Critical Reading - involves scrutinizing any information that you read or hear.

Is
an active process of discovery because when you read critically, you are not
just receiving information but also making an interaction with the writer. The
interaction happens when you question the writer’s claims and assertions and
when you comment on the writer’s ideas.

Requirements

 The ability to pose problematic questions

 The ability to analyze a problem in all its dimensions
 The ability to find, gather, and interpret data, facts, and other
information relevant to the problem.
 The ability to imagine alternative solutions to the problem, to see
different ways in which the questions might be answered and different
perspectives for viewing it.
 The ability to analyze competing approaches and answer, to construct
arguments for and against alternatives, and to choose the best solution
in the light of values, objectives, and other criteria that you determine
and articulate.
 The ability to write an effective argument justifying your choice while
acknowledging counter arguments

Become a critical reader

1. Annotate what you read

2. Outline the text

3. Summarize the text

4. Evaluate the text

Academic writing

1. Posing a question

2. Problematizing a concept

3. Evaluating an opinion

4. Answering the questions or question posed

5. Clarifying the problem

6. Arguing for a stand

Academic writing is thinking

1. You have to abide the set of rules and practices in writing

2. Write it in a language that is appropriate and formal but not too pretentious.

3. Consider the knowledge and background of your audience.

4. Make sure that you can back up your statement with a strong and valid
evidence.

5. Requires deliberate, thorough, and careful thought and that is why it

involves research.

Things to consider as you write

 Content - clarity of the purposes and the thesis statement, relevance of

the supporting points to the thesis statement, knowledge on the subject
matter
 Structure - coherence and logical sequence of the ideas
 Language and style - word choice, sentence construction
 Mechanics - grammar, punctuations, capitalization, formatting,
documentation
Fallacies

 Dicto Simpliciter- means an argument based on an unqualified

generalization

Example: Exercise is good. Therefore everybody should exercise

 Hasty Generalization -
Example: You can’t speak French. Therefore nobody at the university of
Minnesota can speak French
 Post Hoc -
Example: Let’s not take Bill on our picnic. Every time we take it out with
us it will rain.
 Contradictory Promises-
Example: if God can make everything, can He make a stone so heavy that
He won’t be able to lift it?
 Ad Misericordiam-
Example: A man applies for a job. When the boss asks him what his
qualifications are, he said he has wife and six children at home, the wife
is helpless cripple, the children have nothing to eat, no clothes to wear,
no shoes on their feet, there are no beds in the house, no coal in the
cellar, and winter is coming.
 False Analogy -
Example - Students should be allowed to look at their textbooks during
exams. After all surgeons have X-Rays to guide them during a trial,
Carpenters have blueprints to guide them when they are building a
house. Whey, then, shouldn’t students be allowed to look at their
textbooks during examination?
 Hypothesis Contrary to Fact -
Example: If Madame Curie had not happened to leave a photographic
plate in a drawer with a chunk of pitchblende, the world today would
not know about radium.
 Poisoning the Well -
Example: Two men are having a debate. The first one gets up and says,’
My opponent is a notorious liar. You cant believe a word that he is going
to say.
Thesis Statement

 Central idea of the essay

 It controls the essay by determining what you should oe should not
include in your work
 Gives your readers idea of what your paper is all about

Characteristics of a Thesis statement

 Focuses on a specific issue

 States a stand on the topic
 Responds to the assignment by following instruction
 Expresses the main idea in one to two sentences
 Say something meaningful by answering the questions
 Previews the rest of the essay by being placed in the introduction

Steps in choosing the topic

 Brainstorming
 Freewriting
 Clustering

Paraphrasing is one of the ways to avoid plagiarism.

Avoid Obvious Padding

Take The Less Usual Side

Slip Out Of Abstraction

Get Rid of Obvious Padding

Call A Fool A Fool

Beware Of Pat Expression

Colorful Words