An overview of the WPA outcomes: Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing:

Critical thinking is the ability to analyze, synthesize, interpret, and evaluate ideas, information,
situations, and texts. When writers think critically about the materials they use--whether print
texts, photographs, data sets, videos, or other materialsthey separate assertion from evidence,
evaluate sources and evidence, recognize and evaluate underlying assumptions, read across texts
for connections and patterns, identify and evaluate chains of reasoning, and compose
appropriately qualified and developed claims and generalizations. These practices are
foundational for advanced academic writing.

By the end of first-year composition, students should

Use composing and reading for inquiry, learning, critical thinking, and communicating in
various rhetorical contexts
Read a diverse range of texts, attending especially to relationships between assertion and
evidence, to patterns of organization, to the interplay between verbal and nonverbal
elements, and to how these features function for different audiences and situations
Locate and evaluate (for credibility, sufficiency, accuracy, timeliness, bias and so on)
primary and secondary research materials, including journal articles and essays, books,
scholarly and professionally established and maintained databases or archives, and
informal electronic networks and internet sources
Use strategies--such as interpretation, synthesis, response, critique, and design/redesign--
to compose texts that integrate the writer's ideas with those from appropriate sources

A bit of insight:
Critical thinking, reading, and composing involve the ability to engage knowledge and produce
new knowledge as a result of analysis and synthesis. The Academy views knowledge as a
conversation with the aim of students joining that conversation, not only as learners but also as
contributors. As you join the academic conversation, you will be able to evaluate

What is your own understanding, perspective, and thought about a given topic? How
much do you already know in advance; where did you learn this information?
What further information on this topic might you need to consider or confirm, and where
should you seek further information or confirmation?
What determines the credibility of an information source, and have you taken care to
observe that credibility? Is it specific to the discipline being researched? Is it reliable? In
what direction is it biased and why?
What are the individual parts of the text or idea? In other words, describe the formal
features of the text or idea under consideration.
What are the rhetorical features of this text in light of the situational context? How does it
achieve what it does? How do the parts work together to succeed in a particular goal?
Why does this text employ the genre and media it does?
How does the genre or media of this text affect your understanding or reading?
How does this text or idea itself affect your understanding?
How does your prior knowledge and experience corroborate or contradict this particular
text or idea?
 Do you need to rethink or revise your own previous analysis?
Should you conduct your own experimentation?
Do you need to research further? If so, where should you turn to seek more quality
information?

The ability to apply these types of questions will join you to the academic conversation and
enable you to function as an effectively educated individual. In our course, you should seek to
apply these questions within both your daily work and within your major projects.

I hope this discussion has helped you understand more about critical thinking, reading, and
composing. Respond to the questions in this weeks discussion board (also provided below)
regarding critical thinking, reading, and composing according to assignment instructions.

Think about it, and in your own words explain

1. How does someone use composing for inquiry and learning?
2. What is the relationship between assertion and evidence?
3. What is meant by the interplay between verbal and nonverbal elements within a text?
4. What is the difference between scholarly and informal sources?
5. How do you evaluate scholarly sources for bias?
6. What does it mean to integrate your ideas as a writer with the ideas of a primary reference
source?