MIDTERM CRWT

• Writing


  A physical and mental act
• Writing


  • Has a dual purpose - to express and to impress
  • Is a process and also a product
• Writing is a physical act of committing words or ideas to some medium
• Writing is the mental act of inventing ideas, thinking about how to express them, and organizing them into statements and paragraphs that will be clear to the reader
• Writers write for themselves, and their own desires to express an idea or feeling, and for the readers who need to have ideas expressed in certain ways
• The writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing) is the series of actions taken by writers to produce a finished work
• Critical writing


  Requires reading to respond rather than react
• Critical writing


  • Is open-minded and objective
  • Is analytical and evaluative
  • Is productive and progressive
• Emotional and subjective writing


  • Is quick and shallow
  • Works on an emotional rather than an intellectual level
  • Is locked on the pre-existing opinion of the reader
• Nuanced reading


  • Allows for deep and detailed understanding of complex texts
  • Takes into account "grey" areas
• Binary reading


  • Provides only "agree or disagree" answers
  • Does not allow for an understanding of complex arguments
• Descriptive writing


  • Reports what happened
  • Outlines what something is
  • Lists details, information and/or options
  • Quotes, summarizes, or paraphrases information from different writers
  • States evidence/s
• Critical writing


  • Evaluates the significance of what happened
  • Evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of something
  • Critiques the options in order to select the best one
  • Compares and contrasts the views of different writers
  • Considers the relevance or validity of information from different writers
• 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 the to fundamental concepts that are central to all writing
• Components of a paper

  • Planning
  • Researching
  • Writing the Paper
  • Revising
• Topic


  The general subject you will be writing about
• Thesis statement


  The specific claim you want to put forward about the topic
• Main points


  Explain, support, or elaborate on your thesis statement
• Outline


  The composite of thesis and main points, serves as the skeleton or blueprint of your paper

  
• Research is an essential part of writing a paper as it can help you in understanding your chosen topic and enrich the trustworthiness of your paper
• The paper begins with an introductory section, the bulk is the body, and it ends with a concluding section

  
• You give credit to those whose ideas you have used in your paper to maintain your intellectual integrity using in-text citations, references in footnotes or endnotes, and bibliography and "works cited" section
• Revising is done to make changes, to add and subtract ideas, and to sharpen the paper
• Revising is not only done at the end, it is something you do all the while you are writing
• Brainstorming


  A prewriting technique used to identify possible aspects of the topic that your paper will pursue
• Freewriting


  A brainstorming strategy where one writes freely, whatever comes into one's mind, without caring about spelling, punctuation, etc.
• Listing


  A brainstorming strategy that involves writing down keywords to generate ideas
• Diagramming methods


  • Clustering
  • Branching
  • Comparing in columns
• Thesis statement


  States the subject matter and the main ideas of your paper, defines the scope and focus, is a road map for the paper, and makes a claim that you can prove with evidence and that others might dispute

  
• A thesis statement must be clear, specific, and arguable
• Outline


  The skeleton of your essay, in which you list the arguments and subtopics in a logical order

  
• In a formal outline, major points are indicated by I, II, III; points within major points are indicated by A, B, C; and divisions within A, B, C are indicated by 1, 2, 3