Summary/response essay

Critical Thinking in College Writing: From the Personal to the Academic by Gita DasBender

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Critical Thinking in College Writing: From the Personal to the Academic

Gita DasBender

There is something about the term “critical thinking” that makes you draw a blank every time you think about what it means.* It seems so fuzzy and abstract that you end up feeling uncomfortable, as though the term is thrust upon you, demanding an intellectual effort that you may not yet have. But you know it requires you to enter a realm of smart, complex ideas that others have written about and that you have to navigate, understand, and interact with just as intelligently. It’s a lot to ask for. It makes you feel like a stranger in a strange land.

As a writing teacher I am accustomed to reading and responding to difficult texts. In fact, I like grappling with texts that have interest- ing ideas no matter how complicated they are because I understand their value. I have learned through my years of education that what ultimately engages me, keeps me enthralled, is not just grammatically pristine, fluent writing, but writing that forces me to think beyond the page. It is writing where the writer has challenged herself and then of- fered up that challenge to the reader, like a baton in a relay race. The idea is to run with the baton.

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You will often come across critical thinking and analysis as require- ments for assignments in writing and upper-level courses in a variety of disciplines. Instructors have varying explanations of what they actual- ly require of you, but, in general, they expect you to respond thought- fully to texts you have read. The first thing you should remember is not to be afraid of critical thinking. It does not mean that you have to criticize the text, disagree with its premise, or attack the writer simply because you feel you must. Criticism is the process of responding to and evaluating ideas, argument, and style so that readers understand how and why you value these items.

Critical thinking is also a process that is fundamental to all disci- plines. While in this essay I refer mainly to critical thinking in com- position, the general principles behind critical thinking are strikingly similar in other fields and disciplines. In history, for instance, it could mean examining and analyzing primary sources in order to under- stand the context in which they were written. In the hard sciences, it usually involves careful reasoning, making judgments and decisions, and problem solving. While critical thinking may be subject-specif- ic, that is to say, it can vary in method and technique depending on the discipline, most of its general principles such as rational thinking, making independent evaluations and judgments, and a healthy skepti- cism of what is being read, are common to all disciplines. No matter the area of study, the application of critical thinking skills leads to clear and flexible thinking and a better understanding of the subject at hand.

To be a critical thinker you not only have to have an informed opinion about the text but also a thoughtful response to it. There is no doubt that critical thinking is serious thinking, so here are some steps you can take to become a serious thinker and writer.

Attentive Reading: A Foundation for Critical Thinking

A critical thinker is always a good reader because to engage critically with a text you have to read attentively and with an open mind, ab- sorbing new ideas and forming your own as you go along. Let us imag- ine you are reading an essay by Annie Dillard, a famous essayist, called “Living like Weasels.” Students are drawn to it because the idea of the essay appeals to something personally fundamental to all of us: how to

Critical Thinking in College Writing 39

live our lives. It is also a provocative essay that pulls the reader into the argument and forces a reaction, a good criterion for critical thinking.

So let’s say that in reading the essay you encounter a quote that gives you pause. In describing her encounter with a weasel in Hollins Pond, Dillard says, “I would like to learn, or remember, how to live . . . I don’t think I can learn from a wild animal how to live in particular . . . but I might learn something of mindlessness, something of the purity of living in the physical senses and the dignity of living without bias or motive” (220). You may not be familiar with language like this. It seems complicated, and you have to stop ever so often (perhaps after every phrase) to see if you understood what Dillard means. You may ask yourself these questions:

• What does “mindlessness” mean in this context? • How can one “learn something of mindlessness?” • What does Dillard mean by “purity of living in the physical

senses?” • How can one live “without bias or motive?”

These questions show that you are an attentive reader. Instead of simply glossing over this important passage, you have actually stopped to think about what the writer means and what she expects you to get from it. Here is how I read the quote and try to answer the questions above: Dillard proposes a simple and uncomplicated way of life as she looks to the animal world for inspiration. It is ironic that she admires the quality of “mindlessness” since it is our consciousness, our very capacity to think and reason, which makes us human, which makes us beings of a higher order. Yet, Dillard seems to imply that we need to live instinctually, to be guided by our senses rather than our intellect. Such a “thoughtless” approach to daily living, according to Dillard, would mean that our actions would not be tainted by our biases or motives, our prejudices. We would go back to a primal way of living, like the weasel she observes. It may take you some time to arrive at this understanding on your own, but it is important to stop, reflect, and ask questions of the text whenever you feel stumped by it. Often such questions will be helpful during class discussions and peer review sessions.

