Most of the writing assigned for PDP150: Personal Development and the Liberal Arts is critical reflection.  Critical thinking, according to Richard Paul and Linda Elder's The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking: Concepts and Tools, includes the following elements:

• [raising] vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely;

• [gathering and assessing] relevant information, using abstractions to interpret it effectively;

• [coming] to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards;

• [thinking] open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and

• [communicating] effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems.

The Instructor's Guide to PDP for Fall 2003 explains the connection between reflection and critical thinking in the following way:

Reflective writing includes each of these elements of rigorous critical thinking, with an added emphasis on reconsidering preconceptions, exploring conflicts between competing values and concepts, and carefully considering the implications of various views for the writer's actions. (p. 4)

Using your individual PDP150 instructor's guidelines for your assignments, you will be exploring, analyzing, and commenting upon readings and your experience and goals.  Instructors' expectations for your writing will require that you go far beyond summarizing and reporting information, simply expressing the ideas you had on the topic before you started this semester, or creating a 3-part thesis essay.  Some of the actions you engage in in writing reflectively are exploring in order to conjecture, an action that requires subsequent analysis.  In reaching conclusions through your reflective writing, you will synthesize and re-examine the topic under discussion (Instructor's Guide, p. 6).  

You may find it helpful to look at the Writing Center's page on Understanding Verbs in Writing Assignments.  The Writing Center also provides an overview of MLA Format and helpful tips on avoiding plagiarism by quoting or paraphrasing or summarizing information.

Of course, all of your writing skills that you are developing in ENG101: Effective Writing I--including developing a strong thesis sentence, using topic sentences and transitional wording, using information from your reading in ways that give proper credit to the author(s) of the texts you're learning from, documenting sources, and doing thorough revising, editing, and proofreading--will be useful in completing writing assignments for this course.  Remember that the ENG101 handbook, Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker, has lots of helpful information on these topics.

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Posted by Dr. Trupe Sept. 8, 2003