drawing a picture, etc.
negative definition
A way of defining a word by naming things to which it is similar, but that it is not.
For example, a “pencil” is defined by the fact that it is not a pen or a marker
implicit
Something that is not stated, but that is implied, or suggested, or commonly
understood to be so. The opposite is “explicit,” where something is stated without
ambiguity or equivocation
convention
In this sense of the term, a practice that has become a tradition or custom,
sometimes just from extensive usage, and sometimes for a reason. Conventions
can be very formal (one signs a contract for a legal agreement) or informal
(the person who foolishly goes to investigate the noise in the cemetery in the
scary movie is always the first to die)

SECTION I • CHAPTER 1 A Reason to Write 17



Chapter 2

Critical thinking

1 WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT CRITICAL THINKING?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2 20CRITICAL THINKING AND LOGIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3 CRITICAL THINKING AND ACADEMIC WRITING . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4 WHY IS CRITICAL THINKING IMPORTANT? 25. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5 27THE ROLE OF CURIOSITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
6 THE (provisional) CASE AGAINST THE PROMPT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
7 30WRITING IS RISKY BUSINESS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
8 34REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
9 36THE CRITICAL QUESTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

36STEP 1 CRITICAL QUESTION GUIDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sample Critical Questions 37. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

19

1 what’s different about critical thinking?

“Writing and learning and thinking are the same process.”
—William Zinsser

EVER WONDERED? A cademic writing, in essence, is a clear record
of a writer’s reasoning from a question to an
When you introduce the name answer. As Hans Guth explains:
of the person from whom you

are quoting, within your own The writer appeals to the reader’s
prose, it is called a “signal phrase.” willingness to think a matter through

on the merits of that logic. This

systematic writing is the mode of most academic writing, from an econ-

omist’s analysis of the causes of inflation, to a philosopher’s examina-

tion of logical proofs for the existence of God. (18)

Academic writing uses a style that tends to offer a question, in an implicit or
explicit manner, and then to move, step-by-step, to a conclusion, through reasoned
argumentation.

So, what role does critical thinking play in academic writing? People often have a
hard time figuring out what exactly is meant by the term “critical thinking.” Some-
times it seems like analysis, sometimes like logic, and sometimes like just basic com-
mon sense.

2 critical thinking and logic

“And as you come to practice this habit of thought more and more
you will get better and better at it. To penetrate into the heart of the
thing—even a little thing, a blade of grass, as Walt Whitman said—is to
experience a kind of exhilaration that, it may be, only human beings
of all the beings on this planet can feel. We are an intelligent species
and the use of our intelligence quite properly gives us pleasure. When

we think well, we feel good. Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.”
—Carl Sagan

20 REASON TO WRITE

Critical thinking appears to be somehow both logical, but also to require a kind of
creative leap on the part of the thinker, as when we speak of someone thinking “out-
side the box.” Sometimes, critical thinking is referred to as “critical-creative thinking.”

Creativity and logic often strike people as a strange combination—aren’t people art-
ists or accountants? Of course, we know such binaries are reductive. People are both
creative and logical.

Critical thinking does involve a kind of speculative capacity, much like other forms of
informal logic. The way that we think through things that we encounter may require
an intuitive or experimental willingness to imagine other possibilities. Such think-
ing often yields unconventional answers to which people would not necessarily have
arrived by more formal means.

For example, riddles are just such an exercise in intuitive leaps, because they appear,
on the surface, to be logically unsolvable. Here’s a simple one that many schoolchil-
dren know:

What can run, but never walks, has a mouth, but never talks, has a head, but never
weeps, has a bed, but never sleeps?

At first, it doesn’t seem like it is possible to offer a logical answer to this riddle—
which is, if you will notice, like many riddles, in the form of a question.

If one tries to tackle the question logically, all that seems to happen is a series of dead
ends. Things that run are probably able to walk, so that doesn’t make sense. There
are lots of animals with mouths that don’t talk, but we know that’s not the answer.
While a shark may be an animal that rests more than it actually sleeps, that doesn’t
fulfill the other criteria. More than that, it’s not funny—or, at least, it doesn’t fulfill
our expectations of the answer to a riddle.

For as long as we stay within the “box,” we can’t answer the riddle. To answer the
riddle, we need to understand that it is the box itself that is keeping us from imagining
other possible answers. We don’t need to think outside the box; we need to examine
the box and see if it is really what we assume that it is.

