critical inquiry skills essay

• Our Mission

Creating Challenging Learning Experiences

When teachers leverage inquiry, students use critical thinking skills to examine multiple perspectives and find ways to improve our world.

As I write this article, my daughter is writing about the Berlin Conference and the Scramble for Africa. She is evaluating the impact of imperialism on the people of Africa in the 1800s and the rationale of European nations to colonize an entire continent of people. Through this unit, she analyzed Kipling’s White Man’s Burden and evaluated the influence of its message on world leaders. In addition, she was assigned excerpts from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness to represent the thinking of the anticolonialism messages of the time.

I examined these tasks, and I found that she was engaged in critical thinking. She was asked to analyze policies and the author’s purpose in complex pieces of writing. Further, she was tasked with weighing the decisions of European countries to conquer the people of Africa. In addition, she evaluated different perspectives on these decisions.

However, she lacked the opportunity to tie that powerful work to different perspectives from largely underrepresented groups during that period and today. She read about the experiences and analysis of White men. I don’t recall any analysis of the people of Congo, the Philippines, or India.

Rigor Light

She was engaging in critical thinking but lacked the opportunity to engage in criticality, or the idea that we must connect critical thinking with varying contexts (past, present, and future situations) and perspectives to the human condition. As a result, she participated in a mirage of rigor. Rigor without criticality and contribution is rigor light.

Professor and author Gholdy Muhammad, who holds a PhD in literacy, language, and culture, explains the difference between critical thinking and criticality in this way: “I discuss the difference between lowercase- c critical , which is just deep and analytical thinking. But Critical with a capital c is related to power, equity, and anti-oppression.” The argument here is that both criticality and critical thinking are deeply intertwined and necessary in our work with students.

A good way to remain focused on criticality is through the lens of equity. Equity as a practice and mission and the development of thinking deeply are interwoven. So how do we ensure that we are tending to the demands of the interrelationship between the advancement of equity and cognition? And how do we use this learning for meaningful contribution?

The recommendation here is to engage students with a set of questions that move critical thinking to exploring perspectives, evaluating contexts, and determining potential actions that students can take to solve problems and improve or enhance the world. One way to do this is to use questions that move across levels of thinking from critical analysis, to criticality analysis, to a call to action.

Critical Thinking Questions

The “what” questions guide students to engage in critical thinking by analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating, and reflecting on their curriculum, texts, and current events. Using inductive and deductive reasoning is essential for students to develop the skills necessary to understand the core principles of a subject. Here are a few questions to prime critical thinking skills:

• What is your overall summary or conclusion from this text, theme, idea?
• What are repeating themes, patterns that occur in this unit of study?  
• What are your key takeaways? 
• What is the main idea of the story/article?
• What information supports your explanation? To what extent is that information valid and accurate?
• What themes emerge between the two texts we are reading?  
• What is the author trying to prove? How do you back up your assertion?
• How does _____ contrast with _____?
• What is the point or big idea of _____?

Criticality Thinking Questions

The “so what” questions prepare students to challenge assumptions and intent, analyze multiple perspectives, and discuss the effects of both past and present decisions on multiple communities, particularly those whose voices have been underrepresented and marginalized. Here we use the powerful tools of critical thinking to challenge and better understand the nature of how we have been presented, persuaded, and pushed to learn content in particular ways. Here are a few questions to prime criticality skills:

• How does this relate to other contexts we have studied so far in both time and space? How does this relate to today?  
• Given the perspectives we are seeing in this text, what voices are missing? 
• What perspectives would help us better understand the situation at hand from other people, communities, and cultures?  
• What assumptions are we carrying in this discussion? What are the implications of exploring and testing assumptions?  
• Where have we seen similar stories/patterns/themes in other texts or in the real world? 

Call-to-Action Questions

The “now what” questions help students look for ways to contribute. Critical and criticality thinking skills are designed for students to take action. Here students should think and act on their learning to make the world a better place through better ways to frame content, to generate problems they want to solve, and to contribute to solving problems locally and globally. The  following questions serve as a primer for students to use their voice for contributing to a better understanding and a better future. 

• To what extent can and should we take action in a way that promotes social change? 
• Where have we seen successes in taking action in the past? How can we leverage these successes in this context?
• When is the opportune time to take action that creates a sustainable change?
• Where do we see alignment with our next steps?
• To what extent have others solved this problem?
• Where have we taken into account assumptions about the problem and our solution?

The following organizations offer a number of protocols that can assist in structuring these questions and conversations: Facing History , National School Reform Faculty , and School Reform Initiative . Additionally, strategies such as comparing contexts or using rigorous PBL as a methodology enable this work to flourish.

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The Exploratory Essay

What is an Exploratory Essay?

The purpose of an exploratory essay is to investigate a topic through critical inquiry and present the research findings to your audience. An exploratory essay can take different forms, depending on its purpose. For example, a literature review in the social sciences is a form of exploratory essay. The writer identifies and evaluates the research that others in the field have already done in order to provide the background information needed for either a new interpretation of existing research or new research to add to the existing body of knowledge. Market analyses and environment scans are forms that the exploratory essay can take in business and industry. The company identifies and analyzes key external factors in order to inform strategic decisions.

The CRIT 602 Exploratory Essay & Your Audience

In the case of the exploratory essay in CRIT 602, its purpose is to answer the following question:

How will current trends, concerns, and research related to my academic discipline inform the decisions I make about my academic and professional development or personal interests?

A good way to think about your approach to the CRIT 602 exploratory essay is to go back to your hypothetical external audience. Your readers  are at the same stage of academic and professional development that you are and have similar goals. They are looking for credible information to examine key trends in the field, but they want the information to be evaluated by someone who understands from where they are coming.

You have already provided your readers with relevant trending information about professional organizations, social media, and information resources. They have appreciated the information you’ve presented from these contexts because it is current and relevant to their own academic and professional development. Moreover, you have demonstrated through your analysis and citations that the information you’ve shared is valid.

Purpose & Content:

Currently, your readers are coming back to you because they would really like to know what conclusions you’ve reached about the critical inquiry question you have in common, now that you’ve had the opportunity to look at your research findings in their entirety. How are the different contexts related to each other? Are there trends or patterns across contexts? Contradictions? Controversies? What about employment trends related to the field? Based on your research, are there assumptions you’ve identified that should be challenged?  What implications do you see for someone at your stage of academic and professional development? Finally, your readers would be interested in how you plan to apply this information to your own academic and professional development, so that they can more fully understand the implications of your research findings and apply them to their personal situations.

This is not an analytical paper.   You are presenting information and drawing conclusions based on your research, but you are not tasked with providing a thesis statement.  You should have a clear purpose stated, but your aim is to show your audience the information you’ve collected this term and explore the contexts and trends in the field that you’ve discovered.  After presenting that information, you’ll want to discuss assumptions and implications you see and how this newfound information would affect your audience’s academic and career goals.

Purdue University has an excellent site that describes how to approach writing an exploratory essay. As you plan your paper, please use the Assignment Guidelines below in conjunction with the Purdue OWL sources on Organizing an Exploratory Essay, as well as other resources found on that website.  Remember: this is NOT a research paper- you are to EXPLORE the research you have compiled throughout this term and present it an organized and synthesized way.

Although there are many ways to write an essay like this, a sample of a strong Exploratory Essay can be found here . Any assignment submitted later than three days after the due date will receive a zero for the assignment.

• ALL essays should be formatted using APA style and in-text citations (or citation format used in your major or industry).
• You should include a Works Cited page or Bibliography
• Even though this is an exploratory, partially reflective, essay, it should use formal language and adhere to common grammatical and stylistic guidelines.

Exploratory Essay Guidelines

Area of Exploration: Your essay should focus on the following question: What current external factors impacting my field of study and its associated professions should inform the decisions of someone at my stage of academic and professional development?

Format: This essay should be 7-10 pages, double-spaced, with proper citations and a works cited page. It should be thorough, evaluative, well-written, and free of syntax and grammatical errors.

Outline: You may want to use the following outline and prompts to organize all the information you have gathered in the past few weeks. For information on grading, please consult the exploratory essay rubric.

Introduction:

Purpose, Audience & Context: Provide information and analysis about the larger context for your field of study and its associated professions to people at the same stage of academic and professional development as you are?

Keep in mind: This is an exploratory and evaluative assignment so a thesis/argument is not necessary, however the purpose of the assignment should be clear in the introduction.

• Discuss each of the contexts you explored in the research assignments and how they are related to each other.  This should not be a list, or copied from your Annotated Bibliography.  It should be in paragraph format with topic sentences and smooth transitions.

Influence of Context & Assumptions:

• Address your own assumptions about your field of study and its associated professions. What did you assume about the field before you started researching?  What do you find the most important aspects of the profession?
• Identify how contexts outside of higher education influence the study and/or practice of your field.
• Show how the different contexts are related to each other. Compare and contrast them.
• Discuss trends or patterns across contexts. Explain any contradictions or controversies you encountered in your research.
• Assess the employment trends related to the field.

Conclusions & Related Implications & Consequences:

• After presenting your research, draw any conclusions you’ve reached about the critical inquiry question.
• Identify the contexts outside of higher education that are most relevant for someone at your stage of academic and professional development.
• Discuss any implications you see for someone at your stage of academic and professional development or personal interest in the field.
• Based on your research, assess any assumptions you’ve identified that should be challenged.
• Show how you plan to apply this information to your own academic and professional development or personal interest, so that the audience can more fully understand the implications of your research findings and apply them to their personal situations.

References: Access and Use Information Ethically and Legally:

• Have you clearly identify information and ideas taken from outside sources though the use of citations?

Formatting the Exploratory Essay

Paper Length, Format & Citation of Sources

The body of your paper should be a minimum of 7-10 pages.

Your paper must align with the style guide used by your major: American Psychological Association (APA), Modern Language Association (MLA), or Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS). Use the following sample papers to ensure that you’re following the style conventions appropriately:

• Sample APA Paper,
• Sample MLA Paper,
• Sample Chicago-Style Paper.

For questions about citation format for the most common sources of information, you can begin with the CPS Library & Information Commons:

• Citation Resources.

For questions about citation format for sources that don’t exactly fit the customary models, consult the style manual or go to the applicable site below, and type your question in the search box. Chances are that someone else has already asked the question and received an answer:

• APA Style Blog,
• Ask the MLA ,
• Browse Q&A (Chicago Manual of Style).

Integrating Research Findings into the Exploratory Essay

The following link to the Excelsior Online Writing Lab (OWL) will take you to resources for paragraphing, summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting. The resources are intended for writing traditional research papers; however, they apply to our Exploratory Essay as well:

• Drafting & Integrating

CRIT 602 Readings and Resources Copyright © 2019 by Granite State College (USNH) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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2a. Critical Reading

An introduction to reading in college.

While the best way to develop your skills as a writer is to actually practice by writing, practicing critical reading skills is crucial to becoming a better college writer. Careful and skilled readers develop a stronger understanding of topics, learn to better anticipate the needs of the audience, and pick up sophisticated writing “maneuvers” and strategies from professional writing. A good reading practice requires reading text and context, which you’ll learn more about in the next section. Writing a successful academic essay also begins with critical reading as you explore ideas and consider how to make use of sources to provide support for your writing.

Questions to ask as you read

If you consider yourself a particularly strong reader or want to improve your reading comprehension skills, writing out notes about a text—even if it’s in shorthand—helps you to commit the answers to memory more easily. Even if you don’t write out all these notes, answering these basic questions about any text or reading you encounter in college will help you get the most out of the time you put into your reading. It will also give you more confidence to understand and question the text while you read.

• Is there  context  provided about the author and/or essay? If so, what stands out as important?

Context in this instance means things like dates of publication, where the piece was originally published, and any biographical information about the author. All of that information will be important for developing a critical reading of the piece, so track what’s available as you read.

• If you had to guess, who is the author’s intended  audience ? Describe them in as much detail as possible.

Sometimes the author will state who the audience is, but sometimes you have to figure it out by context clues, such as those you tracked above. For instance, the audience for a writer on  Buzzfeed  is very different from the audience for a writer for the  Wall Street Journal —and both writers know that, which means they’re more effective at reaching their readers. Learning how to identify your audience is a crucial writing skill for all genres of writing.

• In your own words, what is the  question  the author is trying to answer in this piece? What seems to have caused them to write in the first place?

In nonfiction writing of the kind we read in Writing 121, writers set out to answer a question. Their thesis/main argument is usually the answer to the question, so sometimes you can “reverse engineer” the question from that. Often, the question is asked in the title of the piece.

• In your own words, what’s the author’s  main   idea or argument ? If you had to distill it down to one or two sentences, what does the author want you, the reader, to agree with?

If you’ve ever had to write a paper for a class, you’re probably familiar with a thesis or main argument. Published writers also have a thesis (or else they don’t get published!), but sometimes it can be tricky to find in a more sophisticated piece of writing. Trying to put the main argument into your own words can help.

• How many  examples  and types of  evidence  did the author provide to support the main argument? Which examples/evidence stood out to you as persuasive?

It’s never enough to just make a claim and expect people to believe it—we have to support that claim with evidence. The types of evidence and examples that will be persuasive to readers depends on the audience, though, which is why it’s important to have some idea of your readers and their expectations.

• Did the author raise any  points of skepticism  (also known as counterarguments)? Can you identify exactly what page or paragraph where the author does this?

As we’ll see later when the writing process, respectfully engaging with points of skepticism and counterarguments builds trust with the reader because it shows that the writer has thought about the issue from multiple perspectives before arriving at the main argument. Raising a counterargument is not enough, though. Pay careful attention to how the writer responds to that counterargument—is it an effective and persuasive response?  If not, perhaps the counterargument has more merit for you than the author’s main argument.

• In your own words, how does the essay  conclude ? What does the author “want” from us, the readers?

A conclusion usually offers a brief summary of the main argument and some kind of “what’s next?” appeal from the writer to the audience. The “what’s next?” appeal can take many forms, but it’s usually a question for readers to ponder, actions the author thinks people should take, or areas related to the main topic that need more investigation or research. When you read the conclusion, ask yourself, “What does the author want from me now that I’ve read their essay?”

Reading Like Writers: Critical Reading

Reading as a creative act.

“The theory of books is noble. The scholar of the first age received into him the world around; brooded thereon; gave it the new arrangement of his own mind, and uttered it again. It came into him life; it went out from him truth. It came to him short-lived actions; it went out from him immortal thoughts. It came to him business; it went from him poetry. It was dead fact; now, it is quick thought. It can stand, and it can go. It now endures, it now flies, it now inspires. Precisely in proportion to the depth of mind from which it issued, so high does it soar, so long does it sing.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, “The American Scholar”

• Consider the  discourse community  when you read and write in your college classes
• Analyze any reading for  text and context
• Read like a writer so you can write for your readers

By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to apply the concept of  discourse community  to honing your college-level critical reading skills.

Good writers are good readers, so let’s start there. When you can confidently identify the  audience, context, and purpose of a text —position it within its discourse community—you’ll be a stronger, savvier reader.

Strong, savvy readers are more effective writers because they consider their own audience, context, and purpose when they write and communicate, which makes their writing clearer and to the point.

So the goal of this lesson is to help you read like a writer!

The Savvy Reader

Good writers are good readers! And good readers. . .

• get to know the author
• get to know the author’s community + audience
• accurately summarize the author’s argument
• look up terms you don’t know
• “listen” respectfully to the author’s point of view
• have a sense of the larger conversation
• think about other issues related to the conversation
• put it in current context
• analyze and assess the author’s reasoning, evidence, and assumptions

Why read critically?  While the best way to develop your skills as a writer is to actually practice by writing, practicing critical reading skills is crucial to becoming a better writer. Careful and skilled readers develop a stronger understanding of topics, learn to better anticipate the needs of the audience, and pick up writing “maneuvers” and strategies from professional writing.

Reading Like Writers

How do you read like a writer?  When you read like a writer, you are practicing deeper reading comprehension. In order to understand a text, you are reading not just what’s  in  it but what’s  around  it, too: text and context.

Practice: Reading Like Writers

In-class discussion : Advertisements are helpful for practicing reading like writers because advertisers make deliberate choices with text and images based on audience (target consumer), context (where they are reaching them), and purpose (buy this product).

• But I’m not trying to sell a product! How can I use my newfound understanding of audience, context, and purpose to improve my writing?

It’s true! You aren’t selling a product. You aren’t (I hope) trying to manipulate your audience. You aren’t relying on discriminatory assumptions or stereotypes to appeal to your audience. But when you write, let’s say, an essay, you are asking readers to “buy into” your point of view. The goal doesn’t have to be for them to agree with you; it can be for your readers to respectfully consider, understand, or sympathize with your point of view or analysis of an issue.  The point is you’re thinking of your reader when you write, and that will make your writing process smoother and your writing clearer.

Writing for Your Readers

When you write for your readers, you. . .

• Learn from your reading and communication experience:  What makes texts work? How are ideas conveyed clearly?
• Analyze the writing situation:  What are the goals and purpose for a writing project? Who is your audience?
• Explore and play as you draft:  What are different ways to respond? Can you use a better word or phrase?
• Consider your audience:  What might a reader expect to see? What does your reader need to understand your point of view? What questions might a reader have?

Writing as a process of inquiry

Just as you want your readers to take you seriously, you want to approach texts with an open and curious mind. Whatever the topic, it was important enough for this person to want to write on it. While we don’t have to agree with the point someone is making, we can respect their opinion and appreciate reading a different perspective.

Approach reading and writing in college in a learning zone.  Be open, be curious, ask questions, seek answers. Share, stretch, experiment.

Guides and Worksheets

• Use this guide for any of your college reading!
• Learn a basic study skill–annotating or taking notes on your readings

Critical Reading Guide: Text + Context

Title of the text:                                                                                  Author:

Reading the text: Comprehension

Main idea . In one sentence, summarize the main point or argument of the text.

Claim . Identify one claim in the text.

Key points . Paraphrase a key point, example, or passage that interested you.

Evidence . In your own words, describe 1-2 compelling examples or pieces of evidence that support the point/argument of the text.

Conclusion . What is the ultimate takeaway the text gives us on the topic/issue?

Personal experience . What is your experience of the topic? Have you had problems related to it?

Vocabulary . What is a word or phrase in the text you didn’t know? Look it up. What does it mean?

Inquiry . What is one thing you need more information about? Or, what is one question you have about the content of the text?

Reading for context: Rhetorical analysis

The author . Do an internet search on the author. What did you find out?

