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>> DR BEN MILLER: I'd like to welcome you all to this discussion on critical thinking and critical writing.

I've given you a revision of Bloom's Taxonomy, which is a canonical teaching theory that organises critical thinking skills 


from lower level, 1.0 and 2.0, Remember and Understand, 


up to what are often called higher level cognitive skills or abilities, Evaluate and Create. 


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>> DR SUSAN THOMAS: Academia is entering the community of scholarship and 


finding the gaps in the thinking in making an original contribution. 


So if we define the argument that way, if I, on 6.0, held my finger over Create, 


and I started putting elements together to form a novel, coherent, original product, 


is that an argument? 


An argument definitely involves generating, planning and producing, 


so is an argument one of the highest levels of creativity? 


Or one of the highest manifestations of creativity? 

It's just a question. I'm thinking critically here, thinking out loud.


>> DR MILLER: I tend to think so. I think there's something creative in forming an argument. 


But when we're talking about scholarly work or critical thinking, 


an argument in that context, it's creativity that is based in consideration of other ideas. 


So there's kind of two parts to argument. 


It's not just dealing critically with all of this scholarly material or situation, 


nor is it just coming up with your own original idea. 


It's somehow bringing those two things together. 


Being able to understand an issue or a situation and then 


extend the knowledge in some way, or point out something novel or original or creative.


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>> MS ANGELA SHETLER: My view is that you can't separate the two. 


In order to be a critical writer, you have to be able to think critically. 


In thinking critically, you're learning how to be a better writer. 


When you're looking at a text and you're reading it critically, 


that's getting you to think critically, and then you can transfer that into your writing. 


I see them as linked, and that might be my background and the way I was taught. 


But as you're developing these skills, if you're able to think critically about something, 


if you're looking at how you're creating your argument or how you would prove an argument, 


you can translate that into your writing in a way that gets beyond just being descriptive or summative 


to where you're actually extending that knowledge and showing that you've thought about this. 


You become more knowledgeable in pursuit of getting to that point where you're able to prove something. 


My short answer would be that I see them very much as intertwined. 


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>> DR RICK BENITEZ: I remember very early in my education, students in the class saying to one of the teachers, 


"Well, you know, I know what I'm trying to say, but I just can't find the words to say it." 


And the teacher said, "No, if you really know what you want to say, you can find the words to say it." 


I've always taken that to heart, and that's sort of the essence of what we're talking about here. 


Understanding requires being able to articulate. 


You should be worried about overconfidence in your belief that you know what you're talking about if you can't say it. 


That will drive you on to be a better writer. 


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>> DR SUSAN THOMAS: In the United States, if someone's taking a class on rhetoric, 


they're not going to be asked to take a class on critical thinking. 


They're assuming that that will give them the critical thinking. 


Here, I had a degree director find me a while back, and we were talking. 


They said, "I think students need to know how to think critically before they're put into a writing class." 


I said, "Put them into a writing class, they'll come out of it thinking critically." 


But I know that as the old rhetoric was a theory of persuasion, the new rhetoric is a theory of communication. 


Andrea Lunsford at Stanford University really pushes that idea. 


If you're going to communicate effectively, 


you have to think critically about the people you're communicating with and the context across which you communicate. 


So it would be impossible, I think, to communicate well without thinking critically. 


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