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Listing Important Ideas

When reading any essay, keep track of all the important points the writer makes by jotting down a list of ideas or quotations in a note- book. This list not only allows you to remember ideas that are central to the writer’s argument, ideas that struck you in some way or the other, but it also you helps you to get a good sense of the whole reading assignment point by point. In reading Annie Dillard’s essay, we come across several points that contribute toward her proposal for better liv- ing and that help us get a better understanding of her main argument. Here is a list of some of her ideas that struck me as important:

1. “The weasel lives in necessity and we live in choice, hating ne- cessity and dying at the last ignobly in its talons” (220).

2. “And I suspect that for me the way is like the weasel’s: open to time and death painlessly, noticing everything, remembering nothing, choosing the given with a fierce and pointed will” (221).

3. “We can live any way we want. People take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience—even of silence—by choice. The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse” (221).

4. “A weasel doesn’t ‘attack’ anything; a weasel lives as he’s meant to, yielding at every moment to the perfect freedom of single necessity” (221).

5. “I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you” (221).

These quotations give you a cumulative sense of what Dillard is trying to get at in her essay, that is, they lay out the elements with which she builds her argument. She first explains how the weasel lives, what she learns from observing the weasel, and then prescribes a lifestyle she admires—the central concern of her essay.

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Noticing Key Terms and Summarizing Important Quotes

Within the list of quotations above are key terms and phrases that are critical to your understanding of the ideal life as Dillard describes it. For instance, “mindlessness,” “instinct,” “perfect freedom of a single necessity,” “stalk your calling,” “choice,” and “fierce and pointed will” are weighty terms and phrases, heavy with meaning, that you need to spend time understanding. You also need to understand the relation- ship between them and the quotations in which they appear. This is how you might work on each quotation to get a sense of its meaning and then come up with a statement that takes the key terms into ac- count and expresses a general understanding of the text:

Quote 1: Animals (like the weasel) live in “necessity,” which means that their only goal in life is to survive. They don’t think about how they should live or what choices they should make like humans do. According to Dillard, we like to have options and resist the idea of “necessity.” We fight death—an inevitable force that we have no control over—and yet ulti- mately surrender to it as it is the necessary end of our lives.

Quote 2: Dillard thinks the weasel’s way of life is the best way to live. It implies a pure and simple approach to life where we do not worry about the passage of time or the approach of death. Like the weasel, we should live life in the moment, in- tensely experiencing everything but not dwelling on the past. We should accept our condition, what we are “given,” with a “fierce and pointed will.” Perhaps this means that we should pursue our one goal, our one passion in life, with the same single-minded determination and tenacity that we see in the weasel.

Quote 3: As humans, we can choose any lifestyle we want. The trick, however, is to go after our one goal, one passion like a stalker would after a prey.

Quote 4: While we may think that the weasel (or any animal) chooses to attack other animals, it is really only surrendering to the one thing it knows: its need to live. Dillard tells us there is “the perfect freedom” in this desire to survive because to

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her, the lack of options (the animal has no other option than to fight to survive) is the most liberating of all.

Quote 5: Dillard urges us to latch on to our deepest passion in life (the “one necessity”) with the tenacity of a weasel and not let go. Perhaps she’s telling us how important it is to have an unwavering focus or goal in life.

Writing a Personal Response: Looking Inward

Dillard’s ideas will have certainly provoked a response in your mind, so if you have some clear thoughts about how you feel about the essay this is the time to write them down. As you look at the quotes you have selected and your explanation of their meaning, begin to create your personal response to the essay. You may begin by using some of these strategies:

1. Tell a story. Has Dillard’s essay reminded you of an experience you have had? Write a story in which you illustrate a point that Dillard makes or hint at an idea that is connected to her essay.