Ethos . Do you trust the author on the topic/issue? Why or why not?

Container . When and where was the text first published? Who will read/see it?

Audience . How does the author address or appeal to their readers? What tone does the author use in the text?

Bias . What knowledge, values, or beliefs does the author assume the reader shares?

Types of evidence . What types of evidence does the author use? Types of evidence include facts, examples, statistics, statements by authorities (references to or quotes from other sources), interviews, observations, logical reasoning, and personal experience

Structure . How does the author organize the text?

Purpose . What question does the author seek to answer in the text? In other words, why do you think they wrote this piece?

Mark-up Assignment: The Savvy Reader Practice

The object is to fill the empty space of the margins with your thoughts and questions to the text. By reading sympathetically (reading to understand what the writer is saying) and critically (reading to analyze and critique what the writer is saying), you are reading mindfully and creatively. You are finding those passages that you are drawn to, asking questions that you have, and beginning to develop your reaction, response, and ideas about a topic or issue. It’s a useful tool in the “getting started” phase of the writing process. Learning how to read effectively will be an invaluable skill in your college career and beyond because it means engaging in a task actively rather than passively.

Choose 1-2 paragraphs from READING X to fully annotate. This passage should be one that interests you, i.e. seems important, confusing, and/or prompted agreement, disagreement, or questions for you.

• Circle any word you think is crucial for the passage, including ones you cannot easily define.
• Underline phrases or images you think crucial for the meaning of the passage/essay.
• Put a bracket around ideas or assertions you find puzzling or questionable.
• Then write notes around the margins of the passage defining these terms, identifying the important ideas, or raising questions with the bracketed phrases. For each item you have circled, underlined, or bracketed, there should be a margin note. For this assignment, your margin notes should be substantive: they should meaty statements and full questions.

Photocopy or clear, legible photograph of paragraphs with your annotations or type up the paragraphs and annotate.

Writing as Inquiry Copyright © 2021 by Kara Clevinger and Stephen Rust is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Writing Program at New College

Elements of inquiry: reflection, critical thinking, and research.

Talking informally about their research, many scholars will share a personal connection to the work they do in their professional roles as teachers and researchers. That connection might be grounded in a sense of social responsibility, that is, some commitment to create change. They may talk about the way their research connects meaningfully with personal, family, or community history. It may also be that a scholar pursues a particular research topic because she, he, they find the subject intriguing.  A passion to understand drives research . Often we are curious and driven to know more about issues and questions for no obvious reason at all beyond  fascination .

Far from secondary or extracurricular, personal interests and connections to research can be a powerful pathway for learning and gaining knowledge. As you make your way through this course, we ask that you pursue  twin   paths of inquiry : a path of  reflection  and a path of  research . This course will encourage you down both, thinking and writing about the lived experience that have brought you to your current interests, and pursuing research understood more traditionally as the gathering, analysis, and integration of the work of other scholars and researchers. Both activities will take you on a search for information and knowledge. Click  here  to continue reading.

Critical Thinking: An Engine for Inquiry

You have probably heard teachers talk about “critical thinking” as a method of problem solving. At the risk of being repetitive we will briefly discuss the foundational importance of critical thinking here.

Critical thinking is the activity that joins reflection and research in a process of inquiry, a careful analysis of our own experience and knowledge undertaken even as we gather more information and increase our knowledge. Definitions abound, but we ask you to adopt this definition of critical thinking at least for the duration of this course:

Critical thinking is the habit or practice of non-prejudicial and uncompromising analysis and inquiry, thinking from multiple perspectives, and adopting positions in light of all available information.

But more than just accept this definition without question, let’s put the concept of Critical Thinking to work with you answering some questions found in the  Exercise Tab .

When you are finished, check out the video, titled simply “Critical Thinking.” It offers an extended overview of this important concept.

Reflection Begins with a Decision

Question:   How do you decide what issue to pursue as a topic for inquiry?

Answer:   Choose the one that has already  chosen you .

Some issues make a claim on our interest and grab our attention through the force of their importance. These issues have impact in our lives. There is no end to the variations on  “the call to write,” as scholar and writing teacher John Trimbur  has termed the motivating factors that get writers and researchers working.  [ Read more .]

Choose a Focus

So then, let’s decide: what is the issue? The problem? The occasion? What is the question to answer? What is the challenge to which we must respond individually, locally, as well as a broader society?  You must be the one who makes these decisions in the context of the research and writing for this course.  Therefore, as we have suggested, it is crucial that you choose something that holds real interest for you, something important that demands your attention. Here’s an idea: choose something to research that you would be interested in even if you were not enrolled in a writing course!

Of course, it is impossible to officially require that students care about their work, but we offer this choice as an opportunity for you to experience how your own personal interests can be your guide to important research and writing. Our classroom community is the space in which you can follow your own interests with support, collaboratively.

When you are ready, please proceed to the  Exercise Tab.

Research and Inquiry

What academics include in their definition of  research  will vary from discipline to discipline. In some sciences, laboratory experimentation is a primary form of research, but those experiments will be different depending on the science. Some social scientists—sociologists or anthropologists, for example—often conduct extensive interviews or “ethnographies” to gather information about the experience, attitudes, or way of life among a particular segment of the population. This form of research requires methods of analysis entirely different from those of researchers in the “hard sciences” of biology, chemistry, physics, etc. Scholars in the humanities undertake other research methodologies. Historians and literary critics employ specific kinds of reading methodologies to interpret “primary texts,” perhaps hard copies aging somewhere in an archive, perhaps digitized and readily available.

You get the point;  research  is not a single activity. Research practices are multiple and adaptable.

A common and fundamental element unites most research methodologies, however. Academic research is driven by questions. These questions emerge around gaps or problems within the overall body of knowledge that makes up a discipline. This kind of research question focuses on how to build on and correct previous scholarship.

Research questions also emerge in direct response to situations “in the real world,” for there isn’t much truth to the old stereotype that academic researchers are cut off from reality and work among abstract ideas in the “ivory tower.” Certainly, we hope your direction for inquiry will be “worldly,” so to speak, engaging issues all the more important for their immediate relevance in the social world.

Whatever the focus, the time for developing research questions has arrived.

Formulating a Research Question

One way to summarize the difference between high school and college work is that in high school you were trained to answer questions that were put to you. As a student in the university, you must decide which questions are most important to ask, and more, which are most important to pursue with all your intellectual energy.

Carefully posing questions is a very important activity for academic researchers, the ranks of whom you have now joined. A research question emerges from interest and necessity and points to the direction further inquiry will take. But as your work in the previous section brainstorming possible topics suggests, coming up with a research question capable of moving you in a clear direction of inquiry will also take time and careful thought. 

This is why we believe that the questioning process must precede the answering process. While students are often told to begin research projects with a thesis statement, that is, the main claim they will support with their research, our point is that before a student can arrive at a thesis, she or he must first gather strong knowledge and certainty about a topic in order even to conceive of let alone argue a thesis.  Again, a process of inquiry is first necessary.[ Read More .]

Revising the Research Question

Once you receive feedback from your classmates, teacher, and others, you will be in a place where you can revise your research question. Remember that the final decision is yours. You will have to decide which advice for revision to take and which to ignore. However, we offer the following questions for you to consider as you revise:

• Is there agreement among your readers that your research question is too broad?
• Have you been good advice for narrowing your research question, or can you think of a good way to focus the question?
• Is there a consensus among readers that your research question is too narrow? What ideas do you have for making it more general?
• Have you received feedback that suggests you have some misunderstanding of the issue at hand?
• Have your readers provided you with specifics about what it is you misunderstand?
• Did you receive comments about the clarity of your question? Were your readers specific about how to clarify your statement of the question?

After reviewing your initial research question, all of the response initiated by this question, as well as your answers to the above questions, you are ready to move from working exercises to a formal presentation of your Research Question.

You can access the full assignment description  here .

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Introduction

Sarah Johnson; Beth Caruso; and Nic Learned

Welcome to College Composition: An introductory letter to students

Nobody majors in College Composition. Why is that?

The homework is one possible answer: there tends to be a lot of it, and it tends to require a different kind of engagement than the homework you might do in your other classes. For instance, when asked to simply read from a history textbook, you need only remember key information. And in disciplines like math, there’s typically a clear right or wrong answer. But with writing, there is no clear path–no prescription telling you exactly what to say or how to say it. Instead, you have to wrestle with the material, and you have to push yourself to think thoughts that nobody has ever thought before.

But the main reason that nobody majors in College Composition is likely that with the exception of torturing students teaching, there’s no career in it. Honestly, when is the last time you heard a parent or friend say to someone, “Hey, I have some College Composition work I need done. Do you know anybody who does a good job and won’t overcharge me?”

So why are you here? Why are you spending time on something that requires about as much effort as anything else you will do in college? There are two reasons:

First, nearly every other major in college will require writing. That idea is an easy sell for text-heavy disciplines like history, psychology, religion, etc.. But for those of you math types—who see numbers as truth and the words that surround them as fluffy stuff—it can be a bit tougher to see how the ability to write well is necessary for you to succeed in your courses. We must admit that at first, it might not be. But as you progress through your major, you will find that writing becomes an increasingly integral part of your work—the part where you explain to us numbers-impaired folks what all those crazy equations mean and why we should care about them. Similarly, you aspiring engineers will have to explain how your work can be lucrative to investors, just as you cyber-security folks will need to convince your clients that you know what you’re doing.

The second (and more important) reason that you are here has to do with what makes writing such an energy-consuming task in the first place: writing the way you will be expected to write in this course requires creating knowledge and perspective that is new, which means going beyond memorizing facts, repeating the perspectives of experts, or regurgitating what your teacher said the day before. It means transitioning from passively consuming information to actively constructing it—from being on the receiving end of the knowledge that others have created to being a creator of knowledge yourself. All majors in college share this central aim for you to transition from simply learning about their discipline to actually contributing to it, though it may not be apparent in your first and second-year courses. And that is why you are here: to learn to become a critical contributor to a knowledge-making community, a quality that you will need, not only to succeed in your chosen major, but also to succeed in your chosen profession, and more broadly, to contribute to society actively and constructively. In a sense, it is less accurate to say that nobody majors in College Composition and more accurate to say that everyone does.

And so, the emphasis in this course won’t be learning how to construct grammatically-correct sentences (though grammar is part of it), nor will it be learning how to write the perfect five-paragraph essay (honestly, you can forget everything you’ve learned about those); instead, the emphasis will be learning how to contribute to a knowledge-making community—communities like the ones you will encounter in your other courses, regardless of discipline, but which you will also encounter in the professional and civic contexts you hope to be a part of after you leave college. In a nutshell, you are here to learn how to use the writing process to create knowledge and perspective that is useful to you and others. 

Asking Questions

What do you learn about in a course that aims to help you transition from passively receiving knowledge to playing an active role in its creation? What concepts, skills, etc. comprise the central content of such a course? And most importantly, what will you have to learn to pass it?

The shortest possible answer to those questions: critical inquiry .

What is critical inquiry? If you ask 20 different instructors of College Composition to define it, you will likely get 20 different answers (we did and we did), but that transition from passively receiving knowledge to actively creating it begins now, so at some point, you will have to work out your own understanding, and yet you might take comfort in the fact that there are many acceptable definitions.

For now, it is enough to note the word, “inquiry,” which connotes asking questions and seeking something that is not already known. And the word, “critical,” which is not really negative in this sense but instead refers to critical thinking, which itself entails reflection, evaluation, and looking at an issue from multiple perspectives. As a process, Critical Inquiry thus begins with questions, it examines, engages, and evaluates others’ responses to those questions, and it results in the writer putting forward a provisional but informed response to his/her/their original research questions. This response should be useful to the writer, personally, but should also be useful to other researchers and stakeholders addressed or affected by the research topic.

In this course, you will thus learn to form questions and to use those questions to drive your research, your writing, and ultimately, what you contribute to the conversations taking place among people currently doing research around the areas you’re interested in.

In practice, and as you apply these lessons, we’ll ask you to let go of the myth (or dream) of a perfect first draft – a final product that sounds great and that you write, sentence by painstaking sentence, the first time you sit down to work on it. In fact, most of your teachers (and most creative writers and professional writers) know that when they sit down to tackle a serious writing project, they are going to produce a bit of a mess – a collection of ideas, perhaps, some interesting paragraphs, maybe, but certainly not a completed product. Instead, experienced writers seem to recognize that when we write, we’re writing to ourselves first, we’re figuring out our ideas and only starting to properly arrange them. We know that the thesis might still be a bit unclear, we know that we’re still learning and thinking about things – this is critical inquiry in action.

Knowing that the first draft will never be the final draft, well, it takes the pressure off. We can sit down, get started, trust that we’ll return later, and not worry so much about picking every “right” word or “sounding good.” Revisiting the draft, taking breaks, revising after getting feedback, these are all steps that will make the writing experience less stressful and, most likely, more successful. That’s what happens when we treat writing (and learning and critical inquiry and research in general) as a process.

In service of that process, you will learn about a few other things along the way:

• The reading process will help you read sophisticated texts in sophisticated ways.
• The writing process will help you produce sophisticated texts of your own through brainstorming, pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing.
• Information literacy will help you to locate sources who have done research on the topics that matter to you, and it will help you to know which kinds to use and in what ways.
• Rhetoric —the study of persuasive writing, speech, and/or other media—will help you better understand the audiences, purposes, and contexts of those sources, and it will help you make strategic composing decisions in light of your own audiences, purposes, and contexts.
• Argument will help you analyze the arguments of your sources and will help you compose effective arguments of your own–arguments that will constitute your contribution to the conversations taking place among your sources.
• Genre will help you compose with mindfulness that the texts you read and the texts you write are always read through readers’ expectations.
• Academic writing conventions will help you write with fluency in the forms that you will use in your other courses and will give you experience contributing actively to a knowledge-making community.
• Multimodality will help you compose traditional and non-traditional texts with awareness of the ways in which non-alphabetic factors shape readers’ understanding of texts.
• Structure, grammar, and mechanics will help you to produce clear, cohesive, and sophisticated writing (as appropriate to your rhetorical situation).

That is an imposing and potentially intimidating list, but this text and your instructor will guide you through these skills that, we argue, are in fact quite natural to humans, who are inherently social, chatty beings, and for whom consuming and composing text is almost second-nature.

How This Course Will Benefit You

Here, at Howard Community College, we have seven learning objectives for this course.

 Learning Objectives for College Composition

• Construct texts by working through varying stages of the writing process.
• Demonstrate awareness of audience, purpose, and context through making informed decisions about forms of appeal, style, genre, and modality.
• Exhibit knowledge of writing conventions related to expectations such as clarity, cohesion, organization, paragraph structure, grammar, and mechanics.
• Maintain a controlling purpose for research and writing that emerges from a clearly-defined research question.
• Locate, evaluate, and integrate appropriate sources accurately and fairly through paraphrase and direct quotation.
• Critically engage sources through interpretation, analysis, and/or critique in service of developing and supporting logical, well-defined claims.
• Document sources with in-text and works cited citations following current MLA, APA, or Chicago Manual of Style guidelines or other methods as appropriate to the rhetorical situation.

These course objectives, we like to point out to students, are written to a specific audience—namely, teachers of college composition and the different institutions our students might transfer to (so this course might satisfy another school’s required first-year composition course).

With that in mind, we think that it’s important that you, as the student of this course, start to think about what these objectives actually mean to you so you know what to expect and so you’re prepared to be actively involved in the different activities in the course.

Furthermore, as we pointed out earlier – all students, at some point in their college careers, will benefit from a healthy toolbox of strategies and tools for sophisticated reading and writing tasks, so in order to be a metacognitive (self-aware) and active learner , a great place to start is to break down these objectives and reconsider them in your own language.

There’s been a subset of research in the field of rhetoric and composition that looks at writing across disciplines (fields of study) or writing across curricula / contexts. Among other things, scholars study the role of writing in different types of classes and how the concepts and tools that students learn (or don’t learn) in a writing class will transfer (or not) into their other classes. So how will this course benefit you? We think it will help you in all of your classes and in many other facets of your life: personal and professional, as well as academic.

When we talk about critical inquiry, we’re talking about the process of making meaning out of complicated and sometimes confusing or contradictory information (Objectives #6 and #4) in order to learn and understand issues you’re curious about. Many students have told us that learning to be more intentional and savvy researchers has changed the way they retrieve and process information in their classes and when they’re doing their own, personal, research.

Another of the major lessons we want students to take away from this course is that “good” writing may look very different from one setting or assignment to the next (this is a key part of Objective #3). And we remind students that many of them will develop a great deal of skills (and confidence) as they work their way through higher level courses if and when they can build on the concepts and ideas about writing we study in our course (Objective #2).

So, what good is a 100-level course? Well, in this course, you can learn certain habits to cultivate, certain steps or processes to work through, and certain questions to ask when faced with new or difficult writing tasks. In fact, there’s a researcher in our field, David Russell, who has a great metaphor about writing skills and the limiting notion that there are strict writing “rules” or “tools” that will help a student throughout all their future writing tasks. We’ll simplify this a bit, but Russell basically points out that if you’re good at one kind of sport (say football), you have certain “ball-handling” skills that likely make you so good at that sport. But if you were to try to apply those same skills to a game of ping-pong or golf, you’re not likely to be as successful, right?

Similarly, you’ll learn as we study texts in this class, there can be just as big a difference among a successful paragraph on a resume, one in a short news article, or one in a well-researched, “academic” argument essay. It may be a bummer that we can’t teach you the “rules” of “good” writing. But what we can explore in our College Composition course are the right kinds of questions and considerations to pose and evaluate that will help you better understand how start to write when you’re given new tasks in the future (Objectives #1-#4).

What to Expect

Students, we’ve learned, hate “busy work” and often just want to know “how long it has to be.” Students also prefer clear guidelines for homework assignments, and they seem to really love a detailed rubric.

Well: we have some good news and some “bad” news:

First, the good news : basically, if you treat all of the assignments in this course seriously–that is, if you tackle them thoughtfully and produce meaningful texts for all of the activities you’re assigned–you’ll be building your major assignments step-by-step so that you’ll never have to cram, rush, and pull an “all-nighter” starting from scratch. Phew, right?