Many interesting ideas and discoveries have been made by informal logic. We are not
computers: a part of the way we think often involves imagining other possibilities, as
Carl Sagan notes:

But the scientific cast of mind examines the world critically as if many
alternative worlds might exist, as if other things might be here which

SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking 21

are not. Then we are forced to ask why what we see is present and not
something else. Why are the Sun and the Moon and the planets spheres?
Why not pyramids, or cubes, or dodecahedra? Why not irregular, jum-
bly shapes? Why so symmetrical, worlds? (17)

Once we allow the possibility that it is the “box” itself that is preventing an answer
to the riddle, by constraining the possible answers we can come up with, the answer
becomes obvious.

What can run, but never walks, has a mouth, but never talks, has a head, but never
weeps, has a bed, but never sleeps? The answer is: a river.

DEFINITION However, it is very important to note that informal
logic can also be very ineffective, because it leaves
Cognitive bias is a term from the thinker vulnerable to cognitive bias. More for-
cognitive science that refers to the mal forms of logic offer a very stable position from
ways in which our thinking can which to evaluate the world, as well as beautifully
be routinely distorted, and lead clear and final answers. Informal logic, while gen-
us to erroneous conclusions and erative, is both messier and more subject to error.
decisions.

One example of a cognitive bias would be something called anchoring. It is our ten-
dency to focus on one attribute when making a decision, to the exclusion of others
that may be just as important. An example would be if you were so intent on choosing
a desk for your room based upon the number of drawers it contained, you did not
find out whether the desk would fit through the doorway.

Or, another cognitive bias would be if one were to assume that wearing the color
black is universal to persons who are in mourning. This is called cultural bias; in
some cultures, the color to wear, while in mourning, would be white.

Critical thinking is related to informal logic. The element that distinguishes critical
thinking is that it is a mode of thinking that serves the purpose of helping the thinker
to self-regulate against cognitive bias. Although there are many ways that people
define the phrase, for the purpose of this book, the following definition will apply:

• Critical Thinking: Remaining conscious of the limitations and potentialities of
one’s own thinking.

Or, as Richard Paul and Linda Elder define critical thinking, it is: “that mode of
thinking—about any subject, content, or problem—in which the thinker...takes
charge of the structures inherent in thinking, and imposes intellectual standards
upon them” (4).

22 REASON TO WRITE

It is very important to understand the specific function of critical thinking. If critical
thinking is confused with logic, or with analysis, one can miss the role that critical
thinking plays in academic writing.
When people talk about “thinking outside the box,” what they seem to mean is
that one should try to imagine possibilities outside of the structure of the way that
a given issue is typically understood. This requires an intellectual capacity that
seems to be missing from formal logic, yet is also much less reliable. It helps
to understand critical thinking as a way to remain alert to the nature of those
things that inhibit clear thinking in informal logic, while retaining the possibilities
it provides.
If “the Box” represents the limitations and possibilities inherent to the way in which
we commonly think through problems, then:
Critical Thinking is not about thinking “Outside of the Box”

?

Critical Thinking is about thinking about “the Box,” itself.

?

3 critical thinking and academic writing

“I write to discover what I think”

—Joan Didion

I f you think of the “academy” not as a single university, but as all the universities
and places of learning, across the world, put together, you would start off with a
collection of things and people: scholars; students; buildings; classrooms; etc.

SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking 23

However, the “academy” is also something else: it’s an ongoing conversation
concerning all of the knowledge, in any discipline, that we have accumulated up to
this point, in our history. That conversation happens in classrooms, in offices, in
conferences, and in publication. However, the place it happens the most is in writing.
A physicist writes. An economist writes. A psychologist writes. A biologist writes.
An astromer writes. This writing continues, and the conversation continues. With
few exceptions, the primary activity, within the academy, is writing.

Sometimes this knowledge produces things: cures for diseases, new computer pro-
grams, more sophisticated technologies—but before those things are produced,
they are written and shared with others in the field. Whether the thing is made,
or not, it is the idea that is treated as property. That’s why, at universities, people
refer to “intellectual property”—and that property is claimed, and held, through
academic publication.