2. Focus on an idea from Dillard’s essay that is personally im- portant to you. Write down your thoughts about this idea in a first person narrative and explain your perspective on the issue.

3. If you are uncomfortable writing a personal narrative or using “I” (you should not be), reflect on some of her ideas that seem important and meaningful in general. Why were you struck by these ideas?

4. Write a short letter to Dillard in which you speak to her about the essay. You may compliment her on some of her ideas by explaining why you like them, ask her a question related to her essay and explain why that question came to you, and genu- inely start up a conversation with her.

This stage in critical thinking is important for establishing your rela- tionship with a text. What do I mean by this “relationship,” you may ask? Simply put, it has to do with how you feel about the text. Are you amazed by how true the ideas seem to be, how wise Dillard sounds? Or are you annoyed by Dillard’s let-me-tell-you-how-to-live approach and disturbed by the impractical ideas she so easily prescribes? Do you find Dillard’s voice and style thrilling and engaging or merely confus-

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ing? No matter which of the personal response options you select, your initial reaction to the text will help shape your views about it.

Making an Academic Connection: Looking Outward

First year writing courses are designed to teach a range of writing— from the personal to the academic—so that you can learn to express advanced ideas, arguments, concepts, or theories in any discipline. While the example I have been discussing pertains mainly to college writing, the method of analysis and approach to critical thinking I have demonstrated here will serve you well in a variety of disciplines. Since critical thinking and analysis are key elements of the reading and writing you will do in college, it is important to understand how they form a part of academic writing. No matter how intimidating the term “academic writing” may seem (it is, after all, associated with advanced writing and becoming an expert in a field of study), embrace it not as a temporary college requirement but as a habit of mind.

To some, academic writing often implies impersonal writing, writ- ing that is detached, distant, and lacking in personal meaning or rel- evance. However, this is often not true of the academic writing you will do in a composition class. Here your presence as a writer—your thoughts, experiences, ideas, and therefore who you are—is of much significance to the writing you produce. In fact, it would not be far- fetched to say that in a writing class academic writing often begins with personal writing. Let me explain. If critical thinking begins with a personal view of the text, academic writing helps you broaden that view by going beyond the personal to a more universal point of view. In other words, academic writing often has its roots in one’s private opinion or perspective about another writer’s ideas but ultimately goes beyond this opinion to the expression of larger, more abstract ideas. Your personal vision—your core beliefs and general approach to life— will help you arrive at these “larger ideas” or universal propositions that any reader can understand and be enlightened by, if not agree with. In short, academic writing is largely about taking a critical, ana- lytical stance toward a subject in order to arrive at some compelling conclusions.

Let us now think about how you might apply your critical think- ing skills to move from a personal reaction to a more formal academic

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response to Annie Dillard’s essay. The second stage of critical thinking involves textual analysis and requires you to do the following:

• Summarize the writer’s ideas the best you can in a brief para- graph. This provides the basis for extended analysis since it contains the central ideas of the piece, the building blocks, so to speak.

• Evaluate the most important ideas of the essay by considering their merits or flaws, their worthiness or lack of worthiness. Do not merely agree or disagree with the ideas but explore and explain why you believe they are socially, politically, philo- sophically, or historically important and relevant, or why you need to question, challenge, or reject them.

• Identify gaps or discrepancies in the writer’s argument. Does she contradict herself? If so, explain how this contradiction forces you to think more deeply about her ideas. Or if you are confused, explain what is confusing and why.

• Examine the strategies the writer uses to express her ideas. Look particularly at her style, voice, use of figurative lan- guage, and the way she structures her essay and organizes her ideas. Do these strategies strengthen or weaken her argument? How?

• Include a second text—an essay, a poem, lyrics of a song— whose ideas enhance your reading and analysis of the primary text. This text may help provide evidence by supporting a point you’re making, and further your argument.

• Extend the writer’s ideas, develop your own perspective, and propose new ways of thinking about the subject at hand.