More good news : we use Canvas assignments and modules in Canvas to present and collect all of the resources you’ll need to be successful in this course. We’ll present detailed assignments with what we believe to be clear and detailed instructions – it’s just up to you to 1) keep on top of your assignments, their due dates, and their expectations 2) learn how to navigate Canvas and check your HCC email for announcements, and 3) ask for clarification and help when you need it (including reaching out to HCC campus resources like tutoring at the Composition and Literature Center or the Learning Assistance Center!).

And the “bad” news? Well, sometimes you might come across assignments that aren’t so clear-cut, or that have less detailed instructions than you’re used to seeing. Or, you may be assigned an essay that contains a holistic, comprehensive rubric rather than a point-by-point rubric. While this might feel a bit unsettling at first, think of it this way: you’re actually being empowered . When an assignment has fewer criteria, it can feel a lot less limiting, and you’ve been given an opportunity to own it. So, take the reins, think critically, be creative, and explore new possibilities with your coursework. That said, keep in mind that it’s perfectly normal to feel stuck or confused from time to time . If you’d like clarification on an assignment, don’t be afraid to send your professor a message in Canvas; your active engagement with the course material will surely impress them!

A note on your homework for this course:

Thinking is invisible. Unlike training as an athlete, running laps or lifting weights, where you can measure your pace, your times, and your actual improvements, thinking—and growing as a thinker–isn’t quite as visible. So in college, when you’re told you should likely spend 3 or more hours working outside of class for every hour that a class actually meets, this is when the invisible thinking happens. Now, rereading an article over and over and never feeling like you’re making progress is a terrible feeling. Much like the pressure or stress of sitting in front of a blank word document and trying to come up with a great opening line. If you aren’t making progress, or don’t feel like you’re making progress, it can be easy to want to give up or just turn in what seems to meet the bare minimum. However, spending time working through difficult texts will actually help you process and understand those texts when you have the right set of tools—questions that help you analyze and take that text apart, for example, will help you make the time you spend on your homework more meaningful and useful!

What does this thinking look like in action? Your teacher is probably going to ask you to reflect, to explain, to analyze multiple different assignments. First, make sure you understand what is being asked of you by these different instructions (reflect – reexamine and reevaluate; explain – take the ideas and concepts and put them in your own words, clarify the ideas, take time to fully process them; analyze – identify different parts of a text, perhaps, and try to understand it more fully by evaluating or processing those different parts). Secondly, set out to meet those instructions fully by working through assignments in steps, using plenty of details and examples to support your ideas and your claims, and writing clearly so your ideas are fully understood by your reader – your teacher or other students.

The Role of Sources

In this course, you’ll be working with a variety of sources . Sources come in many forms. Many sources are text based– articles, interviews, and the like–while others rely on visual communication (photos, graphics, etc.). Often, you’ll find that online sources, such as websites, contain a combination of text and images. Expect to encounter sources on a regular basis in your assignments. For example, you might have a homework assignment that asks you to read and respond to an article, or you may be tasked with writing an essay that involves conducting online research.

Things to Remember When You’re Working with Sources

• Consider your intentions. Sometimes, your purpose will be to find sources that support your specific claims and ideas. In these situations, sources should be chosen wisely and with a specific purpose in mind. Knowing why you’re using a source often influences how effectively you can integrate that source into your writing.
• At the same time, be open to a variety of perspectives. When possible, try not to limit yourself to a fixed list of sources, and resist the urge to go hunting only for information that confirms your predetermined ideas. Instead, allow for possibilities that you hadn’t considered, and aim to investigate and articulate your own perspective as you interact with the perspectives of sources.
• Have conversations with your sources. Your relationship with a given source should resemble a dialogue. Don’t just take a source at face value. Rather than positioning your sources as unquestioned authorities, or as backup that “proves” your argument, approach them with a critical eye, ask questions, and comment on what they say, using “I” statements to distinguish your perspective from theirs (yes, you can use “I”!).
• Be a responsible researcher. The sources that you choose should be credible, reliable, and unbiased. You’ll learn more about this as you practice evaluating sources throughout this course.

How to Succeed: Metacognition and Meaningful Engagement

Meta, basically, means an awareness of something.

Cognition has to do with thinking and understanding.

So metacognition is an awareness of your own learning, thinking, and comprehension – being metacognitive means you’re being a self-aware student. Teachers assign metacognitive assignments to help students pause and take stock of both their processes and their products, what they’re producing in their classes. These are often reflection assignments, as in: reflect on major concepts from our first unit – what concepts did you learn and which ones were you best able to apply to your own work?

We’ve already talked about how you’ll be engaged in the act of making meaning and contributing to conversations through Critical Inquiry in this course, but you’ll also want to pay attention to yourself—how you’re developing strengths and recognizing weaknesses in your work habits, your writing processes, and in your final products. You’ll reflect metacognitively on your reading and your writing.

Reflecting on your reading will help you determine which strategies are most effective for increasing your reading comprehension. As a successful college reader, you will need to adjust your use of reading strategies depending on the difficulty of the text and your purpose for reading it. Having a toolbox of reading strategies that work well for you will help you successfully monitor your comprehension and troubleshoot problems as they arise. You will want to continue to identify and strengthen the strategies that are working best for you and eliminate the ones that are least effective.

As a writer, reflecting will help you pay attention to your progress, your struggles, your strengths, and your weaknesses. Additionally, by considering different assignments and tasks (in this course and across courses) you will be more likely to transfer your learning and find similarities across assignments that help you to be more prepared and more confident.

Once you start recognizing patterns, hiccups, problems, solutions, and good questions to ask yourself, you’ll be more involved in your learning–and you’ll be better prepared to tackle more challenging assignments. Remember: learning takes time. Everyone has to struggle through difficult tasks. What matters in the end is that we can look back and see how we were able to conquer those challenges–what tools we used and what strategies we employed.

Finally, much of what separates those who succeed in College Composition from those who don’t is just plain doing the work. Some of you are already strong writers, others not so much, but regardless of performance in your previous courses, the content of this course is likely almost entirely new, which means that those of you who were successful in the past will still have much to learn, while those who may have struggled will suddenly find yourselves on a more level playing field. The assignment prompts, for example, will ask you to do things in writing that you’ve likely never been asked to do before, and even the prompts themselves might be difficult to understand at first. In such moments, it helps to focus on the operations–on action words like “reflect,” “analyze,” and “compose.” But it also helps to plan in advance for the fact that the writing task is never as simple as it first appears, so leaving yourself ample time to complete the assignments is the first step. In general, whether you are a strong reader and writer or an aspiring one, success in this course requires consistent engagement and presence, keeping up with the assignments, and taking advantage of the resources available to you, such as conferencing with your instructor and visiting the Composition and Literature Center.

Accelerated Learning Program (ALP)

ALP courses are designed to allow students who qualify, to skip the developmental writing or reading course and move directly into college composition, saving those students both time and money by allowing them to complete their academic credits faster. ALP differs from the traditional college composition course in that students meet for four hours a week instead of three. The extra hour of instruction will help students master academic writing skills. Students in ALP cover the same topics and adhere to the same requirements as students in traditional college composition courses, including formal arguments, documentation, and research. If you are not currently enrolled in an ALP section but think you might benefit from doing so, speak to your instructor within the first week of class.

English as a Second Language (ESL)

ESL sections of English 121 are designed for students who are multilingual and speak English as a second or other language. ESL sections of ENGL 121 have the same course content as other sections of ENGL 121 (and there is no distinction on the transcript), but the ESL sections are designed and taught by instructors specialized in second-language instruction. ESL sections (with sufficient enrollment) also utilize a lab instructor, who offers additional support and feedback. If you are not currently enrolled in an ESL section but think you might benefit from doing so, speak to your instructor within the first week of class.

About This Text

This textbook is an Open Educational Resource (OER). OERs are typically authored by several contributors, who have compiled and remixed content from various sources. What does that mean for you? Well, it means that you’re being provided with some of the most relevant and helpful content, which has been hand-picked to give you the best possible learning experience. As you make your way through this textbook, you’ll notice that the chapters and sections often vary by author, style, length, and format. Just like your favorite customized beverage at the local coffee shop, this textbook has been tailored to meet your interests and needs so that you can be successful in College Composition.

Speaking of success…to get the most of this textbook, you are encouraged to be an active reader and thinker. What does it mean to be an active reader? Simply put, an active reader engages, reacts to, and interacts with a text in meaningful ways. While reading, an active reader thinks critically, asks questions, and reacts to what the text says both implicitly and explicitly.

One of the most effective strategies for active reading is to annotate , or mark up the text as you read. Annotating helps you to make important connections that enhance your understanding of the material and help you retain what you have learned. You may already have some familiarity and perhaps even some prior experience with annotation. Highlighting, underlining, and circling key words and phrases, writing notes on the page — if you’ve ever done these things, you’ve annotated a text!

Following are our recommendations for how to annotate this textbook.

If You’d Like to Annotate On Your Screen:

• Using your device, navigate to https://pressbooks.howardcc.edu/criticalreadingcriticalwriting/ . Select “Download this book” and a drop-down menu will appear. The drop-down menu contains a list of format options for downloading the textbook.
• From the drop-down menu, select the format option that is best suited for your device. Here are some tips for choosing a suitable format from the drop-down menu:
• If you have a computer that contains Adobe Acrobat DC or a similar PDF editing application, select Digital PDF .
• The EPUB and MOBI formats are supported by many devices, including mobile phones, tablets (such as iPad), and eReaders (such as Kindle and Nook). Some devices allow for read-only by default, so you may need to obtain an additional application that will allow you to edit the textbook file.

After you download and open the textbook on your device, use your application’s built-in tools to highlight key content and add your own notes to refer back to later. Tip: In addition to annotating directly on the page, it’s a great idea to jot down notes in a separate notebook or document.

Note: Check with your instructor to see whether they have a preferred annotation method that they recommend. For instance, if your instructor has provided access to a web-based annotation application , such as hypothes.is or NowComment, you can use that application to annotate the textbook directly in your web browser.

If You’d Prefer to Annotate on Paper:

• From the drop-down menu, select the Print_PDF format option to download the printable textbook. Tip: Before printing, check to be sure that you have enough ink and paper in your printer!

If you don’t have access to a printer, you can order a printed copy of this textbook for a reasonable fee. To do this, navigate to https://pressbooks.howardcc.edu/criticalreadingcriticalwriting/ , select the “Buy Book” link, and follow the prompts to purchase a printed copy of the textbook.

This chapter, “Welcome to College Composition,” by Elizabeth Caruso, Sarah Johnson, and Nicholas Learned, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Critical Reading, Critical Writing Copyright © 2021 by Sarah Johnson; Beth Caruso; and Nic Learned is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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The Critical Inquiry Process

The critical inquiry process by dr. lance grigg.

• a. Guiding questions for teacher:

i. What is the issue to be explored?

ii. How can I translate that issue into a critical inquiry question (hereafter: CIQ)?

iii. What are some relevant related questions that will help my students address that CIQ?

• (pages 3-6)
• *Teacher note:

i. While the teacher prepares critical inquiry and related questions beforehand, it is best to brainstorm them with the entire class.

ii. Important planning note: within the unit, each individual lesson’s focus is a relatedquestion the students answer in order to address the CIQ.

i. What are my students’ working resolutions to the CIQ at this time?

• working resolutions, and
• two or three supporting reasons (premises)

i. argument mapping will help students complete this task: http://www.jostwald.com/ArgumentMapping/ARGUMENT%20MAPPING.pdf

i. Formative assessment opportunity: after the brainstorming session, students individually complete their argument maps, and hand them in at the end of class.

• This offers the teacher a way of seeing whether or not the students have constructed an actual argument; one with a conclusion and supporting reasons (premises).

ii. At this point, the teacher should do explicit instruction in basic argument identification.

i. What information do my students need to address the unit’s CIQ and its related questions?

ii. Where might my students find that information?

iii. How can I help my students best organize that information?

• Note-taking templates
• Retrieval charts
• Concept maps

i. All class materials need to be prepared beforehand.

ii. Also, as formative assessment, the teacher should take in a sample of retrieval charts and concept maps to ensure students are on the right track, especially at the beginning and mid-point of the unit.

i. What did my students learn that could help them resolve the CIQ?

• Ask students to refer to information recorded on retrieval charts and note-taking templates.

i. Again, while the teacher prepares the relevant information beforehand, it is best to have students share the information they’ve retrieved in a large group discussion.

ii. Any relevant information not shared in that discussion should be provided by the teacher.

i. How does this new information impact my students’ working resolution to the CIQ?

• working resolution to the CIQ
• supporting reasons for that working resolution (premises)

ii. Have my students’ re-constructed argument maps based on new knowledge?

• Students should be revising their earlier working resolutions to the CIQ.
• Teacher note:

i. As a formative assessment opportunity, the teacher takes in revised argument maps to ensure students are making apt revisions.

ii. At this stage, the teacher should do explicit instruction in argument identification and assessment (validity, soundness and basic formal and informal fallacies)

• See: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/phil/logic3/ch5/

iii. Note: explicit use of intellectual standards is useful when helping students revise their argument maps.

• See: http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/universal-intellectual-standards/527

i. What written products do I want my students producing in order to communicate their working resolutions to the CIQ?

• 1. For example: 5 paragraph essay, position paper, blog, Op-Ed piece in a newspaper, etc.
• b. *Teacher note:

i. Teachers should take in students’ argument maps along with their text-based assignments.

i. How can my students show others those written products?

• Class presentation
• Poster session
• Small-group sharing sessions
• Blog activity

i. What further issues need to be resolved?

ii. How might my students go about resolving them?

iii. What further questions need to be raised and answered?

• b. *Teacher Note:

i. The teacher brainstorms questions and issues with the entire class but should prepare a list of related questions and issues beforehand.

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101 Student Inquiry Essay Examples

Community destruction in north dakota oil boomtowns.

Katharine Berry

Jonnie Cassens is a truck driver who hoped that her move to a North Dakota oil boomtown would help her recover from her previous life in California. In the documentary “Running on Fumes in North Dakota,” she explains how the lifestyle emerging from North Dakota’s rapid oil boom isn’t as glamorous as it is often portrayed; in fact, it is a dirty and unpleasant life. Jonnie’s move from California has left her isolated and lonely with no one to turn to for support or companionship. She expresses her longing for a female friend to “gossip with” or someone she can “get a pedicure with,” but the oil boom has created a society dominated by men and a fractured community (Christenson). Jonnie may be physically alone, but she is not alone in her feeling that the oil boom has resulted in isolation and loneliness. Life-long residents and brand new residents of boomtowns fear the crime, prostitution, and influx of drugs that oil has drawn to North Dakota, and workers often face brutal conditions (Stewart). The unreliable and temporary nature of the North Dakota oil boom has disrupted the existing communities in this region and created deep divisions, preventing new communities from forming. Ultimately, the oil boom undermines community in all forms.

The cohesive rural communities that existed near oil reserves in North Dakota have disintegrated and been destroyed by the nature of the oil boom in the region (Brown). The rapid population flood has created problems of supply and demand in many aspects, especially in relation to housing. There is a great need for housing in the oil boomtowns but little availability, which drives up rent to prices approaching those in urban San Francisco (Warren). These extreme rent increases have made it difficult for many long-time residents to continue to afford their homes and many families are forced to find new housing outside of the region (Stewart). In New Town, North Dakota, a large trailer park, Prairie Winds, which has been home to several Native American tribes for decades, epitomizes this problem. The trailer parks’ new owner raised rents and evicted the long-term residents in order to provide housing for oil workers (Mufson). The original residents were left without roofs over their heads, and unfortunately this type of community destruction is not uncommon. As the oil boom drives housing prices up, families and loved ones are split up. Due to the limited availability of housing in the region, many people leave the area completely. These drastic rent increases have not only taken residents’ housing but their sense of home as well. To make matters worse, the history of oil booms in the region—which features promises of great success followed by sudden failures that leave the state in debt—has left many people skeptical, including construction developers. Since the construction industry anticipates that the region’s oil supply will eventually run out, no new housing is being built to ameliorate the housing crisis. Therefore, the high demand for housing will continue and long-term residents will be driven further from their communities.

Additionally, among residents who try to take advantage of the conditions the boom has created, there is a general consensus that the profit is not worth the trouble (Mufson). Some residents have leased out their land and minerals in exchange for a profit from the oil companies; however, the oil companies have caused physical destruction to residents’ property, leaving them disappointed and angry (Stone). In an interview with a North Dakota native published by  The Washington Post , Donnie Nelson reflects on the two oil rigs on his property: “‘I don’t like what it’s done for our communities and lifestyle,’ he said. ‘We had a good life, and now it’s gone forever, or at least for my lifetime’” (Mufsan). He also reports that he would “‘give it all back for the trouble it’s been’” (Mufsan). Bert Hauge, another long-time resident, has large trenches on his property and cows with serious health problems as a result of the boom (Stone). These residents are left disapproving and discontented with the oil boom. North Dakotans remain skeptical that the promises of twenty years of success from this boom will become a reality, and instead believe that this boom will follow the limited course of previous booms (Lindholm). This bitterness has turned existing communities into a group of isolated individuals. No matter what their situation,  all long-time North Dakotans share one commonality: they miss the time, before the oil boom, when communities “didn’t lock their doors and knew all their neighbors” (Mufson). While long-term residents in North Dakota have felt their communities disintegrate, employers in the oil industry have simultaneously prevented new communities from forming. This has resulted in deep divisions between employers and employees and further divisions among employees themselves. The “suits” (as the oil industry employers are called) have dehumanized workers and created an animal kingdom of men. They have mistreated men by implementing long hours and challenging and dirty work (Gale). Employees of the oil industry are on a schedule of approximately twelve-hour workdays for two weeks straight followed by two weeks of no work, but there is some degree of scheduling uncertainty, and sudden decisions often change schedules at the last minute (Chaudhry). These conditions create the sense of a temporary and easily replaceable environment, implying that the employees are inferior to the “suits.” With uncaring employers, there is a certain degree of animosity that allows workers to be deindividualized and take on the role of “rough and tumble oil worker” (Gale). Most workers are away from their homes and families and remain free of ties to any community in the region; occasionally workers act without being held accountable. This misbehavior has resulted in rising crime and drug use, problems that continue to grow (Healy).

There might be potential for workers to bond over their dehumanization, loneliness and desire for success, but because of the limited resources in the region, workers must compete, making the formation of community impossible. The housing scarcity has created massive competition between workers over housing (Chaudhry). Temporary man-camps of workers are now abundant, along with RV neighborhoods and thousands of vehicles that have been transformed into homes (Sulzberger). This competition is a free-for-all, and men who cannot find anything substantial have resorted to anything that will be sufficient for a temporary residence. With the harsh winters, some workers are finding it difficult to even stay alive. The inflation in the region also makes eating at restaurants practically impossible (Chaudhry). In a society with so many workers in the same situation, new communities could practically fall into place, but these workers face such a range of harsh conditions and obtaining basic requirements like housing and food take precedence over forming new communities.

