Critical analysis versus description? Examining the relationship in successful student writing  

Oleh:

Woodward-Kron, R.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: Journal of English for Academic Purposes (Full Text) vol. 1 no. 2 (2002), page 121–143.
Fulltext: Woodward-Kron_R.pdf (186.9KB)

Isi artikel

In Western tertiary contexts, critical analysis is firmly established as one of the most desirable characteristics of student writing. In subject guidelines and assessment criteria, the distinction between successful and less successful writing is often couched in terms of critical analysis as opposed to description. Student writing which merely describes aspects of theories, issues or concepts is not highly valued. A functional linguistic investigation of 20 successful essays written by trainee teachers shows, however, that forms of descriptive writing such as naming, taxonomising, and reporting are intrinsic to students’ attempts at critical analysis. This paper argues that descriptive writing has an important role in disciplinary learning for novice students. It also argues that the discussion of critical analysis and critical thinking in tertiary learning could benefit from a linguistic perspective on how critical analysis is realised in student writing. This could assist educators in demystifying for novice writers what critical analysis is.

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