Crafting the Essay

Once you have taken notes and developed a thorough understanding of the text, you are on your way to writing a good essay. If you were asked to write an exploratory essay, a personal response to Dillard’s es- say would probably suffice. However, an academic writing assignment requires you to be more critical. As counter-intuitive as it may sound, beginning your essay with a personal anecdote often helps to establish your relationship to the text and draw the reader into your writing. It also helps to ease you into the more complex task of textual analysis. Once you begin to analyze Dillard’s ideas, go back to the list of im-

Critical Thinking in College Writing 45

portant ideas and quotations you created as you read the essay. After a brief summary, engage with the quotations that are most important, that get to the heart of Dillard’s ideas, and explore their meaning. Textual engagement, a seemingly slippery concept, simply means that you respond directly to some of Dillard’s ideas, examine the value of Dillard’s assertions, and explain why they are worthwhile or why they should be rejected. This should help you to transition into analysis and evaluation. Also, this part of your essay will most clearly reflect your critical thinking abilities as you are expected not only to represent Dillard’s ideas but also to weigh their significance. Your observations about the various points she makes, analysis of conflicting viewpoints or contradictions, and your understanding of her general thesis should now be synthesized into a rich new idea about how we should live our lives. Conclude by explaining this fresh point of view in clear, compel- ling language and by rearticulating your main argument.

Modeling Good Writing

When I teach a writing class, I often show students samples of really good writing that I’ve collected over the years. I do this for two rea- sons: first, to show students how another freshman writer understood and responded to an assignment that they are currently working on; and second, to encourage them to succeed as well. I explain that al- though they may be intimidated by strong, sophisticated writing and feel pressured to perform similarly, it is always helpful to see what it takes to get an A. It also helps to follow a writer’s imagination, to learn how the mind works when confronted with a task involving critical thinking. The following sample is a response to the Annie Dillard es- say. Figure 1 includes the entire student essay and my comments are inserted into the text to guide your reading.

Though this student has not included a personal narrative in his essay, his own world-vievvw is clear throughout. His personal point of view, while not expressed in first person statements, is evident from the very beginning. So we could say that a personal response to the text need not always be expressed in experiential or narrative form but may be present as reflection, as it is here. The point is that the writer has traveled through the rough terrain of critical thinking by starting out with his own ruminations on the subject, then by critically analyzing and responding to Dillard’s text, and finally by developing a strong

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Building  our  Lives:  The  Blueprint  Lies  Within  

We  all  may  ask  ourselves  many  questions,  some  serious,  some  less  

important,  in  our  lifetime.  But  at  some  point  along  the  way,  we  all  will  

take  a  step  back  and  look  at  the  way  we  are  living  our  lives,  and  wonder  if  

we  are  living  them  correctly.  Unfortunately,  there  is  no  solid  blueprint  for  

the  way  to  live  our  lives.  Each  person  is  different,  feeling  different  

emotions  and  reacting  to  different  stimuli  than  the  person  next  to  them.  

Many  people  search  for  the  true  answer  on  how  to  live  our  lives,  as  if  

there  are  secret  instructions  out  there  waiting  to  be  found.  But  the  truth  

is  we  as  a  species  are  given  a  gift  not  many  other  creatures  can  claim  to  

have:  the  ability  to  choose  to  live  as  we  want,  not  as  we  were  necessarily  

designed  to.  Even  so,  people  look  outside  of  themselves  for  the  answers  

on  how  to  live,  which  begs  me  to  ask  the  question:  what  is  wrong  with  

just  living  as  we  are  now,  built  from  scratch  through  our  choices  and  

memories?    

Annie  Dillard’s  essay  entitled  “Living  Like  Weasels”  is  an  exploration  

into  the  way  human  beings  might  live,  clearly  stating  that  “We  could  live  

any  way  we  want”  (Dillard  211).  Dillard’s  encounter  with  an  ordinary  

weasel  helped  her  receive  insight  into  the  difference  between  the  way  

human  beings  live  their  lives  and  the  way  wild  animals  go  about  theirs.  As  

a  nature  writer,  Dillard  shows  us  that  we  can  learn  a  lot  about  the  true  

way  to  live  by  observing  nature’s  other  creations.  While  we  think  and  

debate  and  calculate  each  and  every  move,  these  creatures  just  simply  

act.  The  thing  that  keeps  human  beings  from  living  the  purest  life  

possible,  like  an  animal  such  as  the  weasel,  is  the  same  thing  that  

separates  us  from  all  wild  animals:  our  minds.  Human  beings  are  

creatures  of  caution,  creatures  of  undeniable  fear,  never  fully  living  our  

lives  because  we  are  too  caught  up  with  avoiding  risks.  A  weasel,  on  the    

Comment:  Even  as  the  writer  starts   with  a  general  introduction,  he   makes  a  claim  here  that  is  related  to   Dillard’s  essay.  

