THE CRITICAL PROCESS:

SIMPLE, NOT EASY

ENG111

P. Tymon

Writing Well is Simple, Not

Easy:

Simple means to have steps to follow to

complete a task; you are not wandering with no

help. You have a plan.

Easy means that not much effort is involved in

a task.

Our mantra for this class is “Simple, not easy!”

Dressing an infant is simple, but not everyone

finds the process easy.

Getting married—at its most basic—is simple,

but being married seldom is (as rewarding as it

may be).

The Critical Process:

Ask a critical-thinking question (for the first

essay in Unit 1 Part 1, I provide this question)

Answer the question using critical thinking to

arrive at a thesis.

Example question: Are the Harry Potter tales

better as films or as a novels?

On the next few slides, lets use our seven tools

to critical thinking to come up with a critical

response to this question . . .

1. Purpose

As we have learned, this is what you want to say

in the essay.

A good way to arrive at this is to think about a

process called the Hegelian Dialectic. Hegel asked

us to think of a purposeful critical thought like this:

What I think (first thesis)

& Other newly learned ideas that makes sense

(antithesis)

= How I can combine the two to make a good

analysis, or critical statement of purpose (synthesis

and final thesis)

Example of Hegelian Dialectic:

First Thesis: I prefer the Harry Potter novels to the films; I like to create my own picture of the Potter world.

Antithesis: The novels cannot compete with the films because the visual effects and characters make the films more engaging than the novels, especially since not everyone enjoys reading fiction.

Synthesis & Final Thesis: Deciding which is “better” between the Harry Potter novels and the films causes a logical problem because the films and novels are two different works of art, proverbial apples and oranges.

Thesis & Purpose:

So, your final thesis gets at the critical reality;

these two artworks cannot be compared

deeply and logically in terms of “better and

worse” because they serve two different

purposes and are as different as apples and

oranges.

In this way, your purpose is now to

communicate this idea to your audience.

Ideas: Topic Sentences

Now that you have a purpose, a critical-

thinking thesis, you are ready for the ideas that

make up your body-paragraph topic

sentences.

Use these topic sentences to develop support

for the thesis.

The next slide demonstrates this process . . .

Purpose & Thesis 2

Thesis: Deciding which is “better” between the Harry Potter

novels and the films causes a logical problem because the films

and novels are two different works of art, proverbial apples and

oranges.

Break down the thesis ideas for topic sentences:

1. “Better” is a word that implies a hierarchy; when works of art

are as different as films and novels, they do not belong in

the same “better” pair.

2. A novel has a distinct purpose for the reader, and one

important purpose is much to create a world in the reader’s

mind.

3. Likewise, films have their own purposes: to interpret and

visually represent the events of a story for the audience.

2. Support:

Support is comprised of the major and minor details that prove a point.

Let’s look at one of the topic sentences we just generated and some support for the topic sentence:

“Better” is a word that implies a hierarchy; when works of art are as different as films and novels, they do not belong in the same “better” pair.

How do I know?

1. One would not ask if a tree is better than a blade of grass; both exist in nature for different, although similar, purposes.

2. Films and novels, likewise, are both works of art, but are not the same things and do not strive for the same reader or audience responses.

3. One might even argue that the book has only one reader at a time, but that the film has an audience watching a story first read and interpreted by producers, screenwriters, directors, and others involved in making the film.

3. Assumptions & Biases:

This is where we do an ethical check.

Your Pearson critical-thinking reading from Unit 1 Part 1 states the following:

“Assumptions (information you take for granted) and biases (personal beliefs you have about particular topics) can be a

helpful tool or they can throw a wrench into your thinking if they are not valid. Always evaluate them when making an argument.”

So, now is the time to question your argument, your critical stance. For example, are you more likely to give novels artistic value greater than films because you have been taught to do so?

On the other hand, are films going to win out because you do not personally enjoy reading fiction? These are biases and must have no part of a critical argument. If you mention them, you must qualify them as your own feelings.

4. Conclusion (House)

Time to finish the house with a critically thought-out conclusion.

1. Begin a conclusion by restating your thesisnot verbatim, though.

2. Fill the middle of your conclusion with the three most important ideas you want your readers to carry away from the essay.

3. Close to create “echoes” of the essay’s beginning (this is demonstrated in the sample essay in Unit 1 Part 2 folder).

6. Point of View & 7. Analysis

These are final checkpoints.

They provide a space for you to look back over

your essay to be sure that you kept personal

bias and unsupportable statements out of your

writing and that your essay is a whole working

to support the thesis, not just a collection of

unrelated paragraphs.

See the essay sample:

The essay sample is located in the Unit 1 Part

2 folder and is based on the direction begun in

this presentation.

Remember, “simple, not easy.”

Let me know if you have questions.