Definition, Format, and Guidelines in Writing a Project Proposal
Do you remember how persistent you were as a child? You would fire question after question at the adults around you, such as “Why is the sky blue?” or “Why…
Academic vs. Technical or Professional Writing
Have you ever written term papers or academic essays before? What was your purpose for doing so? What were the things that you considered? Also, can you recall the process…
The 7 Literary Standards
The seven literary standards are: artistry, suggestiveness, intellectual value, spiritual value, permanence, universality, and style. These are a set of characteristics used to determine whether or not a work is…
Formulating Evaluative Statements
Formulating evaluative statements allows you to provide a clearer explanation of the strengths and weaknesses of something through writing. You present a value judgment based on a set of criteria.…
Determining Textual Evidence
To better evaluate the author's argument, you should be able to determine the evidence from the text. This will allow you to validate the assertions of the author and your…
How to formulate counterclaims?
To be an effective critical thinker, it is not enough just to be able to identify claims and assertions. The ability to analyze an argument is essential to understanding the…
How to identify assertions?
Becoming a good critical reader means that you are able to logically evaluate the claims of the writer. Any writer would want the reader to consider—and possibly agree with—the claims…
Identifying the Context of Text Development
Context Being a critical reader also involves understanding that texts are always developed with a certain context. A text is neither written nor read in a vacuum; its meaning and…
The Different Types of Claims
Now that you know the characteristics of a good claim, you will be introduced to the different types of claims that a writer can make: fact, value, or policy. You…
What are claims?
Knowing how to identify explicit and implicit information will help you with one of the most important skills needed in critical reading: evaluating the claims made by an author. This…