Comment:  The  student  asks  what   seems  like  a  rhetorical  question  but   it  is  one  he  will  answer  in  the  rest   of  his  essay.  It  is  also  a  question   that  forces  the  reader  to  think   about  a  key  term  from  the  text— “choices.”  

Comment:  Student  summarizes   Dillard’s  essay  by  explaining  the   ideas  of  the  essay  in  fresh  words.      

Critical Thinking in College Writing 47

other  hand,  is  a  creature  of  action  and  instinct,  a  creature  which  lives  its  

life  the  way  it  was  created  to,  not  questioning  his  motives,  simply  striking  

when  the  time  to  strike  is  right.  As  Dillard  states,  “the  weasel  lives  in  

necessity  and  we  live  in  choice,  hating  necessity  and  dying  at  the  last  

ignobly  in  its  talons”  (Dillard  210).    

It  is  important  to  note  and  appreciate  the  uniqueness  of  the  ideas  

Dillard  presents  in  this  essay  because  in  some  ways  they  are  very  true.  

For  instance,  it  is  true  that  humans  live  lives  of  caution,  with  a  certain  

fear  that  has  been  built  up  continually  through  the  years.  We  are  forced  

to  agree  with  Dillard’s  idea  that  we  as  humans  “might  learn  something  of  

mindlessness,  something  of  the  purity  of  living  in  the  physical  senses  and  

the  dignity  of  living  without  bias  or  motive”  (Dillard  210).  To  live  freely  

we  need  to  live  our  lives  with  less  hesitation,  instead  of  intentionally  

choosing  to  not  live  to  the  fullest  in  fear  of  the  consequences  of  our  

actions.  However,  Dillard  suggests  that  we  should  forsake  our  ability  of  

thought  and  choice  all  together.  The  human  mind  is  the  tool  that  has  

allowed  a  creature  with  no  natural  weapons  to  become  the  

unquestioned  dominant  species  on  this  plant  planet,  and  though  it  curbs  

the  spontaneity  of  our  lives,  it  is  not  something  to  be  simply  thrown  away  

for  a  chance  to  live  completely  “free  of  bias  or  motive”  (Dillard  210).  We  

are  a  moral,  conscious  species,  complete  with  emotions  and  a  firm  

conscience,  and  it  is  the  power  of  our  minds  that  allows  us  to  exist  as  we  

do  now:  with  the  ability  to  both  think  and  feel  at  the  same  time.  It  grants  

us  the  ability  to  choose  and  have  choice,  to  be  guided  not  only  by  feelings  

and  emotions  but  also  by  morals  and  an  understanding  of  consequence.  

As  such,  a  human  being  with  the  ability  to  live  like  a  weasel  has  given  up  

the  very  thing  that  makes  him  human.    

 

Comment:  Up  until  this  point  the   student  has  introduced  Dillard’s   essay  and  summarized  some  of  its   ideas.  In  the  section  that  follows,   he  continues  to  think  critically   about  Dillard’s  ideas  and  argument.      

Comment:  This  is  a  strong   statement  that  captures  the   student’s  appreciation  of  Dillard’s   suggestion  to  live  freely  but  also  the   ability  to  recognize    why most   people  cannot  live  this  way.  This is a  good  example of critical thinking. thinking—evaluating  the  writer’s   ideas  and  then  presenting   alternate  arguments.    

Comment:  Again,  the  student   acknowledges  the  importance  of   conscious  thought.      

Comment:  While  the  student  does   not  include  a  personal  experience  in   the  essay,  this  section  gives  us  a   sense  of  his  personal  view  of  life.   Also  note  how  he  introduces  the     term  “morals”  here    to  point  out  the   significance  of  the  consequences  of   our  actions.  The  point  is  that  not   only  do  we  need  to  act  but  we  also   need  to  be  aware  of  the  result  of   our  actions.      