The undermining of community caused by the oil industry in North Dakota isn’t the state or nation’s primary concern, and it is obvious that the economic benefits resulting from the boom are overwhelming. This oil boom could bring energy independence to the United States, which some might argue is sufficient reason to overlook community destruction. However, the oil boom has also brought health risks and environmental disturbances. Do the economic benefits outweigh the environmental, health and community drawbacks of oil boomtowns? Workers begin to wonder if leaving their families and homes for an uncertain amount of time, facing hard and lonely conditions, and performing dangerous work is really worth the extra income they will make. Others may wonder if the extreme yet temporary success of the oil industry in the region should be unthinkingly prioritized, especially given the destruction to the family land of native North Dakotans.

Is the temporary success of these modern boomtowns worth the potential long-term consequences they bring? As long as the boom benefits the nation as a whole, it is unlikely that there will be any changes to the industry, which leaves the residents of these North Dakota boomtowns more lonely and isolated than ever with no definite end in sight. This leaves residents like Jonnie Cassens in her trailer, which has no running water or toilet—and instead of confiding and bonding with a friend, the only relationship she has is with her dog.

Works Cited

Brown, Chip. “North Dakota Went Boom.” The New York Times. 31 Jan. 2013. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.

Chaudhry, Mat.  Northern Utopia: Rebirth of American Dream: North Dakota Oil Employment.  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013. Kindle.

Christenson, James, Eliot Popko, Jonah Sargent, and Lewis Wilcox. “Running on Fumes in North Dakota.” The New York Times. 13 Jan 2014. Web. 13 Apr 2014. Video.

Cohen, Sharon. “Trying to Combat Growing Drug Trade in Oil Patch.” The Washington Post. 14 Apr 2014. Web. 24 Apr 2014.

Sweet Crude Man Camp. Dir. Gale, Isaac. Prod. Alec Soth. From: Life Inside an Oil Boom. The New York Times. 8 Feb 2013. Web. 13 Apr 2014. Documentary.

Greenwald, Judy. “Rail Risks Expand As  Oil Shipments Boom.” Business Insurance 48.5 (2014): 0013.  Business Source Complete . Web. 31 Mar. 2014.

Healy, Jack. “As Oil Floods Plains Towns, Crime Pours In.” The New York Times. 30 Nov 2013. Web. 13 Apr 2014.

Lindholm, Meg. “Flock to North Dakota Oil Town Leads to Housing Crisis.”  All Things Considered.  National Public Radio. 28 May 2010. Web. 6 Apr 2014. Transcript.

Mufson, Steven. “In North Dakota, The Gritty Side of an Oil Boom.”

The Washington Post. 18 July 2012. Web. 24 Apr 2014.

Oldham, Jennifer. “North Dakota Oil Boom Brings Blight With Growth as Cost Soar.” Bloomberg. 24 Jan. 2012. Web. 29 Mar. 2014.

Schultz, E J. “Williston: The Town the Recession Forgot.” Advertising Age, 82.39, 31 Oct. 2011: 1. Web. 5 April 2014.

Stewart, Dan. “North Dakota: Trouble in Boomtown.” The Week. 19 Sept. 2013. Web. 29 Mar 2014.

Stone, Andrea. “Oil Boom Creates Millionaires and Animosity in North Dakota.” USA Today. N.d. Web. 24 Apr 2014.

Sulzberger, A.G. “Oil Rigs Bring Camps of Men to the Prairie”. The New York Times. 25 Nov 2011. Web. 28 Mar 2014.

Warren, Michael. “Highest Rents Found in Oil Boom Towns of North Dakota.” The Weekly Standard. 14 Feb 2014. Web. 28 Mar 2014.

Instructor’s Memo

Kate’s essay is a testament to how individual stories can make large-scale geopolitical debates feel real and emotionally relevant. Over the past year, the news cycle has featured stories of the Keystone XL pipeline bill, global warming, and peak oil, but Kate leaves us with the image of a woman living alone in a trailer near the North Dakota oil fields. As Kate notes, this woman is surviving without running water or a toilet, her only significant relationship with her dog. Reading Kate’s paper, I am reminded that arguments—even critical and scholarly ones—are sometimes more effective when conveyed through images as opposed to direct statements.

Kate did a tremendous amount of research for this project. Her sources range from newspaper articles to videos to radio transcripts to full-length books. This research allowed her to situate her argument within the larger historical context of boomtowns while also quoting contemporary residents of North Dakota oil communities. Kate’s research also allowed her to consider her argument from multiple perspectives: if existing communities in North Dakota are undermined by the sudden economic influx of an oil boom, then the people who arrive to work in the oil fields also report feeling dislocated and lonely. In this sense, Kate’s writing helps us understand how there are always multiple perspectives on disaster.

—  Sarah   Dimick

Writer’s Memo

The skills I learned in English 100 have helped me to become a much better writer because I learned the basics of how to compose a good paper, not just how to write to meet the requirements for a specific paper. When told that we would write the last paper of the semester about a contested place, I had no idea what I would write about. In class, we read several pieces from various sources that gave us an idea of what a contested place could look like. I asked my parents for some examples and one of them mentioned hydrolytic fracking in North Dakota. I didn’t know much about the topic but I liked that it was a contested place in the U.S. Determining a topic to write about was one of the hardest parts of the paper for me, but I took the idea and looked at a specific aspect within the place — the communities.

I knew very little about what was happening in the oil boomtowns in North Dakota, and even less about the communities within them. In class, we learned how to: gather information and utilize library resources, integrate quotations, write a thesis, and structure an essay and the paragraphs in it; all of which made writing the paper less intimidating. I met with my teacher periodically throughout the writing process, which in turn helped me stay on top of the paper and do the necessary work to write a great paper.

I have never enjoyed writing and have instead dreaded it, generally finding it to be intimidating and overwhelming. However, after learning skills to write a good paper, meeting consistently with my teacher, and working at a steady pace, I began to enjoy writing and I eventually produced a paper I am truly proud of. Different from many of the papers I had written before, I also enjoyed researching about the community destruction in North Dakota oil boomtowns. I found the topic fascinating, so much so that I wanted to share what I had learned with others, and get involved in some way to help address the problems in the oil boomtowns.

The most challenging part of the paper was identifying what I wanted the paper to be about, and narrowing a broad idea into a specific focus that I could form into a thesis statement. I identified the main points I wanted to use, compared them and looked at what they had in common; then, my teacher helped me narrow down and look at the big picture and I determined the specific focus of the paper. After developing a thesis, the rest of the paper was easy. I realized that sometimes the thesis statement comes later on in the process, and it may change several times before it is right. The process of writing this paper has turned me into a  much better writer, and I continue to use the skills I learned in English 100 for all my papers.

— Katharine Berry

Student Writing Award: Critical/Analytical Essay This essay was previously published in the 9th edition of CCC.

Community Destruction in North Dakota Oil Boomtowns  by Katharine Berry is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

UNDERSTANDING MASS INCARCERATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN

Ruthie Sherman

You open your eyes to concrete walls, three roommates, a couple square feet of space, and a toilet about a foot from your bed. You sit up, only to slam your head on the body of your bunkmate, resulting in a large red mark. You slowly stand up because you really have to go to the bathroom and 3:45 a.m. is the only time the guards are too tired to stare at you while you go. This hypothetical situation might seem terrifying, but it is like the common experience of millions of prisoners every day in the U.S. While most Americans are unaware of and desensitized from the consequences of being in prison, incarcerated Americans have to deal with overcrowding, lack of privacy, and isolation on a daily basis. How did this become the norm? How have so many Americans become so unjustifiably desensitized? How is this situation affecting different groups of people in the United States? To begin with, how did we decide that the punishment for crime should be incarceration?

Today, the concept of incarceration is normal. Most people would not think twice when a person is sentenced to time in jail or prison. However, this was not always the case. In The Historical Origin of the Prison System in America, Harry Elmer Barnes chronicles the evolution of criminal justice in the United States. Starting with the Colonial period, Barnes attributes the origin of the modern penal system to two institutions: jails and prisons, which he considers one institution, and workhouses. During the Colonial period, jails and prisons were locations meant only to hold prisoners until a punishment was decided after their trial, creating the practice of placing criminals in separate spaces from the majority of society. Workhouses were designed to repress people of lower class, especially poor people, and were not meant to punish criminals. However, the practice of forcing labor on lower class citizens originated with workhouses. For a long time, these two institutions existed in isolation from each other, containing the group they were constructed to manage.

American Quakers are credited with combining the practices of each institution. According to Barnes, “they originated both the idea of imprisonment as the typical mode of punishing crime, and the doctrine that this imprisonment should not be in idleness but at hard labor” (36). Without knowing it, Quakers transformed the perception and implementation of prison systems in the United States. They took the premise of prisons, isolation of criminals as punishment, and the premise of workhouses, making active use of unproductive members of society, to produce the modern practices of imprisonment and incarceration (Barnes, 36). However, the Quakers had no means of predicting how these principles and practices would become the platform for a dehumanized perspective on criminals.

When prisons were established on the belief that criminals should be isolated based on deviance, the perception of criminality and punishment shifted. Instead of a societal responsibility, there was an invisible solution. Criminals were put out of sight, barricading issues of criminal justice and punishment from the daily concerns of the majority of Americans. This enabled a dependency on criminal justice policies that absolved the larger society of responsibility or of being conscious of actively pursuing social reform for people who had committed crimes. As this dependency grew and became more institutionalized, criminals became viewed as mere shells strictly defined by crime instead of complex human beings with backgrounds and identities that could contextualize their criminal activity (Meares, 8).

According to Christina Meares, some of the invisible dynamics that could contextualize the experiences of incarcerated individuals include, “homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, illiteracy and dependency on welfare.” She continues, “These are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages” (8). When people perceive criminals, not only are such dynamics generally unacknowledged, but the multifaceted ways they impact each person depending on their identities are ignored as well. As a consequence, society’s dependence on prisons to reform members of society has ignored the dynamics that were enabling and reinforcing crime among certain groups of people (Meares, 8). An unfair practice of criminal justice was established. Prisons were expected to change and reform criminals, even while society remained silent about the contexts maintaining and reinforcing criminal behavior. The silence surrounding these dynamics, which allowed individuals to be strictly defined by their crime, along with the concentration of criminals into prisons became the foundation for a dehumanized perception of the incarcerated population. And this perception of criminals fed the rise of mass incarceration, the extreme rates of imprisonment, and the manifestation of a dehumanized and racialized perception of criminals that ignores the contexts of institutional issues of poverty and race (Stevenson, 15).

While the perception of criminals has evolved since the Colonial period, mass incarceration emerged relatively recently. During the 1980s, the dynamics that society surrounded with silence, most noticeably drug use, became the defining factors that would directly lead to the rise in incarceration. Although crime was decreasing at the beginning of that decade, President Reagan started his “War on Drugs” against the use of crack cocaine (Alexander, 3). In the introduction to her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, Michelle Alexander describes how this war was not necessarily founded on an actual widespread drug problem. She writes, “[T]here is no truth to the notion that the War on Drugs was launched in response to crack cocaine. President Ronald Reagan officially announced the current drug war in 1982, before crack became an issue in the media or a crisis in poor black neighborhoods” (3).

Subsequently, the Reagan administration even hired staff to produce a media campaign demonizing crack cocaine, which succeeded almost immediately in gaining support from both the public and the government. Unsurprisingly, many of the images used in this campaign displayed men of color wearing stereotypical inner city clothing, implying they were the villains of the crack cocaine story. Since the public had been conditioned for nearly the entire history of the United States to depend on prisons to act as social reformers, Reagan’s so-called War on Drugs could then easily and swiftly mass incarcerate the poor people of color in the United States (Alexander, 3).

The current debate surrounding mass incarceration is dominated by discussions of how this issue impacts men of color or poor white men. But it is important to see that American patriarchal society has empowered another destructive force within the emergence of mass incarceration, namely, ignoring how this phenomenon has affected women. In Bryan Stevenson’s book  Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption , the twelfth chapter, entitled “Mother, Mother,” grapples with the mass incarceration of women in the United States. Stevenson writes, “In the United States, the number of women sent to prison increased 646 percent between 1980 and 2010, a rate 1.5 times higher than the rate of men” (235-36). Stevenson credits two key components in the high rate for the mass incarceration of women: the criminalization of infant mortality and the enactment of the “Three Strikes” law, which increased sentences to life in prison for a crime when an offender had committed two or more serious crimes in the past (236). While the attitude towards criminals generally is defined purely by their crime, the attitude toward gender for female prisoners also shows that these prisoners are being subjected to strict and decontextualized definitions using the crime of the prisoner. Rather than just being criminals, drug users, thieves, or murderers, the attitude is that women prisoners are also sluts, horrible mothers, abusive mothers, and undeserving of help from society.

Stevenson notes, “[W]e’ve created a new class of ‘untouchables’ in American society, made up of our most vulnerable mothers and their children” (237). Rather than consider the circumstances that may have put these women in the position of committing crimes, society defined these women as despicable and abominable (Codd, 8). Once again, society is depending on prisons to deal with the larger social issues that remain out of sight, reinforcing a dehumanized and decontextualized perception of female prisoners. While defining these women as “untouchable” because of one set of actions is entirely unjustified, this perception has been particularly destructive for women of color, especially African American women.

The intersectionality of African American women’s identities and experiences reveal how they are subjected to the worst consequences of mass incarceration. Intersectionality, the inseparable nature of one’s multiple identities and how those identities simultaneously filter one’s experience, acknowledges historical influences on stereotypes and discrimination that construct these women’s experiences. In Disappearing Acts: The Mass Incarceration of African American Women, Christina Meares described her research on white and black women’s experiences in the Georgia prisons, which aimed to quantitatively assess intersectionality as it pertains to African American women. According to Meares “The sentence inequality of black women is the result of the cumulative effects of being members of a disadvantaged race, class and gender” (2). The mass incarceration of African American women cannot be credited or understood through just one of the identities they can claim, but must be understood through a careful examination of how their identities intersect to craft their experiences. These intersecting “disadvantaged” identities reveal the unique devastating consequences of mass incarceration for African American women.

African American women experience potentially the worst consequences of mass incarceration, directly and indirectly. While the culture of incarceration in the United States has conditioned society to define prisoners strictly by their crimes, mass incarceration has embedded stereotypes and perceptions of African American women that reinforce institutions of oppression and domination. In “Black Women’s Prison Narratives and the Intersection of Race, Gender, and Sexuality in US Prisons,” Breea Willingham describes how black women use writing to try to escape experiences of sexual abuse, silenced self-identity, and ostracism. Willingham quotes the writing of black female prisoners that describe sexual abuse from prison guards, a lack of support from family and friends, and a sense of isolation that extends beyond the physical prison. All three of these kinds of experiences reinforce the stereotypes that contextualized how these women arrived in prison. They support the misperception of black women as sexual objects and as less significant than other women (Willingham, 63). While examining why these black women use writing to escape their experiences, Willingham highlights the larger issue that is a relatively unique consequence for African American women: silence. She writes, “…what is different about the incarcerated black woman’s story is that it allows some of these women to express themselves and define their existence—to tell us that they still matter despite their absence” (64).

African American women’s relative absence from mainstream society in combination with their almost non-existent social power eliminates any potential for this group to be defined by its members. Rather, the conditioned perception of incarceration, the stereotypes of African American women, and the combination of these two socially embedded perceptions allows the dominant members of society the power to define African American women. This reinforces systemic oppression and domination of African American women, resulting in a group that exists in society without the capacity to present their own definition of their identity. The inability to construct a definition of oneself because of the intersecting membership between two disadvantaged groups is an unprecedented and unjustified consequence that uniquely impacts African American women due to mass incarceration. This complex understanding of the issue lacks the magnification received largely by African American men in mass media, further silencing African American women and distancing them from control over how they are perceived. While these issues cannot be solved merely by media attention, extending the conversation of this issue to its impact on African American women could create more opportunities for collaboration between groups to fight against discrimination and oppression. However, the mass incarceration of African American women requires a critical examination of the history of this group in the United States in order to attempt to dismantle oppressive institutional structures.

Alexander, Michelle.  The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.  The New Press, 2010. Print.

Barnes, Harry E. “The Historical Origin of the Prison System in America.” J ournal of Criminal Law and Criminology  12.1. (1921): 35-60. Print.

Codd, Val. “Women and the Prison Industrial Complex”.  Off Our Backs  31.2 (2001): 8–8. Web.

Meares, Christina Faye, Disappearing Acts: The Mass Incarceration of African American Women. Thesis, Georgia State University, 2011. Print.

Mustakeem, Sowande. “Suffering at the Margins: (Re)Centering Black Women in Discourses on Violence and Crime.”  Women’s Studies Quarterly  42.3 (2014): 323-7. ProQuest. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.

Stevenson, Bryan. “Mother, Mother.”  Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption.  New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2014. 227-41. Print.

Willingham, Breea C. “Black Women’s Prison Narratives and the Intersection of Race, Gender, And Sexuality In US Prisons.”  Critical Survey  23.3 (2011): 55-66. Academic Search Premier. Web. 23 Nov. 2015.

As the final major writing assignment for our English 100 class, part of a First-Year Interest Group whose theme was the Immigrant Experience in Education, students were asked to write an argumentative paper addressing an issue of social or cultural importance to a marginalized group. As an extra wrinkle, students were required to choose a group to which they did not belong, so that the task of advocating for the issue necessitated cultural empathy, or imagining the lived experience of people with whom one might have very little in common. The class, a diverse cohort of students who had spent the semester discussing issues of discrimination and appropriation in all of their FIG classes, including English 100, worked together to develop the theme and requirements of the final paper, which included a companion presentation/multimedia project.

Ruthie’s essay, “Understanding Mass Incarceration of African American Women,” is an excellent example of a writer framing, analyzing and making a forceful argument about an issue concerning a very specific social group. One of the most powerful moments in the piece comes in its very first paragraph. “You open your eyes to concrete walls,” she writes, immediately placing the reader within the lived experience of an incarcerated person through vivid, concrete imagery and the deft use of second-person point of view. Throughout the process of drafting and revising, Ruthie took note of the fact that she had learned to be unafraid to use such techniques, normally associated with more “creative” or narrative forms of writing, in an argumentative, academic piece of writing. Doing so here allows the author to ease the reader into the more analytical, idea-driven parts of the paper by touching on an often- overlooked truth: abstract issues have a significant impact on real human lives.

