Introduction
High school students are not required
to review or analyse books and authors’ ideas for which critical writing is
basically used, they can instead be introduced to it through writing about the ideas
they are the most familiar with and which they have to support or reject calmly
and reasonably. Training on using logical evidence to prove or disapprove an
idea is the start. In this early stage of critical writing, the students get to
learn how to use solid arguments to support or rebut an idea or a notion. The
students should bear in mind that critical writing is not descriptive or
evocative, neither is it criticism for the sake of criticism.
Critical writing is based on
logic, evidence and persuasion where vague and common standpoints have no place
within this type of serious work. No emotions, no opinionated attitudes, no conceit
or weak evidence, no readymade authoritative assertions are allowed in critical
writing. The students should learn to be unbiased, inflexible, steady, but also
logical and reasonable in their methods. As they learn to evaluate everything
they come across and not just accept it as it is, they also learn to write taking
into consideration that the readers will most probably evaluate their product critically
before they accept it. This is a valuable gain even for outside school
situations. Once the students get acquainted
with these conditions and regulations, they will have a much smoother access to
higher academic education, and labour market.
For a start, the learners should
bear in mind that, at the University, critical writing is a tough task in the
sense that it is almost scientific in its procedure. It is systematic and
methodical. The students must make research to be able to “criticise” an
author, a book or an idea. When criticising a literary work for instance, they
must read a lot and conduct analysis to which results they have to commit. They
also should check if the arguments have logical coherence or not and if they
are supported by relevant evidence. Besides, they must check if the reasons are
related to each other leading to a valid conclusion. They should go further and
see if the author is biased. To be prepared for all this, the high school
students should at least be trained through the basics of critical writing, but
via academically approved models.
At the first glance these
conditions look excessive and very complicated for EFL learners. This might be
true in part, but the more they practice it this way, the less stupid pieces of
writing they do, and the more they accept to write. Teachers know how students
behave towards writing, and the amount of despise they have for it. This is due
to their ignorance of how to handle writing from the beginning to the end. Sometimes
they write whatever they have in mind just like on social media. Without models
to follow, they are like walking in the dark, they would stumble and fall and
maybe give in. So, any procrastinating is an immense waste of precious
opportunities.
