Dana S. Dunn & Randolph A. Smith
172
Given how hesitant students in research methods classes are to critique published articles,
this achievement in introductory students is most impressive.
Closing Comment: The Teacher’s Role in Writing
as Critical Thinking
We want to close this chapter with encouragement tempered by reality: Teaching writing
requires time, effort, and a willingness to be candid with students. You will often feel
overworked and pressured by papers to read and return, and you will necessarily need to
develop a thick skin when meeting with students who claim they know how to write and,
what’s more, already write well (if only in their opinion). Your own experience with the
peer review process of publishing in the discipline of psychology can help (i.e., your skin
may have been thickened by past skirmishes with reviewers and editors), but so does
explaining—not pleading—your case to students early on. You must explain to them why
writing is an essential and all too often neglected aspect of practically everyone’s educational
experience. Your goal is to improve on what they already know how to do by helping them
to become more critical—constructive as well as decisive—about their work.
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