Ruthie structures this paper in a simple and powerful way. She begins by tracing the history of the more problematic trends in the American prison system, then advances her argument by narrowing her focus, first to the ways in which mass incarceration disproportionately harms African-Americans, then to the fact that black women in particular, because of the intersectionality of their race, class and gender, “experience the worst consequences of mass incarceration, directly and indirectly.”

Perhaps the most impressive thing about Ruthie’s essay is that she was able to use sources and data that did not directly pertain to her topic to make a highly persuasive argument. Early in the process, she expressed frustration with the fact that though many of the sources she was reading dealt with issues of mass incarceration, racism and dehumanization, hardly any spoke to the world of the marginalized group she had chosen to write about, incarcerated African American women. She discovered that she wasn’t researching poorly or in the wrong places. The sad fact was that hardly any scholar before her had addressed the incarceration of black women in a substantive way. Instead of taking the easy way out and broadening her topic, Ruthie decided that she would fill the missing research space—with her own paper. In the essay’s second half, she quite effectively uses the concept of intersectionality to tie the broader issues to those of her group. The result, I believe, is a powerful example of what can happen when a writer-researcher trusts her own voice in telling the story she intends to tell.

— Walter B. Thompson

From the outset of my final assignment of my English 100 course, I was pretty excited about the endeavor because the professor gave the class some freedom in terms of the subject. There were only two real requirements when it came to the topic: it had to be about a marginalized group in American society and you could not be a member of that group. I chose to focus on the impact of mass incarceration of African American women because the discourse surrounding mass incarceration almost solely focuses on African American men. I already knew I was very passionate about criminal justice and wanted to use that passion as my momentum for working through this assignment.

Since I chose a subject that I knew was so interesting to me, the actual project of researching and writing was incredibly fluid. The larger challenge occurred in outlining how I wanted to present my research. As the details and context for my subject was so vast, I found it very difficult to eliminate information and narrow my focus. However, a meeting with two of my peers during an English 100 class proved very useful in this dilemma. During our discussion of my paper, we talked through distinguishing between information that is important because it isn’t well known and information that is important to the argument I was making in the paper. Although my excitement about my subject definitely made the writing process easier, my excitement at times overwhelmed my ability to outline the paper and differentiate the key points that supported my argument from the points that I felt were important.

This final assignment for English 100 was one of my first major research papers as an undergraduate. As such, the experience taught a few important lessons about researching and writing. First, if you have the option, pick a topic that fascinates you. I have found that if I am hungry to learn about something, the excitement and passion about a topic can fuel the process of a project. Second, research projects need and take time. DO NOT try to do this stuff overnight. Not only does that hurt your assignment, but it hurts your ability to absorb the information and grow from what you learn. Third, use your peers to help you. Peer reviews can seem tedious at first, but hearing another point of view about your work can help you see it in a different light to change the work for the better; also, the ability to give and receive construct criticism is a priceless skill. Doing this assignment also reaffirmed something I have learned a lot throughout my life: the more you put into something, the more you get out of it. Throwing yourself into your work can really change your work ethic as well as your perspective, so try to take advantage of these opportunities for growth.

— Ruthie Sherman

Student Writing Award: Informative Essay

English 100 Course Readings  by Ruthie Sherman is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

RECOGNIZING PTSD’S EFFECTS ON HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an “anxiety disorder that occurs as a result of experiencing, witnessing, or being confronted with an emotionally traumatic event. A traumatic event is defined as a situation so extreme, so severe and so powerful that it threatens to overwhelm a person’s ability to cope” (Adriaenssens, 2016, p. 1411).

When PTSD is discussed, it is almost always accompanied by a veteran’s horrific story from war or the mental struggles one is facing after being involved in a personal and traumatic event. Seldom do people associate the risk of developing PTSD with normal, everyday jobs such as being a doctor or a nurse, yet individuals in these professions experience PTSD as well. A study conducted in 2007 by the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine found that “24 percent of ICU nurses and 14 percent of general nurses tested positive for symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder” (Yu, 2016). Even so, PTSD within the healthcare profession is rarely talked about. PTSD is a serious consequence of having a high stress job that encounters trauma and suffering daily, and it can take on many forms. Yet the reasons why many health care professionals suffer from this condition and the toll this is having on their mental health and job satisfaction is rarely acknowledged.

Health care professionals, specifically nurses, are routinely confronted with stressful conditions and traumatic events. According to a review of research by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, “nursing has long been considered one of the most stressful professions” (Yu, 2016). Additionally, according to Jef Adriaenssens, a researcher on stress and healthcare at Leiden University, “almost one out of three nurses met sub-clinical levels of anxiety, depression and somatic complaints and 8.5% met clinical levels of PTSD” (1411). This is due to obvious reasons such as long work hours, high patient demand, and, potentially, understaffing in some hospitals. Another aspect of the profession that causes high amounts of stress is the types of traumatic events nurses are routinely faced with.

All nurses, at some point, have to deal with potentially traumatizing situations. Specifically, emergency room nurses — who, according to Adriaenssens, have the highest incidence of PTSD symptoms compared to other nursing specialties — are especially vulnerable to post-traumatic stress reactions. This can be attributed to repeated exposure to work-related traumatic events, such as witnessing the survivors of horrific accidents or “death or serious injury of a child/adolescent” which was “perceived as the most traumatizing event.” Emergency room nurses are “routinely confronted with severe injuries, death, suicide and suffering” due mainly to the fact that they are often the first to respond to situations and are often confronted with the worst injuries and the most hectic work environments (Adriaenssens, 2012, p. 1411). By working in such conditions and witnessing horrific injuries at such a rapid pace, emergency room nurses are prone to experiencing symptoms associated with PTSD brought on merely by witnessing the results of tragic events.

High rates of PTSD among military veterans occur for more obvious reasons. They are under extreme amounts of stress and are especially prone to experiencing trauma firsthand. However, PTSD in health care professionals is usually a little different. More often than not, doctors and nurses are witnessing the results of horrific and tragic events instead of having the event happen directly to them. “The natural consequent behaviors and emotions resulting from knowing about a traumatizing event experienced by a significant other – the stress resulting from helping or wanting to help a traumatized or suffering person” is known as secondary traumatic stress. In simpler terms, secondary traumatic stress occurs when PTSD symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, flashbacks, or nightmares, occur in caregivers as a response to seeing individuals who have been involved in traumatic events (Collins and Long, 2003, p. 418). Individuals, such as doctors and nurses, can become so empathetic to the suffering of others that they begin to experience classic PTSD symptoms, almost as if the traumatic event happened directly to them.

While secondary traumatic stress is the most common form of PTSD in health care providers, vicarious trauma can also occur. Vicarious traumatization is “the cumulative effect of working with survivors of traumatic life events. Anyone who engages empathetically with victims or survivors is vulnerable” (Collins and Long, 2003, p. 417). Vicarious traumatization is extremely similar to secondary traumatic stress because empathizing with the victim can cause the care provider to experience symptoms of PTSD, as if the event happened to them directly. Vicarious traumatization is different from secondary traumatic stress because of the way individuals cope after. After a potentially disruptive event occurs, the beliefs and assumptions of an individual are challenged and they begin to perceive their world differently, a phenomenon known as posttraumatic growth. The metaphor of an earthquake has been utilized to illustrate posttraumatic growth: “The traumatic experience needs to be seismic, such as an earthquake, to severely shake an individual’s comprehension of the world. These shaken assumptions may be the person’s understanding of the meaning of life; belief that things that happen are fair…” (Beck, 2016). After caring for an individual who has been through a particularly traumatic event, the health care provider begins to make new assumptions about the world and reassess their beliefs as a way of coping with the extreme amounts of trauma and stress. “Posttraumatic growth is viewed as a positive illusion that is an adaptive function to help a person cope with trauma. A positive illusion is a positively distorted belief a person creates when faced with a traumatic experience” (Beck, 2016).

As an example, vicarious posttraumatic growth can be observed in labor and delivery nurses. The Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses sent out a survey to members who were labor and delivery nurses and asked them to describe any positive changes in their ways of thinking about the world or their beliefs as a result of caring for women who had undergone very traumatic births. The study concluded that labor and delivery nurses who took care of women during traumatic births “reported a moderate amount of vicarious posttraumatic growth…Appreciation of Life was the dimension of the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory that reflected the highest growth, followed by Relating to Others, Personal Strength, Spiritual Change, and New Possibilities” (Beck, 2016). After experiencing a traumatic birth, these labor and delivery nurses were beginning to alter their ideas about life as a way of coping with the stress they endured.

Even though these nurses were altering their ideas about life in seemingly positive ways, there is little evidence that vicarious posttraumatic growth is actually a healthy and long-term, effective way to cope. One explanation is that posttraumatic growth really isn’t growth at all. Anthony Mancini, an associate professor of psychology at Pace University, explains posttraumatic growth as a “motivated positive illusion, whose purpose is to protect us from the possibility that we may have been damaged.” He further goes on to explain an experimental study that found “when an event threatens our sense of self, we are more likely to believe that the event made us better in some way” (Mancini, 2016). Posttraumatic growth can be viewed as a positive way to temporarily cope with an especially disturbing event, however, it often proves to only act temporarily and rarely actually alters the individuals’ thoughts and perceptions for the long-term.

While posttraumatic growth is a way that nurses cope with the extreme stress they endure, there is very little attention on PTSD within healthcare professionals. Yet, job dissatisfaction and burn-out are becoming prevalent, especially within the nursing profession. According to mental health researchers Collins and Long, burnout can be described as “a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion caused by long-term involvement in emotionally demanding situations” (Collins and Long, 2003, p. 420). This makes sense when discussing post-traumatic stress disorder. As nurses are exposed to potentially upsetting and very traumatic events over a long period of time, it is going to start taking a toll on them both physically and emotionally. As Laurie Barkin, a registered nurse, described, “nursing school does not prepare nurses for the experience of witnessing pain and suffering.” She goes on to discuss her story of beginning to experience symptoms such as nightmares, anxiety, and palpitations. She later learned that “my symptoms had a name: vicarious trauma… Unfortunately, appeals that I had made to the director of our consult service to allow staff process time were dismissed” (Barkin, 2014). Laurie Barkin’s symptoms began to control her life, and she eventually resigned from her job after the director of her consult service failed to give staff adequate time to process their emotions in a healthy way. This is a perfect example of how hospitals often dismiss symptoms of post-traumatic stress and vicarious trauma, and this dismissal could be leading to high levels of burnout and nurses being unsatisfied with their jobs.

PTSD is a serious, and often life altering condition, that health care professionals are faced with. The fact that PTSD is rarely acknowledged and discussed during nursing school and beyond is having adverse effects on nurses who find themselves faced with this disorder. With the prevalence of PTSD, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious trauma soaring, new policies and practices must be put in place both in nursing schools and hospitals in order to aid the nurses affected. By acknowledging that PTSD is real in nurses and their feelings are valid, burnout and job dissatisfaction could be addressed, and nurses could find themselves more satisfied in their profession and living happier lives.

Adriaenssens, J. (2012). The impact of traumatic events on emergency room nurses: Findings from a questionnaire survey.  International Journal of Nursing Studies,  49(11), 1411-1422.

Barkin, L. (2014, July 16).  Nurses and compassion fatigue. Gift From Within.

Beck, C., & Eaton, C., & Gable, R. (2016). Vicarious posttraumatic growth in labor and delivery nurses.  Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing,  45(6), 801-812.

Collins, S., & Long, A. (2003). Working with the psychological effects of trauma: Consequences for mental health-care workers.  Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing,  10, 417-424.

Mancini, A. (2016, June 1). The trouble with post-traumatic growth.  Psychology Today.

Yu, A. (2016, April 15). Nurses say stress interferes with caring for their patients. National Public Radio.

Sarah’s research paper was submitted for a section of English 100 linked to a First-Year Interest Group for students interested in a possible nursing career. For earlier assignments, students had researched and read what could be termed “professional testimonial” writing about the working life of nurses––narratives from social media sites and from an excellent anthology of personal essays titled, I Wasn’t Strong Like This When I Started Out: True Stories of Becoming a Nurse (L. Gutkind, ed., 2013). These narratives provide vivid and sometimes disconcerting testimony about the singular stresses that nurses may face, especially witnessing the aftermath of traumas suffered by their patients, either before they seek medical care or during treatment. One author (Schwarz) recounts a harrowing anecdote from the early days of his training, his memory of wheeling a patient with an apparently minor complaint down the hall, and looking on helplessly as the man suddenly coughs violently, vomits “a wave of blood,” and dies within moments, sitting in his wheelchair.

From the beginning of the semester, then, we were having conversations about the possibility that some nurses might very well suffer post-traumatic stress disorder as a simple condition of their daily work lives. These early readings also allowed students to critically examine some of the lasting clichés attached to the nursing profession, including expectations that nurses will be exceptionally compassionate and selfless, quietly shouldering the daily psychological burden of caring for those experiencing severe pain and suffering. Later in the semester we read articles about the national nursing shortage and the challenges that many medical facilities face because of the regular burnout of their nursing staff. Sarah’s choice of research topic for her final research paper was thus an ingenious way of drawing together several important threads of learning generated from our semester of research and writing.

For the final paper assignment, students who are interested in a similar topic work collaboratively in small research groups to gather a range of sources about that topic––including peer-reviewed studies, articles from trade publications (targeted to those in the nursing profession), and news sources for the general public, such as national magazines or public radio. Students are able to pool their resources and learn research techniques from one another through this process. They also discuss the articles they have found in order to identify ways of narrowing down that broad topic to find a research focus appropriate for a short paper. Sarah selected the challenge of synthesizing several peer-reviewed studies, specifically those that explain the intricate breakdown of post-traumatic symptoms for those ministering to patients in the context of trauma. In this essay she is able to integrate those more advanced scholarly studies with insights provided by mainstream journalists and the author of a professional website. It’s not an easy matter to make all these different voices “speak” to one another in an analytical paper. But Sarah draws evidence from all of these sources to offer a compelling critique about the lack of attention to PTSD within the nursing profession. Hopefully by the time she begins her own training in the field, there will be greater awareness about the mental health needs of nurses themselves.

–Julia Garrett

As a pre-nursing student, I found myself fascinated with researching different aspects of the nursing profession, from the different fields of nursing to the daily duties and responsibilities to the attributes of a good nurse. As I began my critical analysis on the more cliché and positive side to nursing, I began to receive feedback and suggestions from my peers and instructor on delving into the more unspoken side of nursing, the hardships that accompany the demanding job. I decided to follow this suggestion and focus my research on a dimension of nursing that is seldom discussed: PTSD. Nursing is usually not associated with this disorder, and for that reason I at first found it hard to find credible research that covered the topic. In the end I was very glad I stuck with the very specific topic of PTSD, because through my research I gained valuable insight into the profession.

As far as revisions go, I found it most helpful to have as many people as possible read the entire paper, or even just certain sections I was stuck on, and then leave their feedback and revisions. I then would go back and read their revision suggestions multiple times and on different days, which allowed me to formulate additional thoughts and interpret their comments in new ways, ultimately adding to my paper in ways I had not originally thought of. Additionally, with a complex and very specific topic like this, I found it very easy to want to incorporate every small detail I learned about PTSD in healthcare, regardless of whether it was relevant, and lose sight of where the main focus of the paper was going. So I made sure I created a very strict and specific outline and only gathered information relevant to the topics outlined. This helped the paper maintain a nice flow between topics and remain coherent.

Before going through this process and writing this paper, I was not a huge fan of writing critical analysis research papers. After gaining the tools, knowledge, and appreciation for gathering dependable research, utilizing the research in a way that best benefits the argument of the paper, and choosing best how to articulate and present the research in a coherent way, I learned how enjoyable it can be to pick a topic you’re passionate about and want to share with others.

–Sarah Lutz

Student Writing Award: Critical/Analytical Essay

English 100 Course Readings  by Sarah Lutz is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

GENETIC TESTING: A QUESTION OF MORALITY

Madeline Longo

What would you do if you could find out what your medical future has in store for you? Would you want to find out or would you rather wait until the time comes? What if finding out could possibly save your life or could at least enhance the quality of your life? What if you found out something that you did not want to know? What if you learned something detrimental and there was nothing you could do about it? These are questions people think about before undergoing genetic testing. There are no correct answers, but different responses could result in many different outcomes.

Since the early 1900s, scientists have recognized the connection between inherited diseases and chromosomes. But it wasn’t until the 1950s that scientists started to develop tests for genetic conditions like Down syndrome (Trisomy 21), cystic fibrosis, and Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy (Dept. of Health & Human Services 1). Today, more than five hundred laboratories offer genetic testing for over two thousand rare and common conditions (1). By looking at the different perspectives of geneticists, patients, consumers, doctors, and ethicists, the many benefits of genetic testing can be shown as well as the lack of prevalence of negative outcomes associated with genetic testing.

There are two different categories of genetic testing: clinical genetic tests and research genetic tests. Diagnostic tests, pre- symptomatic tests, carrier tests, prenatal tests, newborn screening and pharmacogenomics tests all fall under the category of clinical genetic tests. These tests are ordered by a healthcare professional and are done in certified labs. Research genetic tests are volunteer based for exploratory studies. Both clinical genetic tests and research genetic tests look at DNA strands to find abnormalities that can put a person at greater risk to develop a disease. In the past, only one gene could be tested at a time, but today geneticists can screen thousands of genes simultaneously (Univ. of Iowa 2). Most people choose to have a genetic test performed to find the cause of a disease, to find out if they are a carrier of a disease, or to see if their children will develop the disease. Healthcare providers can use this information to find the best treatment and the most appropriate counseling to prepare a person for their future.

The genetic testing process can be broken down into six steps. As detailed by the University of Iowa, the first step is talking to a genetic counselor or a doctor to learn about insurance coverage and the possibility of insurance discrimination. In the office, the doctor will typically take a blood sample and send it to the lab. The next step is getting the DNA from the sample, which is followed by sequencing the DNA to look for abnormalities. The lab will then take the DNA and put it into a DNA sequencer which will collect data on the patients’ genetic makeup. The fourth and fifth steps include analyzing the DNA and then interpreting what it means. Finally, the lab will give back the results to the genetic counselor or doctor and they will share the information with the patient (3). The information provided from genetic testing can be very useful in planning for the future, but it can also be a burden to those who are not ready to accept what the future holds.

