Expository writing process develops
Critical thinking strategies

If students are to employ critical thinking strategies inside and outside of school, two factors must be present:

• Students must have learned the strategies.

• Students must have problems to which they can apply those strategies.

If students are to get into the habit of thinking critically, we need to give them many opportunities to perform authentic thinking tasks that arise naturally from their everyday experience.

We cannot invent lessons on cool topics unrelated to their daily experience and expect students to learn from those lessons strategies they actually use.

Nor can we expect students to learn to think deeply and well if the assignments we give them call for only basic thinking tasks, like recalling information, or for only imagination.

Our job is to set tasks that train the brain.

Critical thinking gurus Richard Paul and Linda Elder say students cannot learn at more than a superficial level without being able to write substantitvely. They define substantive writing as "the art of saying something worth saying about something worth saying something about."

Instead of teaching lessons on strategies, we should give students expository writing tasks that engage them in learning content so they learn the strategies as they are solving writing problems.

The expository writing process consists of a series of decisions. Each decision requires thought. The more logical and strategic the decision making process, the more likely it is that the outcome of the entire process will be successful.

Some of the specific ways writers use critical thinking strategies to make those decisions are:

• They ask questions to clarify their understanding.

• They determine what information they have and what they lack.

• They seek evidence to support opinions.

• They have strategies that allow them to be thorough and efficient in their thinking about their writing.

• They reject irrelevant information.

• They test a working thesis by examining evidence and adjust their thesis as that evidence demands.

• They assess their writing process and products.