How do writing assignments contribute to developing critical thinking skills?
Both formal and informal writing assignments in “W” courses employ and enlarge critical thinking skills. Critical thinking within the context of “W” courses does not refer to some arcane intellectual skill taught only in formal logic classes, but rather to the kind of thinking that college students will be expected to do in all their courses, such as: defining, generalizing, analyzing, summarizing, classifying, evaluating, explaining, comparing/contrasting, causal analysis, process analysis, analogizing and synthesizing. The writing component of a Writing Across the Curriculum (W) course, then, teaches a student how to demonstrate more than merely writing skills, but thinking skills as well.