DEFINITION Critical thinking serves a lot of purposes, but its
main purpose is not directly involved with mak-
Ideology is a shared worldview ing arguments. It operates in the background of
that gives order or structure or arguments, encouraging the thinker to pay atten-
meaning based upon assump- tion to the social, ideological, epistemological,
tions that individuals get from and historical forces that operate, often invis-
participation in particular social ibly, all around us. These forces shape how we
groups, and that are usually held understand such things as other people, objects,
in common by persons within issues, the world, institutions, language, and
that group. An example of ideol- ourselves. In other words, they are the things
ogy, in the United States, would that help to form the box that tends to structure
be certain common ideas about our thinking.
individuality that shape much of
how people perceive themselves, In relationship to this conversation, critical think-
others, society, and politics. ing and writing operate in a specific kind of rela-
tionship. While it may sound strange, critical
Epistemology is a branch of thinking functions not to answer a question, but
knowledge that studies the to answer to the way you are asking a question.
nature, origin, and limitations of
human knowledge, itself, and the
various ways in which we come to
that knowledge.

Critical thinking is about the very act of inquiry.

It’s about being curious about everyday things,

forming questions to which we do not yet have answers, and staying honest in trying

to answer those questions. It is about taking nothing for granted. It’s about regu-

lating our own thought processes, so that we proceed in a way that is sound and

ethical. Critical thinking is, in essence, about cultivating a kind of active and careful

curiosity.

24 REASON TO WRITE

4 why is critical thinking important?

“I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions
are certainly worth thinking about.”
—Arthur C. Clarke

W hy is critical thinking important? It is important because how we ask a
question plays a very important role in the answers at which we arrive.

Think of it this way:

Imagine a plant on a hillside. There is a lot of knowledge that could be produced by
studying this plant, and by asking different questions.

We could examine its cellular structure. We could determine its
place in the taxonomy of other plants. We could discover its poten-
tial medicinal value. We could track the history of its migration.
We could determine its life cycle. We could look up its Latin name.
We could conduct research to see if it plays a role in any ancient
myths. We could determine its role within the local ecology, etc.
For each way in which we ask a different question of that plant, we
would get a different answer.

Even if we put all of those questions and answers DEFINITION
together, we still wouldn’t know everything about
that plant. That is because the plant is what is Existent refers to the simple
called existent. In the end, it does not matter how state of being of a thing,
many ways we measure it, or how many other beyond the knowledge that we
kinds of things to which it is compared: the plant produce about that thing, or our
simply is what it is. It might be a difficult notion to experience of it.
wrap one’s head around, but being and knowledge
are simply not the same things.

That does not mean that truth is relative, or that we can’t say something important,
useful, and accurate about the plant. We can produce knowledge about it; we can be
right, or wrong, in the knowledge that we produce.

Rather, it is that we have different structures for determining what is true. Producing
knowledge is often systematic. We compare things according to criteria that are
already established. We process an object that we find, in the world (e.g.: Milkweed),
through a system that is designed to produce answers (e.g.: Botany-the study of

SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking 25

plants), and get a variation of the same answer that we receive when we run a different
object (e.g.: Chrysanthemum) through that system. In doing so, we generate catego-
ries and taxonomies, and we understand things better.

We can ask the same question of different objects, or we can ask different questions
of the same object.

In other words, the questions that we ask, and how we ask them, and why we ask
them, play an important part in determining the answers we receive. We like to orga-
nize the world, and that requires repeating the same questions, in the same way, of
similar objects.

DEFINITION Critical thinking is about paying attention to the
way that we think when we ask these questions and
There is a great deal of get our answers, including what we’re taking for
disagreement regarding the granted—such as the notion that Latin and plants
meaning of the phrase discursive are related, or how we would define a myth. Most
practice, but in this context it

means: “The various rules that of all, it is a way to understand how our discursive
determine the possibilities of the practices affect our view of the significance of that
production of knowledge about knowledge. All skilled academic thinkers and writ-
objects, people, or ideas.” ers pay close attention to critical thinking. People

are not quality thinkers just because they find

answers; they are quality thinkers because they remain mindful of the way in which

they are asking questions.

That’s why the history of ideas is not just a history of the steadily growing accumu-
lation of answers to which we have arrived. It is also a history of the ever-changing
ways that our questions have limited, or expanded, the range of the answers that it is
possible for us to receive.

The tricky thing about critical thinking is accepting that it is not about answers, but
rather the way that we get to them. Critical thinking is an ongoing, self-corrective
habit-of-mind that helps academic writers to understand how thinking is structured,
the elements that influence the way that we think, how those influences can bias our
thinking, how to guard against those biases, and the strengths and limitations of the
language we use to express those thoughts.