Comment:  Student  rejects  Dillard’s   ideas  but  only  after  explaining  why  it   is  important  to  reject  them.        

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Here,  the  first  true  flaw  of  Dillard’s  essay  comes  to  light.  While  it  is  

possible  to  understand  and  even  respect  Dillard’s  observations,  it  should  

be  noted  that  without  thought  and  choice  she  would  have  never  been  

able  to  construct  these  notions  in  the  first  place.  Dillard  protests,  “I  tell  

you  I’ve  been  in  that  weasel’s  brain  for  sixty  seconds,  and  he  was  in  

mine”  (Dillard  210).  One  cannot  cast  oneself  into  the  mind  of  another  

creature  without  the  intricacy  of  human  thought,  and  one  would  not  be  

able  to  choose  to  live  as  said  creature  does  without  the  power  of  human  

choice.  In  essence,  Dillard  would  not  have  had  the  ability  to  judge  the  life  

of  another  creature  if  she  were  to  live  like  a  weasel.  Weasels  do  not  

make  judgments;  they  simply  act  and  react  on  the  basis  of  instinct.  The  

“mindlessness”  that  Dillard  speaks  of  would  prevent  her  from  having  the  

option  to  choose  her  own  reactions.  Whereas  the  conscious-­‐  thinking  

Dillard  has  the  ability  to  see  this  creature  and  take  the  time  to  stop  and  

examine  its  life,  the  “mindless”  Dillard  would  only  have  the  limited  

options  to  attack  or  run  away.  This  is  the  major  fault  in  the  logic  of  

Dillard’s  essay,  as  it  would  be  impossible  for  her  to  choose  to  examine  

and  compare  the  lives  of  humans  and  weasels  without  the  capacity  for  

choice.    

Dillard  also  examines  a  weasel’s  short  memory  in  a  positive  light  

and  seems  to  believe  that  a  happier  life  could  be  achieved  if  only  we  

were  simple-­‐minded  enough  to  live  our  lives  with  absolutely  no  regret.  

She  claims,  “I  suspect  that  for  me  the  way  is  like  the  weasel’s:  open  to  

time  and  death  painlessly,  noticing  everything,  remembering  nothing,  

choosing  the  given  with  a  fierce  and  pointed  will”  (Dillard  210).  In  theory,  

this  does  sound  like  a  positive  value.  To  be  able  to  live  freely  without  a  

hint  of  remembrance  as  to  the  results  of  our  choices  would  be  an    

Comment:  Student  dismantles   Dillard’s  entire  premise  by  telling  us   how  the  very  act  of  writing  the   essay  negates  her  argument.  He  has   not  only  interpreted  the  essay  but   figured  out  how  its  premise  is   logically  flawed.    

Comment:  Once  again  the  student   demonstrates  why  the  logic  of   Dillard’s  argument  falls  short  when   applied  to  her  own  writing.    

Critical Thinking in College Writing 49

interesting  life,  one  may  even  say  a  care-­‐free  life.  But  at  the  same  time,  

would  we  not  be  denying  our  responsibility  as  humans  to  learn  from  the  

mistakes  of  the  past  as  to  not  replicate  them  in  the  future?    Human  

beings’  ability  to  remember  is  almost  as  important  as  our  ability  to  

choose,  because  remembering  things  from  the  past  is  the  only  way  we  

can  truly  learn  from  them.  History  is  taught  throughout  our  educational  

system  for  a  very  good  reason:  so  that  the  generations  of  the  future  do  

not  make  the  mistakes  of  the  past.  A  human  being  who  chooses  to  live  

like  a  weasel  gives  up  something  that  once  made  him  very  human:  the  

ability  to  learn  from  his  mistakes  to  further  better  himself.    

