Developing Creative Thinking to Improve Academic Writing: Part Two Advanced Level

By Azza Abugharsa PhD

Developing Creative Thinking to Improve Academic Writing Part Two Advanced Level textbook helps enhancing lateral thinking within the given contextual frame in order to promote students intellectual challenge to produce a comprehensive understanding about the topic. This facilitates flexible thinking required to write academic assignments in which arguments are presented for thorough analysis. Since rigid judgments can lead to fossilized views, it is recommended to emphasize the concept that all opinions are correct from the points of view of their holders. In this regard, this book helps college students practice improving their triangular thinking skills which emphasize evaluation of all the aspects of the topic in an equal pattern. Furthermore, this book is useful for ESL college students as well as native speakers of English as it reinforces transformational learning principles which highlight education by inspiration rather than information. Such a strategy can motivate the students to become more creative, more practical and more resourceful and enable them to transform their learning-related thinking abilities and attitudes in order to come to a better understanding of themselves and the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Partridge Publishing Singapore
• Release date: May 8, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543746068

Azza Abugharsa PhD

Azza Abugharsa, originally from Misrata and a PhD holder in TESL and Linguistics, has recently developed interests in what she likes to refer to as a Contextual Frame Philosophy which evaluates everything within the situational circumstances in which they occur. This thinking style has helped Dr. Abugharsa in her teaching career, more specifically in the creative writing class. Dr. Abugharsa believes that a persons opinion about something is one way to look at it, not the correct way to look at it. She also emphasizes that there is no such thing as a wrong opinion; i.e. all opinions come to existence because somebody sees at least one aspect in them that serves his/her specific needs behind coming up with such an opinion to begin with. In this regard, Dr. Abugharsa emphasizes observing the given topic based on its relevant context in order to elicit ideas that are related to the topic and cover it comprehensively.

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 AZZA ABUGHARSA, PhD. All rights reserved.

ISBN

978-1-5437-4605-1 (sc)

978-1-5437-4606-8 (e)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Toll Free 800 101 2657 (Singapore)

Toll Free 1 800 81 7340 (Malaysia)

www.partridgepublishing.com/singapore

[e-mail]

06/07/2018

12312.png

To

LILY

My lovely daughter and honest Critic

Preface

Developing Creative Thinking to Improve Academic Writing, Part Two textbook for advanced ESL learners focuses on training the mind to think creatively and posses the refined ability to provide opinionated arguments as well as neutral statements. Also, this textbook can be useful to native speaker university students who take courses that require writing academic essays and papers. Students can use this textbook to develop new thinking strategies in which philosophical perspectives about new and familiar topics are generated to provide a comprehensive understanding of the topic. Since creative thinking is a requirement in academic writing, this textbook provides essays about different academic topics in order to give examples of how to write research papers and essays at the university level. To do so, students need to adopt thinking flexibility that facilitates them to write argumentative essays in which they state their argument as well as essays that approach the topic naturally. Such a skill enables the students to be more open and accepting to different opinions and equip them to handle sophisticated disputes that do not result in bitter heated controversies.

Chapter Review:

The chapters in this textbook are divided according to a specific outline that provides a discussion about different kinds of academic essays. The discussion focuses on relating to ideas within specific quotes, presenting arguments with refutations of counterarguments, and explaining pros and cons of different controversial topics.

Chapter One:

The focus of chapter one is on analyzing quotes by stating an argument or a counterargument to the claim(s) provided in the quote. The analysis is limited to the ideas in the quote even if the student is familiar with the topic and can generate more ideas on their own. The purpose is to train the students to use available resources in order to develop critical understanding about specific points and provide deep analysis of them.

Chapter Two:

In chapter two, students practice writing lens comparison essays in which points of compare and contrast are derived from the quotes and used to build the essay. Similar to chapter one, the ideas included in the essay are limited to the specific points provided in the quotes in order to analyze them thoroughly. Students learn to view the quotes with a critical eye and be able to classify the information into two categories of difference and similarity between the two items discussed in the quote.

Chapter Three:

After practicing generating ideas from limited information in specific quotes in chapters one and two, students start to develop creative thinking by generating ideas about controversial topics that highlight the student’s argumentative status. Argumentative essay writing is discussed in this chapter in light of De Bono’s PMI model and the Six Thinking Hats theory. PMI model which stands for Plus, Minus, and Interesting is originally designed to handle conflicts more sophistically by presenting all points of view about the topic and classifying them in terms of the opinions that support the claim (Plus), opinions that oppose the claim (Minus) and the writer’s own argument (interesting). After that, the ideas are organized in the outline by using the Six Thinking Hats theory which is also developed by De Bono as one way to reach to a good conflict resolution. Students use these two theories to write argumentative essays that include refutations of counterarguments in order to tackle the topic from as many aspects as possible and develop a comprehensive understanding of it.

Chapter Four:

The practice in this chapter is to develop triangular thinking required to write argumentative essays as a third party. In other words, the essays are written neutrally without representing the writer’s personal opinion about the topic. Such a skill is important in developing critical thinking which enables the students to become more flexible and accepting to different opinions about different topics and be prepared to provide evidence to both the opposing as well as the supporting claims.

Exercises are available at the end of each chapter so that students get the chance to practice writing different kinds of academic essays. Topics in the book are taken from different disciples in order to give examples to university students about how to write research papers in different fields of study. Moreover, different quotes are given at the beginning of each chapter to connect it with real-life ideas and perceptions. These quotes are typed in sketches made by the author of the book to provide illustrated descriptions of the meanings of these quotes in order to convey the understood message into a sketch.