In relationship to writing, critical thinkers raise vital questions, formulate them in
language that is precise and clear, identify any assumptions made in asking the ques-
tion, adjust when encountering valid points that contradict expectations, and remain
rigorously honest. Writers who engage in critical writing do that, on paper, for a
reader. That’s what academic writing is supposed to do.

26 REASON TO WRITE

5 the role of curiosity

Curiosity has its own reason for existence. The important thing
is not to stop questioning.
—Albert Einstein

F or a moment, imagine that academic writing is like a popular Hollywood film.
In  the beginning, the film establishes a situation that is basically stable. Life
is just kind of going along, as it tends to do. Then, something changes. Conflict is
introduced—someone has a fight, an airplane has mechanical difficulties, or a villain
plots the end of civilization-as-we-know-it.

This conflict leads to a feeling of unease or tension in the audience, which triggers the

desire for resolution of the conflict. Desire for resolution compels the main character/s

to action that will lead to the resolution of the conflict. That’s why you can often think

of characters within films less as people than as functions: an element that serves a

specific purpose. For example, the function of a vil-

lain is the same as the function of a natural disaster: DEFINITION
to compel the hero to action. That’s the basic arc of
popular Hollywood film. This desire to resolve the In Narrative Theory, when conflict
is introduced in a story, the

conflict and reach resolution, whether it occurs in resulting desire, on the part of the

a film, or in a novel, (or anything with a narrative), audience, to see resolution of that

is called Narrative Drive. conflict, is called Narrative Drive.

So, too, in academic writing, all knowledge begins in a settled state—in textbooks,
and in lecture halls, and in practice, people teach about, and act upon, what we know.
Then, something changes: a question arises, or something doesn’t seem right, or
doesn’t make sense, or perplexes us.

We can only begin to write when conflict is introduced. This conflict leads to tension
on the part of the writer, which leads to the desire for resolution of the conflict.
We have a name for the drive to resolve the conflict that questions produce.

It’s called “curiosity.”

People who write academically tend to value curiosity—not just in the intellectual
sense, but also as a part of the emotional satisfaction of finding the means to answer
a question. In other words, people often find thinking—not just memorization, but
actually thinking through something—pleasurable.

SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking 27

This means that, in order to begin, an academic writer does not need a thesis to
defend. Without conflict, or a question, there’s no answer to defend—everything has
been questioned and answered, already. Rather, an academic writer needs a question
about which to get curious.

Until a writer has a question, a writer cannot really begin effective analysis. Until a
writer performs effective analysis, the writer cannot really offer valid conclusions
based upon that analysis. Until the writer can offer valid conclusions, the writer
cannot produce a thesis, or answer, to the initial question.

6 the (provisional) case against the prompt

I would rather have a writing instrument [that was] bent and dull, and know
I had to put it on the grindstone, and hammer it into shape, and know I had
something to write about, than to have it bright and shining and nothing to say.

—Ernest Hemingway

S ometimes, instruction that is offered in textbooks, or classrooms, or even test
situations, will attempt to stimulate curiosity in students by providing what
are called “writing prompts.” Writing prompts are almost always in the form of a
question, usually related to a source of some kind, such as a reading.

Asking questions is an important part of learning, and examples of good questions
do serve an important purpose. In learning specialized knowledge, it can be essential.
However, learning to ask good questions is also an important part of learning, and
is vital to critical thinking. Writing prompts often tend to limit that learning, in the
following ways:

• Answering a prompt usually triggers learned behavior in the student that
results in a relationship to writing that is more like: “What answer does this
instructor want?” than “What can be said, in truth, about this question?”

• Composing a critical question is itself a process that teaches critical thinking.

• An independent critical question is far more likely to activate curiosity, for a
writer. Therefore, an independent question is more likely to help the writer to
perceive the resulting answer as something for which he or she is responsible.

28 REASON TO WRITE

• Control over the way a question is posed helps to determine the possible
answers. New questions produce new answers. In this case, students partici-
pate in the conversation, instead of simply “listening in” to the record of a
conversation that has already taken place.

It is also understandable that instructors would tend to want to retain control over
the questions upon which students will write. Instructors usually want to be helpful,
and it is often helpful to provide models of questions that are worth asking. At the
same time, education is, in part, learning to pay attention to thinking, and a part of
that is learning the nature of how to question effectively. Learning to question effec-
tively means getting a solid foundation in recognizing those elements that tend to
create bias in our thinking.

