Question Two

At a certain level, we are all expected to write. Whether we are completing an assignment

or communicating with friends and families through either emails or text messages, we often

engage in writing works. There are two main types of writing- descriptive and analytical-

applicable in academic situations and non-academic ones. Descriptive writing gives clear

descriptions of details, while critical writing offers additional analysis.

Critical writing is also known as analytical writing. Therefore, the two terms will be used

interchangeably to explain what differentiates analytical writing from descriptive writing. At the

basic level, descriptive writing communicates the "what," "who," "where, "and "when." In

simpler terms, it describes a person or a place and explores the situation's meaning, impact, or

importance. An example of descriptive writing is " The President unexpectedly fired the minister

of finance yesterday." The above example just states what happened, the persons involved, and

when the act occurred. In contrast, critical writing takes the further step of unveiling the

consequence of the act. For instance, "the president's unexpected action of firing the minister of

finance led to an immediate negative impact in lowering the investor's confidence. This led to a

decrease in the value of the local currency against the dollar value. The devaluation of the local

currency means an expected rise in the costs of imports hence a reduction in disposable incomes.

In the above two examples, the descriptive writing only talks of what happened (the

president fired the minister of finance). In contrast, the analytical writing further discusses the

consequences of the president's action. The other difference is that descriptive writing explains

what a theory says, while analytical shows the relevancy of that theory. For Instance, " the theory

of cultural competency in nursing states that all nurses should be conversant with their personal

internalized biases and should attend to all patients in a non-judgmental manner." This example
states the theory and explains what is required of the people involved in the theory. In contrast,

analytical writing goes further to explain the theory's relevancy or suitability. For instance, when

nurses practice cultural awareness, they build trust with patients from different backgrounds.

They can overcome all the communication barriers that may hinder accurate treatment and

diagnosis. In this example, analytical writing talks further about the importance of the theory, in

that when nurses hold cultural awareness, they build trust hence administering accurate

treatment.

Rather than simply identifying the method used in descriptive writing, the critical writing

approach shows the appropriateness of that method. A descriptive example is, " in addition to the

completion of the assignment, the students were asked to perform an in-tray exercise that

required them to prioritize different tasks as a suitable method of measuring the actual

performances of their assignments. In contrast, critical writing further explains why the method

used was appropriate. For instance, in addition to completing the assignment, students were

asked to perform an in-tray exercise, as it was considered the most effective method of

measuring their assignment performance. This is because it requires less interaction with the

clients hence fewer requirements for highly advanced communication skills.

Lastly, descriptive writing only lists details. For instance, "impressionism is defined as a

19th-century painting approach that employs various tiny, thin brush strokes to form an overall

impression of a scene or object". In contrast, critical thinking gives relative significance to the

details. For instance, " the approaches of impressionist painting like tiny brush strokes used to

form the overall impression of an object or individual signifies a transformation of the 19th era

Realist school of art that aims at recreating a more lifelike picture. Notably, descriptive writing

classifies, compares, describes, and measures data, while analytical writing focuses on
identifying the causes and effects of that data. For instance, in descriptive writing, we can

consider the changing values of trade deficits between the US and other nations between 2018-

2022. In this case, we can examine the trade deficit's mean average. In contrast, analytical

writing talks about something different, like identifying the causes that have led to the change in

trade deficits. By looking at "how" and "why," analytical writing can explore why the value of

trade deficits has changed.