In order to evaluate the benefit of genetic testing relative to the possible burdens it could pose for a patient, it is important to look at the causes and the need for genetic testing. Genetic testing can be most useful for diagnosing prenatal abnormalities, cancer, and Alzheimer’s. Prenatal genetic testing is a way for the parent to find out if the fetus has a genetic condition. Typically, most people who are participating in prenatal genetic testing are looking to see if the fetus has a chance of developing autism, Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease, or sickle cell anemia (Chen 125). This information can help the parents of the fetus to make an informed decision about whether or not to continue the pregnancy and allow for early interventions with affected newborns. Predispositions to cancer can also be predicted using genetic testing, and with the prevalence of cancer in today’s society, early testing and treatment of cancer can save countless lives.

Genetic testing for cancer can have many outcomes. In the article “The Breast Cancer Gene and Me” published in the New York Times on September 25, 2015, Elizabeth Wurtzel shares her experience with genetic testing for breast cancer. Elizabeth Wurtzel is a descendent of the Ashkenazi Jews. Biologically, that means she has a one in forty chance of being breast cancer or BRCA-positive, which is ten times the rate of the rest of the population. Unfortunately, she was diagnosed with breast cancer before these tests were available and had to go through eight rounds of chemotherapy and a double mastectomy. All of these treatments might have been avoided if she had been tested for a genetic abnormality earlier because she could have chosen to have a mastectomy with reconstruction to keep the cancer from spreading. Wurtzel’s experience suggests how useful genetic testing can be because it would have clearly benefited her health as well as the quality of her life. She serves as an excellent example for why many who have a history of diseases in family or cultural lines from genetic abnormalities should get preemptive genetic testing.

Another predictive genetic test can be conducted for Alzheimer’s. By looking at the experience Jane Neilson had with predictive testing for Alzheimer’s disease, the benefits of genetic testing become even clearer. In the article, “A Patient’s Perspective on Genetic Counseling and Predictive Testing for Alzheimer’s Disease,” Neilson offers her opinions on genetic testing and shares her story. Neilson comes from a family with a history of Alzheimer’s disease and was concerned with her own susceptibility. This led her to request information about predictive genetic testing. She describes how she thought long and hard about the possible outcomes with her husband, and ultimately agreed to continue with the process because it would be better to know ahead of time if she will be affected by the disease so she could plan accordingly. Unfortunately, Neilson learned at her first appointment that she was not qualified for the specific DNA test because of her family history. In the article, she writes “after all my introspection on the subject, there were no clear answers, only fog. I went through agony and soul searching only to be cheated. No tests were available for me. I was also relieved. I didn’t have to go through with it.” Neilson continued to describe how she came to terms with temporarily not knowing her medical future, but she’s optimistic that a test will be available for her someday. Neilson’s case acts as an example of the negative side of genetic testing and its potential burden on a patient for future health problems. Neilson’s case also acts as an example of how genetic testing is not always an option for patients, despite a person’s interest in finding out their genetic predispositions and medical future.

Besides the patients who directly benefit from genetic testing, the families of people with genetic diseases can benefit as well. If a person has been established as at-risk to a disease, family members can also undergo the process of genetic testing. They can have the same benefit of knowing what their future holds and having a chance to prepare for what is to come. They will then also have the possibility of stopping or slowing the progression of the disease. Stephen Post and Peter Whitehouse write about the possibility of someone experiencing “relief from not carrying the familial variant” in “The Clinical Introduction of Genetic Testing for Alzheimer’s Disease.” A family member finding out they do not carry the variant could provide an even greater benefit to the patient and other family members. That is because it would determine the disease is not genetic and most likely stems from an environmental or lifestyle issue. In turn, this could give researchers and care providers more information on the progression of the specific disease.

The patients and families mentioned here so far all see the value in genetic testing, because of the benefit it promises in terms of planning for their futures and the possibility of controlling the full effects of a known disease before it can get worse. In addition, people without a specific disease concern have shown an interest in knowing about themselves and their genetic DNA makeup, and genetic testing can allow for this. Today, many people feel like they have a right to their DNA information and believe they have ownership of their genetic makeup. Now that the means for testing is available, it is more common for people to “seek such testing ‘out of curiosity,’ for the ‘fun factor,’ because they self-identify as early adopters of new technologies or because they want to contribute to genomics research” (Bunnik, Janssens, Schermer). This shift in attitudes towards the adoption of genetic testing shows that testing isn’t only for a patient’s use, but for an interested consumer to use as well. The consumer notion is that genetic testing has psychological, social, and emotional benefits.

Since there has been a tremendous consumer interest in genetic testing as a social and psychological trend, labs have started to offer direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing. This at-home genetic test is a way for someone to find out their genetic information without a genetic counselor or a doctor involved. Typically, one who purchases the kit will either take a cotton swab sample from the inside of their cheek or collect their saliva in a test tube and send it to the lab. The consumer will be notified when their results are ready. The problem with this method is that the average consumer will not know how to read their results accurately. A person might, for example, assume they have a life threatening disease when they don’t. Also, at-home genetic testing does not look at environmental factors, lifestyle choices, or family medical history, all of which can play a large role in the probability of developing a disease. One study on DTC genetic testing has this to say: “the present findings suggest that general practitioners should have the ability to clarify for interested individuals the way in which different genetic mutations are characterized by different risk probabilities, and the meaning attributed to these risk probabilities” by showing the “inconsistencies in the extent and quality of information provided by DTC testing” (Sherman 712). What this means is that the DTC at- home genetic tests cannot provide information as accurate as lab performed tests, and thus it is important to contact a professional to go over the results if they are not clear.

In general, professionals who can evaluate genetic results value the life of the patient and want to provide them with the best healthcare possible. Doctors see value in genetic testing because it provides them with a greater understanding of an individual patient, and it can help them direct the patient down the appropriate path given the specific set of circumstances. In a study of 363 doctors, ninety-eight percent said they would refer their patients to a genetic counselor, and ninety-five percent believed that the doctor has the responsibility to counsel patients about genetic testing (Menasha, Schechter, Willned 144). This significant number shows the value healthcare providers see in genetic testing and how they want to support their patients throughout the genetic testing process. More specifically, Stephen Post and Peter Whitehouse argue that more government funding should be given to genetic testing research because it can be so beneficial for the patients (835). With more funding, geneticists would be able to do more research on other diseases which, in turn, could help more people detect such diseases, slow their progression, and possibly stop the disease completely.

Both patients and healthcare providers see value in genetic testing, but one of the main issues with genetic testing is the ethics surrounding it. In “Ethical Language and Themes in News Coverage of Genetic Testing,” David Craig breaks down the issues of genetic testing into four different categories: (1) whether you want to know your likely medical future, (2) what you would do with the information, (3) the complexity of the choices people face because of developments in genetic testing, and (4) the possibility of discrimination based on genetic information (165-166). It could be argued that whether or not you want to know your likely medical future is not related to ethics as closely as the other three categories. Whether or not a person wants to know what their medical future holds is a personal choice, and genetic testing is very black and white. It is what people choose to do with the information from genetic testing that brings ethics into question and causes genetic testing to enter a grey area.

As an example of the grey area of genetic testing, let’s look at a situation involving a pregnant woman. A pregnant woman can decide whether or not to find out if the fetus she is carrying has Down syndrome before a child is born. Ethics comes into play when a woman finds out that her fetus does have Down syndrome, and is deciding whether or not to terminate the pregnancy based on this new information. Another example of a genetic testing controversy would be undergoing genetic testing for a specific disease that does not have a cure. Knowing that you are a carrier of a disease and not being able to do anything about it except wait for it to worsen seems awful and could put the patient into a state of depression. A third ethical controversy surrounds genetic testing and stem cell research. Because of developments in genetic testing, scientists are able to alter embryonic stem cells, which can lead to the possibility that parents will someday be able to modify their children’s physical appearance and create what is called a “designer baby.” This example alone brings in a whole new level of ethics to the idea of genetic testing.

As for the ethics of non-patient choices regarding genetic screening, tests are added to one’s medical profile, and this can lead to the risk that genetic discrimination could increase dramatically. The National Human Genome Research Institute says that “Genetic discrimination occurs if people are treated unfairly because of differences in their DNA that increase their chances of getting a certain disease.” This includes a health insurer refusing to give coverage to a woman who has a DNA difference that raises her odds of getting breast cancer. Another example provided by The National Human Genome Research Institute is that employers could use DNA information to decide whether to hire or fire employees. In fact, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) was passed to protect Americans from being treated unfairly. This law aims to prevent discrimination from both health insurers and employers. It was put in place to ease concerns about discrimination that might keep some people from getting genetic testing. It also enables people to take part in genetic research studies without fear that the information could later be used against them.

By looking at the many perspectives from geneticists, patients, consumers, doctors, and ethicists, I believe the major benefits of genetic testing outweigh the possible negatives. I’m especially persuaded by the fact that genetic testing is very important for those who have a family history of disease because the detection of predisposed diseases can help slow or prevent disease progression. In a beautiful conclusion to her article, Jane Neilson writes “genetic testing is more than genes. It tests personal beliefs about life, disease and healing. Use your gifts of knowledge, professionalism, and caring with patience.”

Essentially Neilson is saying that there is so much to be considered with genetic testing, and that genetic testing can lead a person to question their own personal beliefs. It also leads people to think about their finances and about how they want to spend the rest of their life. Knowing this information, do you think you would undergo genetic testing? In reality, there is no correct answer to the question, but I know that I would want to know what my medical future has in store for me. It wouldn’t matter whether or not it’s something detrimental. I believe the possibility of knowing ahead of time would only enhance the quality of my life.

Bunnik, Eline M, A Cecile J W Janssens, and Maartje H N Schermer. “Personal Utility In Genomic Testing: Is There Such A Thing?.”  Journal of Medical Ethics  41.4 (2015): 322-326. Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition. Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Chen, L.S., et al. “Autism Spectrum Disorders: A Qualitative Study of Attitudes toward Prenatal Genetic Testing and Termination Decisions Of Affected Pregnancies.”  Clinical Genetics  88.2 (2015): 122-128. Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition. Web. 12 Oct. 2015.

Craig, David A. “Ethical Language and Themes in News Coverage of Genetic Testing.”  Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly  77.1 (2000): 160-174. Humanities Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 19 Oct. 2015.

Department of Health & Human Services 2010, Fact Sheet 1— Genetic Testing: How it is used for Health Care, viewed 2 Nov. 2015, http://report.nih.gov/nihfactsheets/Pdfs/GeneticTesting-How ItIsUsedForHealthcare(NHGRI).pdf

“Genetic Discrimination Fact Sheet.”  Genetic Discrimination Fact Sheet.  National Human Genome Research Institute. Web. 3 Nov. 2015.

“How Does Genetic Testing Work?” Iowa City: U of Iowa, 2013. Print.

Menasha, Joshua, Clyde Schechter, and Judith Willned. “Genetic Testing: A Physician’s Perspective.”  Mount Sinai Journal of Medicine  67.2 (2000): 144-51. Bioethics Research Library. Georgetown University. Web. 2 Nov. 2015.

Neilson, Jane. “A Patient’s Perspective on Genetic Counseling and Predictive Testing for Alzheimer’s Disease.”  Journal of Genetic Counseling  8.1 (1999): 37-46. Springer Link. Web. 13 Oct. 2015. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1022882503673.

This paper is Maddy’s response to a “contextual analysis” assignment—a longer paper requiring students to unpack a culturally relevant topic from different perspectives. Students contextualized the topic of their choice through the lenses provided by various stakeholders. Maddy wanted to tackle a controversial issue in order to understand more fully why it sparks such fiery debate. While she eventually changed her topic from reproductive health to genetic testing, she maintained her attention on a controversial topic that she wanted to understand better.

I like the way that Maddy uses this paper to weave together an opening background on genetic testing in general with a more substantial consideration of multiple different perspectives on this issue. She writes about genetic testing’s influence on patients and patients’ families, the manner in which it’s approached by the consumer genetic testing market, some doctors’ opinion on this issue, and what ethicists have said about it as well. There is a lot of ground to cover across all these perspectives, and Maddy’s careful organization makes it all clear. One of my favorite parts is when she dives into the ethical considerations of genetic testing and uses the David Craig piece to divide these arguments into different categories that she then connects with specific examples. In so doing, she provides an excellent example of merging outside sources with original content in order to make sense of a very complex issue.

— Matthew Fledderjohann

This paper is a response to a contextual analysis assignment. We were asked to pick a culturally relevant theme and evaluate the topic through at least three different perspectives. Originally, I planned to write about Planned Parenthood and reproductive health. I wanted to work with a topic that was controversial and would challenge me to learn about multiple sides of the debate. After completing some preliminary research, my interests evolved from reproductive rights to learning more about genetic testing.

I had very little knowledge on the subject prior to this project, but I liked that it was a relatively new field of medicine. Before looking into scholarly sources, I spent time reading relevant opinion editorial articles published on the New York Times website. I was able to learn about what genetic testing specifically entails from the perspective of patients and patients’ families, doctors, ethicists, and the consumer genetic testing market. My next step was finding scholarly articles to support the opinions through the specified UW- Madison databases. Although genetic testing is a relatively new science there was a lot of helpful information from a variety of perspectives. After completing my research and crafting a thesis statement that would allow me to incorporate multiple perspectives, I created an outline for the paper and started writing and then rewriting based on the feedback I received from my peers and instructor to create my final piece. I’ve had time to revisit my work on this project and have not identified any significant changes, although I will continue to monitor new research on this very interesting topic.

—  Madeline Long o

Student Writing Award: Critical/Analytical Essay 

Genetic Testing: A Question of Morality  by Madeline Longo is licensed under a  Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Write What Matters Copyright © 2020 by Liza Long; Amy Minervini; and Joel Gladd is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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How to Write a Critical Thinking Essay: Examples & Outline

Critical thinking is the process of evaluating and analyzing information. People who use it in everyday life are open to different opinions. They rely on reason and logic when making conclusions about certain issues.

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A critical thinking essay shows how your thoughts change as you research your topic. This type of assignment encourages you to learn rather than prove what you already know. In this article, our custom writing team will:

• explain how to write an excellent critical essay;
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• 🤔 Critical Thinking Essay Definition
• 💡 Topics & Questions
• ✅ Step-by-Step Guide
• 📑 Essay Example & Formatting Tips
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🔍 References

🤔 what is a critical thinking essay.

A critical thinking essay is a paper that analyses an issue and reflects on it in order to develop an action plan. Unlike other essay types, it starts with a question instead of a thesis. It helps you develop a broader perspective on a specific issue. Critical writing aims at improving your analytical skills and encourages asking questions.

Critical Thinking in Writing: Importance

When we talk about critical thinking and writing, the word “critical” doesn’t have any negative connotation. It simply implies thorough investigation, evaluation, and analysis of information. Critical thinking allows students to make objective conclusions and present their ideas logically. It also helps them avoid errors in reasoning.

The Basics: 8 Steps of Critical Thinking Psychology

Did you know that the critical thinking process consists of 8 steps? We’ve listed them below. You can try to implement them in your everyday life:

It’s possible that fallacies will occur during the process of critical thinking. Fallacies are errors in reasoning that fail to provide a reasonable conclusion. Here are some common types of fallacies:

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• Generalization . It happens when you apply generally factual statements to a specific case.
• Ambiguity . It occurs when the arguments are not clear and are not supported by evidence.
• Appeal to authority . This mistake happens when you claim the statement is valid only because a respected person made it.
• Appeal to emotion . It occurs when you use highly emotive language to convince the audience. Try to stay sensible and rely on the evidence.
• Bifurcation . This mistake occurs when you choose only between two alternatives when more than two exist.
• False analogy . It happens when the examples are poorly connected.

If you want to avoid these mistakes, do the following:

• try not to draw conclusions too quickly,
• be attentive,
• carefully read through all the sources,
• avoid generalizations.

How to Demonstrate Your Critical Thinking in Writing

Critical thinking encourages you to go beyond what you know and study new perspectives. When it comes to demonstrating your critical thinking skills in writing, you can try these strategies:

• Read . Before you start writing an essay, read everything you can find on the subject you are about to cover. Focus on the critical points of your assignment.
• Research . Look up several scholarly sources and study the information in-depth.
• Evaluate . Analyze the sources and the information you’ve gathered. See whether you can disagree with the authors.
• Prove . Explain why you agree or disagree with the authors’ conclusions. Back it up with evidence.

According to Purdue University, logical essay writing is essential when you deal with academic essays. It helps you demonstrate and prove the arguments. Make sure that your paper reaches a logical conclusion.

There are several main concepts related to logic:

If you want your essay to be logical, it’s better to avoid syllogistic fallacies, which happen with certain invalid deductions. If syllogisms are used carelessly, they can lead to false statements and ruin the credibility of your paper.

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💡 Critical Thinking Topics & Questions

An excellent critical thinking essay starts with a question. But how do you formulate it properly? Keep reading to find out.

How to Write Critical Thinking Questions: Examples with Answers

Asking the right questions is at the core of critical thinking. They challenge our beliefs and encourage our interest to learn more.

Here are some examples of model questions that prompt critical thinking:

• What does… mean?
• What would happen if…?
• What are the principles of…?
• Why is… important?
• How does… affect…?
• What do you think causes…?
• How are… and… similar/different?
• How do you explain….?
• What are the implications of…?
• What do we already know about…?

Now, let’s look at some critical thinking questions with the answers. You can use these as a model for your own questions:

Question: What would happen if people with higher income paid more taxes?

• Answer: It would help society to prosper and function better. It would also help people out of poverty. This way, everyone can contribute to the economy.

Question: How does eating healthy benefit you?

• Answer: Healthy eating affects people’s lives in many positive ways. It reduces cancer risk, improves your mood and memory, helps with weight loss and diabetes management, and improves your night sleep.

Critical Thinking Essay Topics

Have you already decided what your essay will be about? If not, feel free to use these essay topic examples as titles for your paper or as inspiration. Make sure to choose a theme that interests you personally:

Get an originally-written paper according to your instructions!

