Is the Process of Critical Thinking or Writing Your Bigger Challenge?

I often work with students who have solid essay writing skills but still get low writing scores. They have mastered the structure of a 100-level university essay but still struggle getting to the minimum word count. Developing critical thinking skills will help overcome this carrier.

How does the brain respond when an instructors give topics to write on or the English proficiency tests gives you a writing prompt? Your brain searches for personal connections to the topic and facts that you may have heard or read about. To do this effectively, the brain first needs to be functioning well, which means having enough sleep and good food and focused on the task at hand. When these have been met ideas will flow into your mind.

Go with the first thought, if you were for or against a topic then go with that. Follow your heart. Writing against what you truly believe is setting yourself up for failure.

Now that you have some ideas in your head and you are writing from the heart choose three supporting points and a counter argument for balance. Don’t overthink these points, run wih what comes to mind. There is no right or wrong and grading is on writing quality, not facts or correct answers. Again, the first supporting points that come to mind come from the heart and will be the easiest to write on.

If you don’t have any connection with the topic and can’t form an opinion well that is your fault. You haven’t diversified your reading and viewing. Read and watch what you normally wouldn’t watch. As your walking down the street ask questions about what you see. Is the bus you see full and not taking on more riders? Is tax money therefore not being well spent?

Once a question comes to mind about what you see while walking down the street form an answer and support it with three points. Tax money is not being well spent because there are too many cars and not enough transit, people need transit because taxes are too high to afford their own car, and road tax (tolls) make driving unaffordable.

It takes some practice before a position with three supporting points come to mind, but once you have it you can focus more on how to write rather than what to write. Now if you still have trouble meeting the word count then perhaps it is a combination of your critical thinking and writing skills.

I often see the opposite challenge with students who go far over the maximum work count and find it very hard to edit their work. This is the topic of the next post.