Analysis Of ' The Maker 's Eye ' By Donald Murray

Writing, and literacy in general, is one of the founding cornerstones of modern society. It is difficult to find any sort of occupation that doesn’t require at least some basic writing skills. From business managers to lawyers to doctors, despite their notoriously bad handwriting, all require intimate knowledge of writing skills. Yet, teaching critical writing skills is not the cure-all to solving the problems that the public education system faces in producing students better prepared to tackle the challenges of the world as Peg Tyre portrays it as in The Writing Revolution. Critical writing skills, despite its current underemphasis in the classroom, should not be the only focus of the public school system’s curriculum as Peg Tyre suggests in The Writing Revolution, because critical writing skills do not prepare students adequately enough for the standards of the real world which require more technical skills, critical writing skills only teaches a small subset of underlying critical thinking skills, and critical writing skills education, as presented by Peg Tyre, is formulaically based which can result in long-term inability to further student’s critical writing skills despite initial success.

By examining the ideas in the essays Freewriting by Peter Elbow and The Makers Eye: Revising your own manuscripts by Donald Murray. One can gain a better understanding of the process of turning a piece of writing from an inspiration into a craft. By examining the elements lined out in each essay can be beneficial in creating a piece of writing that is beyond a college or student level. Elbows essay lines out the importance of a strong prewriting regimen. That editing too early can ruin writing. He believes that by using the method of free writing, it can inspire ideas that may be limited when worrying about grammar. While Murray emphasizes the necessity to create many drafts to form writing into its full potential. Saying each draft is an opportunity to discover what the author has to say and they the best way to say it. By transforming writing into its maximum potential it goes from being an idea an inspiration a masterpiece.

To begin, essay writing and critical thinking, as taught in this course, are useful skills that will continue to be used throughout my lifetime. Essay writing is essential for myself as I am required to write numerous papers throughout my years as a student and as a nurse. Furthermore, it allows me to better communicate my thoughts, ideas, as well as increases my critical thinking skills, and professionalism; all of which are useful skills

Donald Murray provides strong advice on the drafting process in his essay, The Maker’s Eye. By beginning with a boost in confidence, Murray reassures his reader that everyone, even the most renowned writers have to start somewhere. In explaining what he perceives to be the chronological order of the writing process, he tells his readers to: “detach themselves from their own pages so they can apply both their caring and their craft to their own work” (Murray 1). In order to understand how one’s audience perceives a piece, they must remove themselves and be critical. Murray continues by describing the seven elements one must consider in constructing their first draft: subject, audience, form, structure, development, dimension, and tone. In tackling

Most of the time in literature, voice is simply the way a person writes. But in the critical thinking process, voice is more than that: it is the manner in which a person expresses themselves through speech and writing, and what opinions they have on certain issues. Every voice is different because each has been influenced by different circumstances.

When thinking about effective reading and writing, a lot of terms come to mind. Terms such as comprehension, writing fluency, etc. Yet one thing I noticed is that these terms can be addressed by one simple idea. The most important aspect of reading and writing has to do with being “critically engaged”. What this means is that you are able to maximize your effectiveness in terms of pacing, time management, and analyzation.

Critical thinking is a term often emphasized in college-level classes, but studies suggest that the majority of students entering college lack an understanding of critical thinking as a concept, let alone how to apply it to reasoning (Crockett). But this issue of ignorance goes deeper than a lack of instruction in schools. According to Rowles and associates, there isn’t a definitive definition for critical thinking among scholars. Through their study of faculty perceptions, the researchers found that definitions varied widely among the staff, but a few common themes could be seen within the data.

Writing is more than simply picking up a pencil and making lines or hitting keys on a keyboard. The amount of thought that goes into a piece is what gives it value. This is why critical thinking is one of the most important things for a writer. Most papers are constructed through multiple sources or ideas; however, a writer must maintain an independent voice while synthesizing different views or their voice will be lost in a jumble of separate ideas. In order to synthesize different ideas, writers must be able to see different perspectives. By objecting one side of an argument and countering its stance, the writing becomes powerful because it can change minds. Synthesizing ideas, opposing positions, and independent are all factors that create

“Critical Thinking in college writing: From the Personal to the Academic” by Git DasBender, focuses on how to approach critical thinking and writing. The text explains that Critical thinking doesn’t always mean criticizing the writer, but understanding what was written so you can provide a thoughtful and well informed opinion. A key component of forming such opinions is by reading attentively. This can be done by listing relevant questions, ideas and quotes. In order to form a personal response it can be done by telling a story, or by reflecting on a key point or idea of writing a letter.

Welcome to College Critical Reading 101. This essay will discuss the two books, and assignments in this course. This course will teach you critical thinking skills via varied challenging reading materials. The main focus of this course is to teach students how to evaluate information, while developing critical thinking skills. The two books you need are available online, the professor will assign PowerPoints and various online discussions and activities.

Secondly, Greene and Rose both seem to agree that reading critically and actively is important reading strategy for college student. Greene believes that reading critically which means asking questions about what the author’s arguments are and deciding if students agree or disagree with the author’s arguments is more vital than merely accepting information from the reading. The author seems to believe so because reading actively leads to developing students’ own claims. Some maintain that reading critically is an important reading strategies because “reading entails […] using framing concepts in order to shed light on our own ideas or the ideas of others” (Greene 32). In this quote, framing means asking questions what are author’s arguments and why does he claim the argument when students read.

In this article Critical Analysis: What It Is and Why It Counts, by Facione, it discusses the components and structure of reading critically. Facione approaches this topic by describing the differences of analyzing critically versus analyzing poorly. He also describes the thought process and intellectual correlation between critical analysis and typical behaviors regarding people’s ability to analyze situations.

Preparation is the key to effectively writing an essay. At least that was what I have always believed. In actuality, the key to writing an effective essay is being open-minded, and a critical thinker. I always believed that I was an open-minded, and a critical thinker, until attending English 49. This semester, I realized that it is hard for me to accept new ideas and concepts. For the writing reflection, I will explain the issues I had accepting criticism, and new ideas while writing the first to essays; and how I was able to fix my problems by the third essay.

Throughout life, people in many positions attain knowledge that can be of use in a variety of different ways, such as a job, a social setting, or an educational setting. Throughout the first semester of freshman year at the University of Oklahoma I was a participant in a Principles of English Composition class that was intellectually challenging whilst still maintaining the expectations of a first year English class. In the semester of English 1113, the class discussed discursive practices, metacognition, critical reflection, and strategies to transfer knowledge that has been gained to other events in our lives. Learning about the structures of discourses and how writing is constructed specifically to the context by which the writing is

Is there an art to thinking that, when cultivated into its full potential, will improve the quality of a college student’s work? College students may become overwhelmed when writing. This is typically because they have not developed critical thinking. These students do not have a thought process that analyzes and evaluates with a view to improve it (Paul and Elder 4). A college student who is a critical thinker, however, often strays away from egocentric thinking, applies the universal intellectual standards, and possesses the essential intellectual traits (Paul and Elder).