• What are the reasons for racism in healthcare ?
• Why is accepting your appearance important?
• Concepts of critical thinking and logical reasoning .
• Nature and spirit in Ralf Waldo Emerson ’s poetry.
• How does technological development affect communication in the modern world?
• Social media effect on adolescents.
• Is the representation of children in popular fiction accurate?
• Domestic violence and its consequences.
• Why is mutual aid important in society?
• How do stereotypes affect the way people think?
• The concept of happiness in different cultures.
• The purpose of environmental art .
• Why do people have the need to be praised ?
• How did antibiotics change medicine and its development?
• Is there a way to combat inequality in sports ?
• Is gun control an effective way of crime prevention?
• How our understanding of love changes through time.
• The use of social media by the older generation.
• Graffiti as a form of modern art .
• Negative health effects of high sugar consumption.
• Why are reality TV shows so popular?
• Why should we eat healthily ?
• How effective and fair is the US judicial system ?
• Reasons of Cirque du Soleil phenomenon.
• How can police brutality be stopped?
• Freedom of speech : does it exist?
• The effects of vaccination misconceptions .
• How to eliminate New Brunswick’s demographic deficit: action plan .
• What makes a good movie ?
• Critical analysis of your favorite book.
• The connection between fashion and identity .
• Taboo topics and how they are discussed in gothic literature .
• Critical thinking essay on the problem of overpopulation .
• Does our lifestyle affect our mental health ?
• The role of self-esteem in preventing eating disorders in children .
• Drug abuse among teenagers.
• Rhetoric on assisted suicide .
• Effects of violent video games on children’s mental health.
• Analyze the effect stress has on the productivity of a team member.
• Discuss the importance of the environmental studies .
• Critical thinking and ethics of happy life.
• The effects of human dignity on the promotion of justice.
• Examine the ethics of advertising the tobacco industry.
• Reasons and possible solutions of research misconduct.
• Implication of parental deployment for children.
• Cultural impact of superheroes on the US culture.
• Examine the positive and negative impact of technology on modern society.
• Critical thinking in literature: examples.
• Analyze the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on economic transformation.
• Benefits and drawbacks of mandatory vaccination .

Haven’t found a suitable essay idea? Try using our topic generator !

✅ How to Write a Critical Thinking Essay Step by Step

Now, let’s focus on planning and writing your critical thinking essay. In this section, you will find an essay outline, examples of thesis statements, and a brief overview of each essay part.

Critical Thinking Essay Outline

In a critical thinking essay, there are two main things to consider: a premise and a conclusion :

• A premise is a statement in the argument that explains the reason or supports a conclusion.
• A conclusion indicates what the argument is trying to prove. Each argument can have only one conclusion.

When it comes to structuring, a critical thinking essay is very similar to any other type of essay. Before you start writing it, make sure you know what to include in it. An outline is very helpful when it comes to structuring a paper.

How to Start a Critical Essay Introduction

An introduction gives readers a general idea of an essay’s contents. When you work on the introduction, imagine that you are drawing a map for the reader. It not only marks the final destination but also explains the route.

An introduction usually has 4 functions:

• It catches the reader’s attention;
• It states the essay’s main argument;
• It provides some general information about the topic;
• It shows the importance of the issue in question.

Here are some strategies that can make the introduction writing easier:

• Give an overview of the essay’s topic.
• Express the main idea.
• Define the main terms.
• Outline the issues that you are going to explore or argue about.
• Explain the methodology and why you used it.
• Write a hook to attract the reader’s attention.

Critical Analysis Thesis Statement & Examples

A thesis statement is an integral part of every essay. It keeps the paper organized and guides both the reader and the writer. A good thesis:

• expresses the conclusion or position on a topic;
• justifies your position or opinion with reasoning;
• conveys one idea;
• serves as the essay’s map.

To have a clearer understanding of what a good thesis is, let’s have a look at these examples.

The statement on the left is too general and doesn’t provide any reasoning. The one on the right narrows down the group of people to office workers and specifies the benefits of exercising.

Critical Thinking Essay Body Paragraphs: How to Write

Body paragraphs are the part of the essay where you discuss all the ideas and arguments. In a critical thinking essay, arguments are especially important. When you develop them, make sure that they:

• reflect the key theme;
• are supported by the sources/citations/examples.

Using counter-arguments is also effective. It shows that you acknowledge different points of view and are not easily persuaded.

In addition to your arguments, it’s essential to present the evidence . Demonstrate your critical thinking skills by analyzing each source and stating whether the author’s position is valid.

To make your essay logically flow, you may use transitions such as:

• Accordingly,
• For instance,
• On the contrary,
• In conclusion,
• Not only… but also,
• Undoubtedly.

How to Write a Critical Thinking Conclusion

In a critical thinking essay, the notion of “conclusion” is tightly connected to the one used in logic. A logical conclusion is a statement that specifies the author’s point of view or what the essay argues about. Each argument can have only one logical conclusion.

Sometimes they can be confused with premises. Remember that premises serve as a support for the conclusion. Unlike the conclusion, there can be several premises in a single argument. You can learn more about these concepts from the article on a logical consequence by Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Keeping this in mind, have a look at these tips for finishing your essay:

• Briefly sum up the main points.
• Provide a final thought on the issue.
• Suggest some results or consequences.
• Finish up with a call for action.

📑 Critical Thinking Essays Examples & Formatting Tips

Formatting is another crucial aspect of every formal paper. MLA and APA are two popular formats when it comes to academic writing. They share some similarities but overall are still two different styles. Here are critical essay format guidelines that you can use as a reference:

Finally, you’re welcome to check out a full critical essay sample in MLA format. Download the PDF file below:

Currently, the importance of critical thinking has grown rapidly because technological progress has led to expanded access to various content-making platforms: websites, online news agencies, and podcasts with, often, low-quality information. Fake news is used to achieve political and financial aims, targeting people with low news literacy. However, individuals can stop spreading fallacies by detecting false agendas with the help of a skeptical attitude.

✍️ Bonus Tips: Critical Thinking and Writing Exercises

Critical thinking is a process different from our regular thinking. When we think in everyday life, we do it automatically. However, when we’re thinking critically, we do it deliberately.

So how do we get better at this type of thinking and make it a habit? These useful tips will help you do it:

• Ask basic questions. Sometimes, while we are doing research, the explanation becomes too complicated. To avoid it, always go back to your topic.
• Question basic assumptions. When thinking through a problem, ask yourself whether your beliefs can be wrong. Keep an open mind while researching your question.
• Think for yourself. Avoid getting carried away in the research and buying into other people’s opinions.
• Reverse things. Sometimes it seems obvious that one thing causes another, but what if it’s the other way around?
• Evaluate existing evidence. If you work with sources, it’s crucial to evaluate and question them.

Another way to improve your reasoning skills is to do critical thinking exercises. Here are some of them:

Thanks for reading through our article! We hope that you found it helpful and learned some new information. If you liked it, feel free to share it with your friends.

Further reading:

• Critical Writing: Examples & Brilliant Tips [2024]
• How to Write a Rhetorical Analysis Essay: Outline, Steps, & Examples
• How to Write an Analysis Essay: Examples + Writing Guide
• How to Write a Critique Paper: Tips + Critique Essay Examples
• How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay Step by Step
• Critical Thinking and Writing: University of Kent
• Steps to Critical Thinking: Rasmussen University
• 3 Simple Habits to Improve Your Critical Thinking: Harvard Business Review
• In-Class Writing Exercises: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Demonstrating Critical Thinking in Writing: University of South Australia
• 15 Questions that Teachers and Parents Can Ask Kids to Encourage Critical Thinking: The Hun School
• Questions to Provoke Critical Thinking: Brown University
• How to Write a College Critical Thinking Essay: Seattle PI
• Introductions: What They Do: Royal Literary Fund
• Thesis Statements: Arizona State University
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• Original article
• Open access
• Published: 30 June 2020

Effects of using inquiry-based learning on EFL students’ critical thinking skills

• Bantalem Derseh Wale 1 &
• Kassie Shifere Bishaw 2  

Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education volume  5 , Article number:  9 ( 2020 ) Cite this article

37k Accesses

23 Citations

Metrics details

The aim of this study was to examine the effects of using inquiry-based learning on students’ critical thinking skills. A quasi-experimental design which employed time series design with single group participants was used. A total of 20 EFL undergraduate students who took advanced writing skills course were selected using comprehensive sampling method. Tests, focus group discussion, and student-reflective journal were used to gather data on the students’ critical thinking skills. The participants were given a series of three argumentative essay writing pretests both before and after the intervention, inquiry-based argumentative essay writing instruction. While the quantitative data were analyzed using One-Way Repeated Measures ANOVA, the qualitative data were analyzed through narration. The findings of the study revealed that using inquiry-based argumentative writing instruction enhances students’ critical thinking skills. Therefore, inquiry-based instruction is suggested as a means to improve students’ critical thinking skills because the method enhances students' interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation skills which are the core critical thinking skills.

Introduction

Critical thinking is the ability to ask and/or answer insightful questions in a most productive way in order to reach on a comprehensive understanding (Hilsdon, 2010 ). It consists interpretation, analysis, evaluation, synthesize explanation, inference, and self-regulation. Empowering critical thinking skills among students in higher education especially in academic writing through the integration of critical thinking into the teaching learning process is essential in order to develop students’ problem solving, decision making and communication skills (Abdullah, 2014 ; Adege, 2016 ; McLean, 2005 ). Inquiry-based learning develops students’ critical thinking skills because it helps students to develop interpreting, analyzing, evaluating, inferring, explaining, and self-regulation skills which are the core critical thinking skills (Facione, 2011 ; Facione & Facione, 1994 ; Hilsdon, 2010 ).

The level of thinking depends on the level of questioning as long as the questioning leads to new perspectives (Buranapatana, 2006 ). When students learn to ask their own thought-provoking questions in and outside the classroom, and provide explanatory answers, they are well on the way to self-regulation of their learning. In inquiry-based writing instruction, students engaged in writing lessons and tasks that enhance their ability to apply these critical thinking skills because the method emphasize to produce texts through inquisition and investigation. In writing, when students’ written papers realize these skills, the students considered that their critical thinking skills are developed.

Inquiry-based learning is the act of gaining knowledge and skills through asking for information (Lee, 2014 ). It is a discovery method of learning that involves students in making observations; posing questions; examining sources; gathering, analyzing, interpreting, and synthesizing data; proposing answers, explanations and predictions; communicating findings through discussion and reflection; applying findings to the real situation, and following up new questions that may arise in the process. Inquiry-based learning emphasizes students’ abilities to critically view, question, and explore various perspectives and concepts of the real world. It takes place when the teacher facilitates and scaffolds learning than gives facts and knowledge so that students engage in investigating, questioning, and explaining their world in a student-centered learning environment.

Although inquiry-based learning is intended for science as it is classified as scientific approach, it can be implemented in language field. Rejeki ( 2017 ) mentioned that inquiry-based language learning is useful in promoting lifelong education that enables EFL learners to continue the quest for knowledge throughout life. Similarly, Lee ( 2014 ) stated that inquiry-based learning is an analogy for communicative approach. The principles of inquiry-based learning are compatible with Communicative Language Teaching because communicative approach focuses on communicative proficiency rather than mere mastery of structure to develop learners’ communicative competence as to inquiry-based learning. Inquiry-based learning is, therefore, a form of Communicative Language Teaching which serves to bring down the general principles of communicative approach, and implement in language classrooms in an inquisitive and discovery manner (Lee, 2014 ; Qing & Jin, 2007 ; Richards & Rodgers, 2001 ). While communicative approach is an umbrella of various active language learning methods, inquiry-based learning is one of the active learning methods that drive learning through inquisition and investigation. It mainly focuses on discovery and learner cognitive development to be achieved using thoughtful questions.

In inquiry-based writing instruction, students engaged in pre-writing tasks through generating ideas, narrowing and clarifying topics; exploring information on their writing topics from various sources; explaining their discoveries gained from the exploration, and elaborating their thinking through transforming their understanding into the real world situation. When students come up through this distinct process in manipulating such tasks, their critical thinking skills can be enhanced because this process develops students’ ability to analyze, synthesis, and evaluate concepts.

This study also revealed that students’ critical thinking skills has been enhanced through inquiry-based writing instruction because the method focuses on the process of knowledge discovery that involves students in seeking, collecting, analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating information; creating ideas, and solving problems through communication, collaboration, deep thinking, and learner autonomy. The study can contribute to the field of foreign language learning by possibly leading English language teachers and learners into a more effective language learning method. The study has applicable significances to EFL teachers to understand the nature and application of inquiry-based learning.

Literature review

Developing students’ critical thinking skills through inquiry-based writing instruction.

Inquiry-based learning develops students’ critical thinking skills because the method improves the students’ mental activities such as interpretation, analysis, evaluation, explanation, inference, and self-regulation. Previous studies have shown that students’ critical thinking abilities are significantly higher when students are taught through inquiry-based learning comparing with traditional teaching methods. Having a free medium of student learning class where students will share good experiences through an inquiry process that is based on curiosity is a preferred learning method to the act of teaching that characterized with teaching by forced (Ahmad, Sitti, Abdul, Mohammad, & Sanitah, 2014 ; Iakovos, 2011 ).

By using inquiry-based learning in writing lessons, students can develop critical thinking skills, and learn how to generate and organize ideas through investigation or/and discussion to find out alternative ideas, and produce sound written papers. Accordingly, students who used inquiry-based learning techniques in their language learning are better achievers because they have an active role in choosing the writing topics, and on developing the outcomes of their own investigations. Inquiry-based learning has impacts in EFL classes to help students improve the target language, and develop other abilities needed to understand this constantly changing world. When students participate in real life situations, they can develop effective research skills, adapt and respond better to change, and they are also prepared to the development of critical thinking skills (Escalante, 2013 ; Ismail, 2006 ; Lessner & Craig, 2010 ).

Similar studies conducted by Ash and Kluger-Bell ( 2012 ); Byker, Harden, Heafner, and Holzberg ( 2017 ); Ahmad et al. ( 2014 ) discovered that learners preferred and performed much better with confirmation level of inquiry compared to guided, structured and open inquiry because teachers provide every needed conditions and allow the student the freedom to learn independently in the confirmation level. In the same vein, Ghaemi and Mirsaeed ( 2017 ) investigated the impacts of inquiry-based learning approach on critical thinking skill of EFL students, and revealed that doing inquiry-based activities in EFL classroom increased the critical thinking ability of the students.

Finally, Naryanti ( 2017 ) who conducted an action research to explore the extent to which inquiry-based learning method can improve grade eight students’ ability in writing a descriptive text find out that inquiry-based learning method is able to improve the students’ descriptive writing skills. The students concerned actively in the learning process, especially in conveying their opinions, asking and responding questions, and enthusiasm in producing written texts.

In sum, the aforementioned studies indicated that using inquiry-based learning in ESL/EFL writing classroom improves students’ critical thinking skills, and help them to become lifelong mind seekers. However, most of the aforementioned studies were conducted on pretest-posttest two groups design unlike the present study which followed single group pretest-posttest design employing time serious design. On the other hand, the finding of these study show the effects of using inquiry-based learning excluding the local context, where the present study was conducted. However, in the study area, inquiry-based learning seems to have been a missing feature of English as a foreign language leaning in general and writing skills in particular. Thus, examining the effects of using inquiry-based learning on EFL students’ critical thinking skills in the local context was relevant to fill the research gap.

Why inquiry-based learning for EFL students’ critical thinking skills?

Critical thinking plays a significant role for higher education ESL/EFL learners’ in order to produce sound written texts including argumentative essays (Klimova, 2013 ; Ghaemi & Mirsaeed, 2017 ). However, various studies conducted on students’ critical thinking skills and writing performance revealed that students are commonly challenged to support their arguments through referring to and synthesizing academic sources due to poor reasoning and unsupported claims. Especially, synthesizing sources is a complex task to second and foreign language learners to comprehend, paraphrase, and summarize written texts (Alagozlu, 2007 ; Goodwin, 2014 ). Evaluating and synthesizing sources into their own writing are the elements of critical thinking that students find challenging to express their own academic thoughts (Ahmad et al., 2014 ; Melles, 2009 ; Wette, 2010 ).

Fostering critical thinking skills is a challenging task nowadays since learners are exposed to an enormous information influx, such as the Internet (Klimova, 2013 ). They are offered pre-chewed chunks of ideas and opinions and often, they are not made to think about them. However, a critical thinker should be alerted and in his/ her inquisitive nature inquire, judge and evaluate all such sources critically. Hence, using inquiry-based learning in writing classes is helpful to foster students’ critical thinking skills.

Paul and Elder ( 2007 ) states that the conventional way of teaching, the product approach, is criticized in its inadequacy to prepare university graduates to deal with existing complex situations, because students are assumed to develop critical thinking skills depending on books, lecture notes, and handouts. It also led students learn with lack of interest on topics, receive rather than to think critically and search for knowledge. The students were not mostly motivated to observe their environment critically, inquire things, investigate problems, and create new knowledge (Ferris & Hedgcock, 2013 ; Graham, MacArthur, & Fitzgerald, 2013 ; Yen, 2014 ). However, in learning situations like inquiry-based learning where critical thinking is emphasized; students aim to understand ideas with range of explorations and follow new leads; learn with curiosity or interest of topics, and reach on implications.

Local researchers like Daniel ( 2004 ); Dawit and Yalew ( 2008 ) find out that conventional teaching methods are still in use though teachers are expected to use active learning methods. The lecture method, which is considered as the conventional method of teaching, is used in colleges that teachers usually focus on giving lectures, and students depend primarily on lecture where discovery is not that much encouraged. The researcher’s language teaching experience also shows that students were not that much learning to improve their critical thinking skills in writing classes. In other terms, the students’ papers were not adequately developed due to lack of interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation. However, there are no local studies conducted to investigate the effects of using inquiry-based writing instruction in EFL context. Therefore, the present study examines the effects of using inquiry-based learning on EFL students’ critical thinking skills since the method involves students in seeking, collecting, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information based on student interest.

Research question

This study was designed to answer the following research question:

What are the effects of using inquiry-based learning on EFL students’ critical thinking skills?

Research methodology

Design of the study.

The research design of the study was quasi-experimental that employs a time series design with single group participants. For the purpose of this study, the participants were given a series of three argumentative essay writing pretests before the intervention, inquiry-based argumentative writing instruction, and other three similar series of argumentative essay writing posttests.

