Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing

Part 1

Ed McCorduckCPN 101—Academic Writing II on ComputerSUNY Cortlandhttp://mccorduck.cortland.edu

Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing, Part 1

The importance of critical reading and thinking for this course:

Unlike CPN 100, all essay assignments for CPN 101 will ask you to read sources critically and respond to them critically in your writing through summary, analysis, synthesis, evaluation and argumentation.

Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing, Part 1

The meaning of the word critical for this course:

When we use the word critical in this course, we don’t necessarily mean being ‘criticizing’ or ‘negative’; we mean taking a deep and thoughtful approach to topics and readings and writing assignments about them, as described in chapter 1 of the Universal Keys for Writers.

Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing, Part 1

Two concepts that will be central to much of what we talk about in this course:

• analysis• synthesis

(more to come about these)

Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing, Part 1

Literal Meaning and Inferences

• literal meaning—the meaning directly conveyed by the meanings of the individual words and sentences that make up a text

• inference – meaning that is not stated directly in the text but follows from what is there (i.e. the literal meaning)

Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing, Part 1

Facts vs. Opinions

• a fact--can be verified

• an opinion--can’t be verified; always

open to debate

Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing, Part 1

Evaluating Evidence in a Reading Source

Evidence ought to be:

Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing, Part 1

• sufficient• representative• relevant• accurate• qualified (i.e. it should use

words like most, usually, probably etc. and not “universal” words like all, every, always etc.)

Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing, Part 1

primary vs. secondary sources

• primary source: first-hand evidence (observation, direct, oral report, written report of someone who was there)

• secondary source: second-hand evidence (oral or written report from someone not there, book or article in a newspaper, magazine, etc.)

Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing, Part 1

Cause and Effect

Sometimes a cause can have more than one effect, and an effect may have more than one cause.

Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing, Part 1

Watch out for “false causes” (i.e. just because one thing happens after another doesn’t mean that the first thing causes the second).