Cognitive bias simply means that our thinking has, in some way, been hindered by
those elements of thought that distort reasoning. Such distortions can affect not only
the conclusions that people produce, but also the way that people form questions.
Questions formed with cognitive bias will typically result in conclusions that repro-
duce that cognitive bias.

For example, the type of questions that would probably result in cognitive bias would
include, but not be limited to, those that exhibit:

A. Binary Thinking

B. Speaking for others

C. Generalizations

D. Opinion

E. Projecting into the future

F. Lack of specificity

G. Reporting on existing knowledge

As an exercise, circle the kinds of bias that you judge the following questions pro-
duce, from the list above. There may be more than one answer; choose the best one.
There is an answer key at the end of this section.

1. Why do we get angry? ABCDEFG

2. When should people get married? ABCDEFG

3. Who invented the light bulb? ABCDEFG

SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking 29

4. What will society look like in fifty years? ABCDEFG

5. Why do men like sports? ABCDEFG

6. What is the meaning of life? ABCDEFG

7. Is poverty based on circumstances or behavior? A B C D E F G

Learning about these issues not only clarifies academic inquiry, but also offers the
opportunity to understand what causes bias, and to recognize it in future writing and
thinking.

Answer Key: 1-B; 2-D; 3-G; 4-E; 5-C; 6-F; 7-A

7 writing is risky business

“A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult
than it is for other people.”
—Thomas Mann

T he first step to academic writing is finding a reason to write, which means finding
a question about which to get curious. Since critical thinking is designed to help
thinkers to be aware of the way that they think things through, a critical question
would be designed to guide the student away from questions that would produce
cognitive bias. In this way, a critical question is not a set of rules but a learning tool—
a guide to help a writer to avoid bias, but also to understand what constitutes a ques-
tion that will yield further thinking. That doesn’t mean it’s easy.

A lot of writing involves risk. First of all, in no other area, except perhaps in speak-
ing, do we reveal more of ourselves, to others, than when we commit words to paper.
People judge us based upon our writing—not just in classrooms, but in other places
in which we produce it. We invest in our writing, because when we write, we invite
others into our worldview.

Academic writing is especially risky, not only because we are actually evaluated on our
efforts, but also because quality academic writing begins in a state of curiosity, and
curiosity means you don’t know something. Curiosity is a kind of alert uncertainty
that remains open to possibilities. This state of uncertainty can be uncomfortable,

30 REASON TO WRITE

as one student reflected in a response to the assignment of coming up with a critical
question:

Imagine sitting nervously in your first ever college writing class, fresh
out of high school, and foreign to university-level teaching. Your profes-
sor begins to talk about your first ever homework assignment, one that
will be due at the beginning of the next class. As she first presents the
assignment it seems as though it will be a simple task that should take
no longer than ten or fifteen minutes, but as she goes into greater detail,
suddenly a challenge arises. The task is to come up with a critical ques-
tion, which is defined by a certain criteria. Suddenly the ten or fifteen
minutes that you planned on spending to come up with this question
seems like an endless search for the perfect question, one that will yield
intellectual thought, and a good grade, as well.

This was the exact situation that I found myself in, just a few weeks ago.
The assignment flustered me so much that I came to the next class with
no question written down, and not even the slightest clue of what my poten-
tial question would be. I began to think about this process of coming up
with a question, and I asked myself: “Just what is it that makes this assign-
ment so difficult?” The question in itself fit the criteria of a critical question.1

This student’s response is understandable. It bad enough not to “know the answer,”
but it is even more unsettling not to “know the question.” In much of our understand-
ing of what it is to be in a classroom, students who display this level of ignorance are
usually students who are doing poorly. However, if a writer already knows the answer
before writing, unless the writer does a great deal of pre-writing, it’s very likely that
everyone else knows the answer, too.

In academic writing, this initial state of uncertainty is necessary. Writing is a unique
activity that requires investment, and investment involves putting something on the
line, in order to get something back. Richard E. Miller calls this initial state of uncer-
tainty one of discontinuity:

Typically, a position—a thesis or argument—will remain fairly vague
until we have done a great deal of preliminary writing. …Discontinuities
lead us to search for a shared horizon, and from this shared horizon our
own questions come. Then, provided we are willing to push far enough,
a coherent position begins to emerge, not all at once in a grand vision

1 Matthew Townsend, Writing 1 Fall 2007. UCSB.

SECTION I • CHAPTER 2 Critical Thinking 31