Participants

In this study, a total of 20 EFL second year undergraduate university students who were enrolled for advanced writing skills course were selected using comprehensive sampling method. In the students’ university stay, Advanced Writing Skills Course is the final writing course given to them. Before this course, the students have taken both Communicative English Skills and Basic Writing Skills, and Intermediate Writing Skills Courses in their university stay. Earlier to these university courses, they have learned English language subject beginning from grade one to university.

Data gathering instruments

The data on the students’ critical thinking skills were gathered through tests, focus group discussion, and student-reflective journal.

The test that comprises both pretests and posttests was used to gather data on students’ critical thinking skills. Three consecutive argumentative essay writing pre-tests were given to understand the students’ existing critical thinking skills. Likewise, other three consecutive argumentative essay writing posttests were also given to determine the effects of the intervention, whether students’ critical thinking skills were improved. The tests were developed by the researchers considering the students’ local context and their background knowledge.

The critical thinking skills rubric was adapted from Facione ( 2015 ), “Critical Thinking: What It is and Why It Counts” (from APA Report: Expert Consensus Statement on Critical Thinking) incorporating common critical thinking skills including interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, and explanation. The rubric is a four point scale from one to four that refers to poor, good, very good, and excellent respectively. Two experienced EFL university teachers marked students’ argumentative essays independently based on the given criteria. Training on the use of the rubric was given to the raters. Inter-rater reliability was calculated with Pearson’s correlations (Pearson’s, r), and it was 0.75 which shows the reliability of the test.

Focus group discussion

The focus group discussion was needed to gather qualitative data on students’ critical thinking skills empowerment. The students were asked to forward their views on the relevance of inquiry-based learning to enhance their skills to interpret, analyze, evaluate, infer, explain, and self-regulate in writing argumentative essays.

Student-reflective journal

The Student-Reflective Journal was employed to collect data on the effectiveness of inquiry-based learning on students’ critical thinking skills. Accordingly, the participants were reported their feelings on the effectiveness of inquiry-based learning method and their critical thinking skills empowerment.

Procedure and data collection

In the data collection, first, a teaching material used to teach argumentative essay writing was prepared using the literature in accordance with inquiry-based learning method and critical thinking skills. In other terms, the teaching was developed in the way that enable the students to make observations; pose questions; examine sources; gather, analyze, interpret, and synthesize data; propose answers, explain and predict; communicate findings through discussion and reflection; apply their findings to the real situation, and follow up new questions that arise in the process because these are the focuses of inquiry-based learning. On the other hand, it also developed in the way that enable students to interpret, analyze, infer, evaluate, explain, and self-regulate which are the core critical thinking skills. In sum, the teaching material was prepared considering the components of inquiry-based learning, and critical thinking skills.

Then, three consecutive argumentative essay writing pre-tests were administered to the students to identify their critical thinking performance before the intervention. Following the pre-tests, the intervention was given.

The intervention was an inquiry-based argumentative essay writing instruction delivered for 4 weeks using the aforementioned teaching material. In the teaching-learning process students discover their own writing topics, generate ideas, evaluate what they have and what they need, gather and evaluate information from different sources, write up drafts with evidences, discuss with colleague and subject area experts for feedback, and write up essays related to their real life situation. When the intervention was given, the Student-Reflection Journal was collected from the students.

Next to the completion of the teaching-learning practice, the participants were given three consecutive argumentative essay writing post-tests which were identical with the pre-tests. The post-tests were needed to determine whether the inquiry-based essay writing instruction make improvements on students’ critical thinking skills. By the completion of the post-tests, the focus group discussion was conducted.

Data analysis methods

The quantitative data which were gathered through pre-tests and post-tests were analyzed using One-Way Repeated Measures ANOVA , using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 23 software program. One-Way Repeated Measures ANOVA was used to examine whether there were differences on students’ critical thinking skills in writing argumentative essays before and after the intervention. On the other hand, the qualitative data which were collected through focus group discussion and student-reflective journal were analyzed through narration.

Result and discussion

Essay writing tests.

The students were given three essay writing pretests and other three essay writing posttests in order to measure their critical thinking skills before and after the intervention. Accordingly, this section presents the students’ test results gained from the pretests and posttests which were analyzed using One Way Repeated Measures ANOVA .

Table 1 indicates that the students’ Mean scores in Pretest-1, Pretest-2, and Pretest-3, were 38.15, 38.00, and 38.35, respectively. The table also depicts that the students’ Mean scores in Posttest-1, Posttest − 2, and Posttest − 3, were 65.90, 65.70, and 66.25, respectively. From these results, we can understand that the students’ Mean scores in the pretests were similar. Likewise, their Mean scores in the Posttests were also similar. However, when the Mean scores in the Pretests and Posttests were compared, they have differences. In other words, the students’ Mean scores in the posttests were greater than those of the pretests. It indicates that the intervention made the differences on the students’ pretest and posttest Mean scores. In sum, it can be understood that the inquiry-based argumentative essay writing instruction has positive effects on the students’ critical thinking skills.

The findings of this study imply that inquiry-based learning has improved EFL students’ critical thinking skills which includes interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, explanation, and self-regulation. In line with this research finding, previous studies also show that inquiry-based learning has positive impacts on students’ critical thinking skills. Ash and Kluger-Bell ( 2012 ) find out that by using inquiry-based learning in writing lessons, students develop critical thinking skills, and learn how to generate and organize ideas through investigation or/and discussion to find out alternative ideas, and produce sound written papers. Inquiry-based learning is appropriate when deep discipline knowledge; higher-order thinking skills or strategies including reasoning skills; adequate motivational beliefs or attitude and value are intended as learning outcomes, rather than lower-order thinking skills like, to recall facts.

Table 2 shows the Within-Subjects Effects of the tests. In the table, the Sphericity Assumed indicated that 5 with-in subjects df, and 95 errors df . The Mean Square is 4632.348 with 8.468 F, and Significance value is .000. F (5, 95) = 547.065, p  < 0.005. It means that the students test scores have differences based on time, but the differences in all times are not the same.

Thus, in order to identify the difference among each of the test scores, Post Hoc analysis was run. The Post Hoc analysis for a repeated measures variable is a paired sample t-test.

Table 3 depicts that there were no difference between pretest-1 and pretest-2 (.603); pretest-1 and pretest-3 (.163); pretest-2 and pretest-3 (.273). In the same manner, there were no differences between posttest-1 and posttest-2 (.464); posttest-1 and posttest-3 (.376); posttest-2 and posttest-3 (.280). In contrast, there were differences in all of the remaining combinations (.000). It indicates that the differences were made due to the intervention given to the students. Thus, it can be concluded that the inquiry-based argumentative writing instruction improves the students’ critical thinking skills.

This finding shows that using inquiry-based learning in EFL classroom fosters students’ abilities to interpret, analyze, infer, evaluate, explain, and self-regulate which are the core critical thinking skills. In line with this research finding, Ghaemi and Mirsaeed ( 2017 ) revealed that doing inquiry-based activities in EFL classroom increased the critical thinking ability of the students which enable them to analyze, evaluate, and explain information. Thus, it shows that using inquiry-based writing instruction enhances students’ critical thinking skills.

The students’ focus group discussion result revealed that the use of inquiry-based learning in argumentative essay writing classes can enhance students’ critical thinking skills. Most of the focus group discussion participants reported that they had not wrote effective argumentative essays before they use inquiry-based learning method. However, after using this method of learning, they have developed their critical thinking skills including interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation. For instance, one of the participants reported that his critical thinking skills have been enhanced after learning argumentative essay writing through inquiry-based learning method because he has developed the way to interpret, analyze, and evaluate information. He can generate logical ideas which are better to persuade his audiences, and write essays without emotional feelings.

The other focus group discussion participant voiced that the learning method empowers her critical thinking skills because before using inquiry-based learning her writings were not appropriate for audience. However, after taking the lessons in the intervention, she knows what to write considering her purpose and audience, how to analyze information, and how to produce reasonable argumentative essays.

The other student also mentioned his performance as follows:

My critical thinking skills such as interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation are very good now. Especially, when I pick two points from these points, analysis and evaluation, I can analyze and evaluate written arguments because of the inquiry-based essay writing instruction. So now, I can easily interpret, analyze, and evaluate data, and even regulate myself to write my argumentative essay to persuade my audience.

In a similar manner, another participant also reported that in inquiry-based learning, she discovered her writing topic, searched for information, and evaluated, criticized and analyzed the collected data, and wrote drafts, incorporated necessary feedbacks, and produced effective essays in contrast to the previous methods. She further explained that during this process, her critical thinking skills were enhanced due to the instruction given through inquiry-based learning. Similarly, another respondent also said that after learning through inquiry-based learning, his critical thinking skills were enhanced. As he further elaborated, he could become to analyze and evaluate information in writing argumentative essays while using this method.

In addition, the students reported that the critical thinking skills that they enhanced in the teaching learning process were relevant to their real life situations. One of them stated that “every English language graduate person and critical thinking towards writing dependently go together. I am going to do two things in the future as an English graduate man. These are critically writing texts and critically evaluating what another person has written. So, I think, the critical thinking skills that I developed through inquiry-based writing instruction are helpful to the rest of my life”.

The students mentioned that critical thinking helps in their work life as university graduate students because it has a lot of things for them. According to their speech, they should be competitive enough to become successful in their work life. So, being a good critical thinker helps to think differently, and to be successful. They further voiced that skills can also help them to make good decisions in their real life situations apart from their working environment. In sum, the students’ focus group discussion results indicated that the students’ critical thinking skills including interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation were enhanced due to the inquiry-based writing instruction. In the same manner, Ghaemi and Mirsaeed ( 2017 ) revealed that most of the participants who used inquiry-based learning believed that their critical thinking abilities changed positively. Therefore, it is worth mentioning that there should be opportunities for students to have enough exposure to inquiry-based learning.

The data gained from the students’ reflective journal indicated that when the students used inquiry-based essay writing instruction, they have developed their critical thinking skills including interpretation, analysis, and evaluation, synthesize, inference, explanation, and self-regulation. They note that the strategies used in the teaching learning process and incorporated in the teaching material were effective to improve their critical thinking skills. The students reported that the way they learned argumentative writing has enhanced their critical thinking skills like interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation.

In line with this finding, a study conducted in Whittier College, USA to assess students’ feedback on the effectiveness of inquiry-based teaching in second language pedagogy shows that the method reinforced students’ understanding of the course material (Lee, 2014 ). In addition, McLean ( 2005 ); Abdullah ( 2014 ); Adege ( 2016 ) also revealed that empowering critical thinking skills among students in higher education especially in academic writing through the integration of critical thinking into the teaching learning process is essential in order to develop students’ problem solving, decision making and communication skills which are needed for their future carrier.

Therefore, based on the findings of the study, all together, it can be understood that using inquiry-based learning in argumentative essay writing class empowers students’ critical thinking skills including interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation. In other terms, when the students have used inquiry-based argumentative writing instruction, they comprehend and expressed the meaning of their writing issues and judgments in their argumentative essays. They recognized the then argumentative issues and described them in their essays. The students have collected data on their topics and constructed categories of protagonist and antagonist ideas for their argumentative essay development. They also paraphrased ideas taken from other sources in their own words. These indicate that the students have developed their interpretation skills which is one of the core critical thinking skills.

In the same vein, the students have enhanced their analysis skills through inquiry-based learning. In inquiry-based writing instruction, the students identified the intended and actual inferential relationships among statements to express beliefs in their argumentative writing. The students examined ideas, detected, and analyzed arguments in their writing. They identified the similarities and differences between opposing ideas in developing their persuasive essays. The students drafted the relationship of sentences or/and paragraphs to each other and the main purpose of their argumentative essays. They also constructed convincing reasons to support or criticize a given argumentative idea, and reach on a strong conclusion. Thus, it shows that the students have enhanced their analysis skills which is one of the core critical thinking skills.

The results revealed that the students have developed their evaluation skills using inquiry-based instruction. In other words, in the teaching-learning process, the students have determined the credibility of their source of information while they gathered data for their writing topics. They assessed and compared the logical strengths and weaknesses of opposing arguments. They also judged whether the evidence at their hands did not contradict each other, and support their conclusion. Finally, they judged if their arguments in their argumentative essays were relevant and applicable in an existing real-life situation. It implies that the students have developed their evaluation skills, one of the core critical thinking skills through inquiry-based learning.

The students have also enhanced their inference skills in writing their argumentative essays through inquiry. This means that the students have identified pertinent thoughts needed to draw reasonable conclusions in their essays. In doing so, they formed conjectures and hypotheses; considered the relevant information, and educed consequences flowing their data. They questioned their evidence, conjectured alternatives, and drawn conclusions when they developed argumentative essays through inquiry-based learning. They constructed meaning from their readings and formulated synthesis of related ideas into a coherent perspective to produce sound argumentative essays.

Beyond interpretation, analysis, evaluation, and inference, the students explained what they think, and how they arrived at their judgments in developing their essays. In other terms, the students have developed their explanation skills due to the inquiry-based writing instruction. They have presented their argumentative essays in a cogent and coherent way. They stated and justified reasons in terms of their evidential and contextual considerations upon which their results were based. They presented their reasons in the form of persuasive arguments in their essays. They also reflected on the methods, procedures, and techniques (in the classroom) they used in writing their argumentative essays.

Finally, the data gained from the student-reflective journal and focus group discussion revealed that the students have developed their self-regulation skills, which is one of the core critical thinking skills, through using inquiry-based learning. Accordingly, the students confirmed that they self-consciously monitored or corrected their judgments in analyzing and evaluating contradictory ideas in producing their argumentative essays. They questioned themselves to examine, correct, and confirm their reasons for producing essays. They double-checked their reasons by recalculating their evidence. The students reconsidered their interpretations and judgments in the view of further analysis. They revised their answers in view of the errors they discovered in their argumentative essay writing. Even, they have changed some of their concluding ideas in view of the realization that they had misjudged the importance of certain factors when coming to their earlier decisions. Altogether, using inquiry-based argumentative writing instruction enhanced EFL students’ interpretation, analysis, evaluation, inference, explanation, and self-regulation skills which are the core critical thinking skills.

In sum, though the findings of this study are in line with previous studies, most of them have examined the enhancement of critical thinking skills through using inquiry-based learning in writing classes in general rather than showing the effects of the method in argumentative essay writing classes in particular. Thus, the present study exclusively revealed the effects of using inquiry-based argumentative essay writing instruction on EFL students’ critical thinking skills. In other terms, it contributed to the existing literature in disclosing the effects of using inquiry-based argumentative writing instruction on EFL students’ critical thinking skills. Besides, the present study can contribute to the field of English as a foreign language education by showing the effects of using inquiry-based learning on students’ critical thinking skills in the local context where this study has been conducted. This is because, in the study area, inquiry-based learning seems to have been a missing feature of English as a foreign language learning.

Conclusion and implication

The findings of the study revealed that the use of inquiry-based learning in foreign language learning classroom empowers students’ critical thinking skills. Inquiry-based learning has positive impacts on students’ critical thinking skills which include interpretation, analysis, inference, evaluation, explanation, and self-regulation. In other terms, when the students have used inquiry-based argumentative essay writing instruction in their academic writing classes, they have comprehended and expressed their essay writing queries (interpretation); identified and examined arguments, reasons and claims (analysis); identified elements of claims, estimated alternatives, and drawn reasonable conclusions in writing their argumentative essays (inference). In the same manner, they also assessed the credibility of claims and quality of arguments made in their conclusions (evaluation); stated results, justified procedures, and presented arguments (explanation), and consciously monitored and corrected their writing activity (self-regulation) in producing argumentative essays. Thus, the students have developed their critical thinking skills by using inquiry-based argumentative writing instruction.

In inquiry-based writing instruction, the students discover writing topics; explore information on their topics; explain their discoveries, and elaborate their thinking through transforming their understanding into their real life situations. Thus, when the students came up through this distinct process in manipulating such tasks, their critical thinking skills enhance because this process develops the students’ abilities to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate various thoughts. Using inquiry-based learning in argumentative writing class enhance the students’ argumentative essay writing performance since the method enables them to discover their own writing topics, generate ideas, gather and evaluate information, write up drafts with evidences, discuss with colleagues and subject area experts, and produce sound argumentative essays.

When the students use inquiry-based learning in argumentative essay writing lessons, they generate and organize ideas through investigation and discussion, and later produce sound written texts. The students develop reasoning skills, collaborative working, and make connections to real life experiences when they learn through inquiry-based learning. The critical thinking skills that the EFL students develop through the inquiry-based writing instruction are relevant to their future working environment to write convincing texts and critically evaluate what other individuals have written. The abilities to interpret, analyze, evaluate, infer, explain, and self-regulate help the university students to be lifelong learners, and to be competitive enough in their future working life.

Therefore, inquiry-based writing instruction is suggested as a means to improve EFL students’ critical thinking skills because the method incorporates activity oriented learning, logical arguments, and collaboration. This is to imply the need to promote inquiry-based learning which is based on a discovery approach that mostly involve students in seeking, collecting, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information based on students’ interest. It is because using inquiry-based learning in writing classes promotes students’ academic performance and makes students active, problem solver, autonomous, and lifelong learners. Accordingly, EFL teachers should use inquiry-based learning in their language classrooms in order to develop students’ critical thinking skills. Similarly, teaching material developers need to consider the inquiry-based learning principles in developing language teaching materials so that students’ improve their critical thinking skills. Students should also use the inquiry-based learning techniques to produce effective argumentative texts, to be critical thinkers, and become lifelong learners.

Finally, the number of participants and the time given to the intervention were relatively small. However, it does not mean that the findings of the study are not representative since the selected participants have similarities with other students. In addition, it does not mean that the intervention is completely inadequate since the students practiced the whole inquiry process repeatedly. It is to mean that the findings of the study would have been more representatives and convincing if a greater number of participants had been included, and more time to the intervention had been used in the study. As a result, such future exploration would have contributed to the current study and is certainly an area ripe for future research. Furthermore, future studies should be also conducted on the effects of using inquiry-based learning on students’ speaking, reading, and listening skills to widen the use of inquiry-based learning in EFL instruction.

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Abbreviations

English as a Foreign Language

Analysis of Variance

Statistical Package for Social Sciences

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Wale, B.D., Bishaw, K.S. Effects of using inquiry-based learning on EFL students’ critical thinking skills. Asian. J. Second. Foreign. Lang. Educ. 5 , 9 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40862-020-00090-2

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• Inquiry-based learning
• Critical thinking skills
• Argumentative essay
• Writing instruction
• Time series design
• English as a foreign language