CRW

• Writing


  • A physical act of committing words or ideas to some medium
  • A mental act of inventing ideas, thinking about how to express them, and organizing them into statements that will be clear to the reader
• Writers write

  • For themselves (to express) their own desires to express an idea or feeling
  • For the readers (to impress) who need to have ideas expressed in certain ways
• Writing process


  The series of actions taken by writers to produce a finished work (product)
• Critical writing

  • Depends on critical thinking
  • Involves reflection on written texts: critical reading
• Critical writing


  • Provides appropriate and sufficient arguments and examples
  • Chooses terms that are precise, appropriate, persuasive
  • Makes clear the transitions from one thought to another to ensure the overall logic of the presentation
  • Editing for content, structure, and language
• Respond vs React

  • Respond: Open minded & Objective, Analytical and evaluative, Productive and progressive, Nuanced reading
  • React: Emotional and Subjective, Quick and shallow, Works on an emotional rather than an intellectual level, Binary reading
• Descriptive writing


  Reports information about something, but doesn't perform any kind of reasoning or pass judgment on or analyze the information
• Critical writing


  • An essential element of academic writing used to set the background and to provide evidence
  • Involves developing a reasoned argument and participating in academic debate
  • Evaluates, critics, and considers
• Factors of critical writing

  • Pay attention to your thinking
  • Pay attention to the quality of your thinking
  • Pay attention to yourself as you write
  • Pay attention to the fundamental concepts that are central to all writing
• Beginning the paper

  1. Planning: topic, thesis statement, main points, structure

  2. Researching

  3. Writing the paper: intro, body, conclusion, giving credit

  4. Revising
• Elements of reasoning

  Purpose, Questions at issue, Point of view, Concepts, Implications & consequences, Assumptions, Conclusions & interpretations, Information, Context
• Planning the paper

  1. Brainstorming: freewriting, listing, diagraming

  2. Thesis statement: features of a good thesis statement, steps of writing a thesis statement
• Outlining


  An outline is the skeleton of your essay, in which you list the arguments and subtopics in a logical order
• Clarity


  Writing for clarity = "See-I": state, elaborate, exemplify, illustrate
• Persuasion

  • Logos: appeal to logic and reason
  • Pathos: appeal to emotion
  • Ethos: appeals to values and image