The best way to develop a mind that thinks critically is through writing.
(Anonymous)
Therefore, here we go.
The name of the course speaks for itself, i.e "Write to the Point". According to the developers of the course "writing is critical thinking in its simplest form because, when you write, you draw from what you know (your experiences), seek relevant information (ask questions and research), and develop new concepts.
Good writing is also based on the universal intellectual values of clarify, accuracy, relevance and consistency, skills that are needed more than ever in the 21st century business world. It is refreshing to see the actual program that connects the idea of critical thinking to evolving of necessary communication skills that can be developed through critical writing.
Further,the program promises to develop the following skills upon the completion of the course:
Paraphrasing: expressing the text, sentence by sentence, in your own words;
Explicating: stating the main point in one sentence and elaborating on this point, using examples and analogies/metaphors to clarity and explain.
Analysing: identifying the purpose, main question, most significant information, basic conclusion, assumptions, concepts and points of view contained in the text.
Synthesising: taking what you have summarized and analysed and connecting to your own experience, creating a new whole that reflects your newly acquired knowledge and insights.
Evaluating: checking for clarity, accuracy, precision, relevance, logic etc.
What I also liked about this program is that it lets one customize one's particular needs he or she is looking to fullfill during the course:
"Today, being able to write clearly is the key to personal and professional development. At Write to the Point, we will help anyone to improve their writing. We do not use off-the-shelf courses or buy courses from third parties and can customize our courses to meet your specific needs."
The course runs six weeks and includes the following steps:
Week 1:
Critical reading - starting point where one is learning what s/he is going to write about. Therefore, this module focuses on critical reading identifying tone, prejudice/bias, fact vs opinion, and logical fallacies (hasty generalizations, false analogy, circular reasoning etc.) and summarizing what one reads.
Week 2: Pre-writing. The next stage is to generate ideas, based on one's reading and existing knowledge, that are appropriate for the purpose and reader of the document. This module introduces the tools of free writing and clustering, and the concepts of purpose and audience.
Week 3: Organizing. This module expands on the concepts of purpose and audience and looks at three ways of organizing your ideas and information logically: argument, outline and inverted pyramid.
Week 4: Powerful paragraphs. This module focuses on
understanding how to write logical, well-developed paragraphs. The focus is on creating a coherent flow, using transitions and writing effective topic sentences.
Week 5: Sentences . Sentences are the building blocks of writing. This module looks at how to write clear sentences, recognize three common sentence errors, and understand how to make strong linking sentences/transitions.
Week 6: Consolidation: This module brings everything together and focuses on the importance of peer learning, through critiquing each other’s work.
To sum it up, critical thinking evolves through effective writing. Critical reading is an important and vital part of critical thinking and writing, and, in fact, anticipates any writing.To make the latter more effective, it is important to organize the ideas logically, keeping in mind both the purpose and the audience for whom the piece of writing is intended. Coherence, transitions are the the keys for the powerful paragraphs. Finally, peer learning (peer editing, for instance) is a part of critical thinking which happens through critiquing each other's work.
More on critical thinking and writing is yet to come. Stay tuned)))
Works Cited:
"Write to the Point." Lecture. Write to the Point RSS2. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. <http://writetothepoint.co.za/>.
Nadya: Thank you for this. Having explored the "Write to the Point" website and company, I have a little feedback on what I found. They are a company, first of all. That should tell you something about their objectives (i.e. $$$). Second, they are based in South Africa. So, what does this mean for us and how/why is it relevant? Finally, I want to encourage you this week to look more toward scholarship in this area and less toward websites that are hawking shiny packages and workshops to desperate people.
ReplyDeleteScholarship means that it needs to be research-based and to appear in a peer-reviewed academic journal. The date doesn't matter, but people have been researching (1) what critical thinking looks like and (2) how to measure it for a long, long time.
I have included a range of articles below (1985-present) to give you a sense of how long educators have been exploring this idea in the context of classroom learning and teaching. I hope my leads spur you on to find some articles on your own. The searching process--and having success by finding the appropriate resources--is part of this project, too! Search well. Search with relevance.
1. From the Association for School Curriculum and Development's journal from 1985: http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_198510_ennis.pdf
2. Journal of Technology Education (1995):
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v7n1/gokhale.jte-v7n1.html
3. A Masters thesis from a student at Virginia Tech University on measuring critical thinking:
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-03232002-155903/unrestricted/criticalthinking.pdf
4. A 2011 literature review of ALL RELEVANT LITERATURE on the study of critical thinking. This report was sponsored by Pearson (bells should be going off in your head right now!).
http://images.pearsonassessments.com/images/tmrs/CriticalThinkingReviewFINAL.pdf
Have fun reading, Nadya. Tell us about what you find that's interesting and relevant. Tell us about your interpretation of what this all means for your classroom and for writing instruction. Keep going! Thank you.