Suggestions to the Teacher

The purpose of this book is to enhance flexible thinking which is required for situational judgment. Students need to practice how to avoid making general judgments and focus instead on evaluating the given topic based on the current situation; i.e. the context in which it takes place. Teachers work to motivate the students to generate genuine ideas and use them in writing academic essays. Also, teachers should encourage students to have their own philosophies in academic writing by relating class discussion to the larger world. Collaborative and cooperative teaching/learning processes are enhanced by group work in which the teacher and the students take parts in the discussion and work together to produce positive outcomes.

To the Students

This textbook is designed to develop creative thinking that facilitates better academic writing at the advanced level. Students in academic programs are expected to perform a number of tasks that include but are not limited to writing reviews, proposals, summaries, abstracts, graduation papers etc. In this regards, this textbook is useful for advanced ESL students as well as native speakers of English because it gives instructions to improve university student’s writing that includes developing critical thinking and analytical skills as an important factor in academic writing. The exercises in this textbook help the students improve their flexible thinking and enhance their ability to logically discuss others’ claims and generate new philosophical perspectives on which they build analytical arguments for their papers. This textbook provides instructions that can be useful in writing class papers which can be qualified as publishable material during the students’ academic careers as well as upon their graduation.

Table of Contents

1.   Writing a Critical Lens Essay

1.1. The Critical Lens Essay Format

1.2. Is Critical Lens Essay Similar to Argumentative Essay?

1.3. Critical Lens Essay (Sample One)

3.3.1. Introduction

3.3.2. Body

3.3.3. Conclusion

1.4. Critical Lens Essay (Sample Two)

1.5. Critical Lens Essay (Sample Three)

Exercises

2.   Writing a Lens Comparison Essay

2. 1. Lens Comparison Essay

2. 1. 1. Elements of a Lens Comparison Essay

2. 2. How to Write a Lens Comparison Essay

2. 2. 1. Derive Details from the Quote

2. 2. 2. Brainstorming Ideas from the Details

2. 2. 3. Writing the Thesis of the Lens Comparison Essay

2. 2. 4. Organizing the Outline for the Lens Essay

2. 2. 4. 1. Text-by-text Outline for the Lens Comparison Essay

2. 2. 4. 2. Point-by-point Outline for the Lens Comparison Essay

2. 2. 5. Writing the Lens Comparison Essay (Sample One)

2.2.5.1. Introduction

2.2.5.2. Body

2.2.5.3. Conclusion

2. 3. Writing the Lens Comparison Essay (Sample Two)

2. 4. Writing the Lens Comparison Essay (Sample Three)

Exercises

3.   Argumentative Essay Writing

4.   PMI Model and the Six-Thinking Hats Theory

3.1. What is the PMI Model?

3.1.1. Brainstorming by Using the PMI Model

3.2. The Six-Thinking Hats Theory

3.2.1. Structuring an Argumentative Essay Outline by Using the Six-Thinking Hats

3.3. Argumentative Essay Writing

1.3.1. Introduction

1.3.2. Body

1.3.3. Conclusion

3.4. Argumentative Essay, Sample One (School Uniform)

3.5. Academic Argumentative Essay, Sample Two (Euthanasia)

Exercises

5.   Argumentative Essay Writing

6   The Third Party (Triangular Thinking)

4. 1. The Brainstorming Step in Argumentative Essay Writing, the Third Party

4. 2. The Outline Step in Argumentative Essay Writing, the Third Party

4. 3. Writing Argumentative Essay, the Third Party

4. 3. 1. Introduction

4. 3. 2. Body

4. 3. 3. Conclusion

4.4. Argumentative Essay, Sample One (Demolishing Historical Buildings)

4.5. Argumentative Essay, Sample Two (Utilitarianism or Deontology?)

Exercises

LIST OF TABLES

Aspects of similarity and difference between new and old Disney movies

Differences and similarities between a recurve bow and a compound bow

Differences and similarities between the Loisel couple and the Magi couple

Brainstorming for lens comparison essays

Brainstorming for (A Ban on Assault Weapons) topic by using the PMI model

De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats categorization

De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats in Argumentative Essays

Brainstorming for School Uniform topic by using the PMI model

Brainstorming for (Euthanasia) topic by using the PMI model

Brainstorming step in third-party argumentative essay writing

Brainstorming for School Uniform topic

Brainstorming ideas for Demolishing Historical Buildings topic

Ideas about Utilitarianism and Deontology topic

Views for and against euthanasia

Chapter One

Writing a Critical Lens Essay

D:\2.png

A critical lens essay is one kind of opinionated writing in which the writer includes their argument towards a certain quote through a critical lens. In other words, rather than providing a summary of all known points related to the topic, the essay examines the information in the quote and evaluates it based on the writer’s opinion of it. The most important step to take before starting writing is to read the quote in depth and analyze it thoroughly.

1.1. The Critical Lens Essay Format

The following are the steps to take when writing a critical lens essay:

1. It is important in the pre-writing step to read the text in depth in order to analyze it carefully.

2. After reading the text in depth, the next step is to break it down to its component parts; i.e. the elements and ideas of the text. Analyzing these elements facilitates better evaluation of the text as a whole, and enables the writer to develop the argument and analyze the text thoroughly.

3. Next, the writer selects the elements that support their argument and use them to build the thesis. These elements are used by the writer to argue with or against the claim(s) in the text. Nevertheless, the argument the writer makes must be supported by using evidence from reliable resources in order to give credibility to the essay.

4. The introduction of the essay contains three major parts: the first is a general background opening about the topic, the second is a brief summary of the key elements chosen for the discussion, and the third part is