High-order Thinking Skills in Academic Writing

Academic writing at college and university level implies acquiring argumentative, analytical and critical thinking skills. Students undertaking academic writing may be required to write Research Papers (RPs). These papers can be analytical or argumentative. The former requires students to understand a topic by breaking it down and to interpret and discover relevant information to answer a research question. The latter involves supporting the writer´s thesis statement using information and evidence: “An argumentative research paper is analytical, but it uses information as evidence to support its point” (Copley, Greenberg, Handley & Oaks, 1996, ¶ 8). Students need to think critically in order to write their own RPs effectively.

While writing their introductions students will need to make use of their thinking skills to write General Specific (GS) texts- that is to move from the general topic to the particular situation they want to present. These texts are usually used for writing introductions, which according to Swales and Feak (1994), contain three moves:  Writers need to create a research space, establish a niche and occupy the niche. In order to do this, it will be necessary to analyze and critique previous research. In other words, college and university students will need to read and analyze critically many sources to include in their literature review in order to write their introductions.

 However, a RP is not just a collection of sources, as “your finished paper should present your own thinking backed up by others’ ideas and information” (Copley et al.  1996, ¶1). For this reason, students at college or university need to acquire analytical and critical thinking skills so as to read sources, analyze them, select the ones that are relevant to their study and use them to either answer research questions or support their thesis statements. Writing a rationale involves analyzing evidence from the corpus critically and selecting the relevant information to justify the need for the study.

Students conducting research may also need to make use of their analytical and critical thinking skills when analyzing and discussing the results of their research, since they may need to discuss problems and propose solutions, both of which will have to be evaluated as well. Then, when writing, students will make use of their critical and analytical thinking skills so as to write problem-solution texts that are both argumentative and evaluative. 

In order to write academic papers, it is essential to develop high-order thinking skills, since students need to resort to the existent literature not to duplicate other authors’ ideas but to express their own arguments and support them, making their own voices heard.

 

References

Copley, C., Greenberg, L., Handley, E., & Oaks, S. (1996). Developing a research         question. Retrieved May 2012, from      http://www.esc.edu/esconline/across_esc/writerscomplex.nsf/0/f87fd7182f0ff21 c852569c2005a47b7

Swales, J.M., & Feak, C.B. (1994). Academic writing for graduate students: Essential     tasks and skills. Ann Harbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.