As we work on drafting essays, we’re also developing our basic writing skills, so here are some paragraphing tips to make this more explicit. Dunleavy’s Medium article explains aspects of organizing paragraphs as well. The…
One way to understand how to create conversation between texts is to look at visual texts: consider where they converge and differ, and how we make sense of them in juxtaposition, and how the similarities…
In which I ask myself and y’all about the kinds of feedback you’re used to, and what you assume about feedback, structured as a series of myths I see taking shape in some of your…
An excellent Twitter thread about a short sentence authored by Hemingway, and what we’re prone to assume, and why (click the date for the thread): “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” Hemingway’s infamous six-word is…
When you close read essays, particularly more complicated work, and especially when you plan to “borrow” structures from that work, you may want to review Carillo’s (2017) text on close reading. She reminds us to…
There’s no single formula for writing a college essay, but the Critical Response Essay tends to be a little more formulaic. Separate from the Critical Response Essay, a general template for critical thinking might look…
A precis (pronounced pray-see) is a concise summary of the important points of an article. It’s the next stage of what we did previously, which was simply identify the author’s primary claim. The paragraph(s) you…
While watching this excerpt from Pulp Fiction, consider how each line of dialogue models an aspect of critical writing—mainly the ability to reflect and rethink in a continual process of reevaluation. Using the handout posted…