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CRITICAL READING, WRITING AND THINKING

WEEK 9
Strategies in Critical
Writing
Strategies in Critical Writing

 Experienced writers showcase flexibility in achieving their

objectives by constantly exploring and discovering styles,
procedures, and ideas. They are not afraid to ask
questions and question their own writing for a more
balanced output. After all, writing is all about thinking.
Strategies in Critical Writing

 Only after the writer thoroughly examines the subject

through writing and is satisfied with the ideas discovered,
does he or she polish the writing for the reader. This is
where the writer starts deciding on the style and
organization to be used depending on the target readers
and the nature of the text. This is where the writer also
decides which critical strategies to use for writing the
final draft.
Strategies in Critical Writing

 Critical thinking yields several strategies that you are

likely to use in academic writing. Many of your writing
assignments may reflect just one of the strategies or a
combination of them.
Strategies in Critical Writing

 For the sake of clarity, these strategies have been

arranged in the order of complexity of the critical thinking
that they require. Keep in mind that these strategies
often overlap with each other. You may use comparison
and contrast when you are synthesizing information, but
you may also synthesize the results of a causal analysis.
You may also use several of these analytical strategies
when you write an evaluation.
Analysis

 Analysis, the basis of many other strategies, is the process

of breaking something into its parts and putting the parts
back together so that you can better understand the
whole.
 When you seek to explain the causes and effects of a
situation, event or action, you are trying to identify their
origins and understand their results. You may discover a
chain of events that explain the causes and effects. How
you decide where the boundaries of causal analysis are
depends on your thesis and your purpose for writing.
Synthesis

 Synthesis is a tad more complex than the analytical

strategies that have just been discussed. In synthesizing
information, you must bring together all your opinions and
researched evidences in support of your thesis. You
integrate the relevant facts, statistics, expert opinions,
and whatever can directly be observed with your own
opinion and conclusions to persuade your audience that
your thesis is correct. Indeed, you use synthesis in
supporting a thesis and assembling a paper.
Evaluation

 Evaluation is the most complex of all analytical strategies

and uses many of the other analytical techniques. In
applying this strategy, you first establish the criteria you
will use to evaluate your subject, apply them to the
specific parts of the subject you are judging, and draw
conclusions about whether your subject meets those
criteria. In the process of evaluating a subject, you will
usually be called upon to render some analysis and
synthesis and even use persuasive or argumentative
techniques.
Evaluation

 establish the evaluation criteria

 select the characteristics you will apply those criteria to
 evaluate how well the selected characteristics meet the
criteria
 present your results, along with examples, to support your
premise
Persuasion

 Persuasion is aimed at changing the beliefs or opinions of

the readers or at encouraging them to accept the
credibility or possibility of your opinion or belief. You do
not have to convince them to embrace and adapt to your
own opinions and beliefs offhand, although that is more
preferential. Rather, you have to convince them to
consider you by keeping an open mind.
Persuasion

 At some level, all writing has a persuasive element. You

may simply be persuading your reader to continue reading
your writing or even to accept your credibility—that you
know your subject area. In fiction writing, you persuade
your readers to believe your plot and dialogues, enough
for them to finish the story down to the last chapter.
Persuasion

 You can make your writing persuasive by responding to the

needs and demands of your readers. When you keep them
in mind, you can identify with their points of view and
attitudes. Use your style and tone to show respect for
your reader. Offer your reader arguments and evidences
to support your opinion or belief.
▹ Miriam Santiago would have made
a better president than the current
president.
▹ It is wrong to use fame to influence
pollical causes.
▹ The government should make
voting in all elections mandatory.
▹ Safety is more important than
freedom.
▹ Cancer is a common disease but it
is not contagious.
Dogs are the greatest pets.
A great pet is intelligent,
obedient, and loving.
Dogs are perceptive, easily
trained, and one of the most
affectionate animals
towards humans.
 WARRANT

GROUNDS CLAIM
These traits are why dogs
are the most widely used
service animals.
 BACKING

WARRANT

GROUNDS CLAIM
Dogs are perceptive, easily
trained, and one of the most
affectionate animals
towards humans.
Dogs are typically
perceptive, easily trained,
etc…
 BACKING

WARRANT

GROUNDS QUALIFIER CLAIM

Dogs are the greatest pets.
While cats can also be
affectionate and obedient,
they are still more difficult to
train than dogs
 BACKING

WARRANT

GROUNDS QUALIFIER CLAIM

REBUTTAL
CLAIM Dogs are the greatest pets.
GROUNDS A great pet is intelligent, obedient,
and loving.
WARRANT & Dogs are typically perceptive, easily
QUALIFIER trained, and one of the most
affectionate animals towards
humans.
BACKING These traits are why dogs are the
most widely used service animals
REBUTTAL While some may argue cats can be
affectionate, and obedient, they are
still more difficult to train than dogs.