Title
Teaching Critical and Creative Thinking Skills as Part of the Technical Communications Curriculum
Date of Completion
9-1989
Document Type
Open Access Capstone
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
First Advisor
Delores B. Gallo
Second Advisor
John Murray
Third Advisor
Robert Swartz
Abstract
I incorporated critical thinking instruction in the writing curriculum by using three writing projects: journal writing, a policy paper on AIDS, and an assignment to evaluate grammar checkers. In their journal writing students both generated and evaluated ideas. In the AIDS project, they reinforced these convergent and divergent thinking skills within the context of a real-world issue. For the software project, students practiced thinking skills in an arena that was more technical and objective, but in which they were evaluating fundamental writing criteria. These diverse assignments, based on a philosophically compatible approach to the teaching of writing, helped students develop critical and creative thinking skills along with content knowledge and effective written expression.
Recommended Citation
Harrington, Anne, "Teaching Critical and Creative Thinking Skills as Part of the Technical Communications Curriculum" (1989). Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection. 138.
https://scholarworks.umb.edu/cct_capstone/138