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Writing as Critical Thinking
key researchers and theorists, main issues, current research foci, and essential sources
(e.g., books, handbooks, articles). Preparing a reader’s guide is a relatively painless way
to read and review the relevant literature concerning a topic in advance of conducting
an empirical study or writing a more narrow research paper (for specific guidelines, see
Henderson, 2000).
Writing Activities Promoting Critical Thinking
We believe that students need to develop a critical acumen where writing is concerned.
How can they do so? Writing in psychology is not a spectator sport: Students must become
engaged with the material by performing basic tasks associated with designing and execut-
ing an experiment or other study. We suggest that three categories of writing activities—
basic tasks, process issues, and outcomes—can link critical thinking to writing. Table 14.2
lists sample writing activities within each of the three categories. We encourage readers to
think of additional writing activities that fall under the categories. We now briefly discuss
each category in turn.
Basic Tasks
Basic tasks constitute the “bricks and mortar” writing activities in the psychology class-
room. Most of these activities are associated with the teaching and learning of research
methods and experimentation in psychology. After conducting an experiment—often but
not always one determined by an instructor—students must learn to encapsulate the main
Table 14.2. Illustrative Writing Activities for Teaching Critical Thinking
Basic tasks
- Summarizing the literature
- Writing hypotheses
- Putting results into prose form (i.e., translating data analyses into text)
- Writing about tables and figures
Process issues
- Expressive versus transactional writing
- Anticipating audience needs
- Drafting, revising, refining
- Critiquing their own writing (revising and editing as both critical reflection and self-regulation)
- Seeking peer as well as instructor comments on papers
- Critiquing peer writing
Outcomes
- Informal papers (in-class writing, reaction papers)
- Formal papers (lab reports, literature review papers)
- Portfolios
- Posters