Ultimately,  without  the  ability  to  choose  or  recall  the  past,  mankind  

would  be  able  to  more  readily  take  risks  without  regard  for  

consequences.  Dillard  views  the  weasel’s  reaction  to  necessity  as  an  

unwavering  willingness  to  take  such  carefree  risks  and  chances.  She  

states  that  “it  would  be  well,  and  proper,  and  obedient,  and  pure,  to  

grasp  your  one  necessity  and  not  let  it  go,  to  dangle  from  it  limp  

wherever  it  takes  you”  (Dillard  211).  Would  it  then  be  productive  for  us  

to  make  a  wrong  choice  and  be  forced  to  live  in  it  forever,  when  we  as  a  

people  have  the  power  to  change,  to  remedy  wrongs  we’ve  made  in  our  

lives?  What  Dillard  appears  to  be  recommending  is  that  humans  not  take  

many  risks,  but  who  is  to  say  that  the  ability  to  avoid  or  escape  risks  is  

necessarily  a  flaw  with  mankind?  

If  we  had  been  like  the  weasel,  never  wanting,  never  needing,  

always  “choosing  the  given  with  a  fierce  and  pointed  will”  (Dillard  210),  

our  world  would  be  a  completely  different  place.  The  United  States  of  

America  might  not  exist  at  this  very  moment  if  we  had  just  taken  what  

was  given  to  us,  and  unwaveringly  accepted  a  life  as  a  colony  of  Great  

Britain.  But  as  Cole  clearly  puts  it,  “A  risk  that  you  assume  by  actually    

Comment:  This  is  another   thoughtful  question  that  makes  the   reader  think  along  with  the  writer.    

Comment:  The  writer  sums  up  his   argument  while  once  again   reminding  us  of  the  problem  with   Dillard’s  ideas.    

Comment:  The  student  brings  two   ideas  together  very  smoothly  here.    

Comment:  This  question   represents  excellent  critical   thinking.  The  student   acknowledges  that  theoretically   “remembering  nothing’  may  have   some  merits  but  then  ponders  on   the  larger  socio-­‐political  problem  it   presents.    

Gita DasBender50

doing  something  seems  far  more  risky  than  a  risk  you  take  by  not  doing  

something,  even  though  the  risk  of  doing  nothing  may  be  greater”  (Cole  

145).  As  a  unified  body  of  people,  we  were  able  to  go  against  that  which  

was  expected  of  us,  evaluate  the  risk  in  doing  so,  and  move  forward  with  

our  revolution.  The  American  people  used  the  power  of  choice,  and  risk  

assessment,  to  make  a  permanent  change  in  their  lives;  they  used  the  

remembrance  of  Britain’s  unjust  deeds  to  fuel  their  passion  for  victory.  

We  as  a  people  chose.  We  remembered.  We  distinguished  between  right  

and  wrong.  These  are  things  that  a  weasel  can  never  do,  because  a  

weasel  does  not  have  a  say  in  its  own  life,  it  only  has  its  instincts  and  

nothing  more.      

Humans  are  so  unique  in  the  fact  that  they  can  dictate  the  course  of  

their  own  lives,  but  many  people  still  choose  to  search  around  for  the  

true  way  to  live.  What  they  do  not  realize  is  that  they  have  to  look  no  

further  than  themselves.  Our  power,  our  weapon,  is  our  ability  to  have  

thought  and  choice,  to  remember,  and  to  make  our  own  decisions  based  

on  our  concepts  of  right  and  wrong,  good  and  bad.  These  are  the  only  

tools  we  will  ever  need  to  construct  the  perfect  life  for  ourselves  from  

the  ground  up.  And  though  it  may  seem  like  a  nice  notion  to  live  a  life  

free  of  regret,  it  is  our  responsibility  as  creatures  and  the  appointed  

caretakers  of  this  planet  to  utilize  what  was  given  to  us  and  live  our  lives  

as  we  were  meant  to,  not  the  life  of  any  other  wild  animal.     Comment:  This  final  paragraph   sums  up  the  writer’s  perspective  in   a  thoughtful  and  mature  way.  It   moves  away  from  Dillard’s   argument  and  establishes  the   notion  of  human  responsibility,  an   idea  highly  worth  thinking  about.    

Comment:  The  student  makes  a   historical  reference  here  that  serves   as  strong  evidence  for  his  own   argument.    

Critical Thinking in College Writing 51

point of view of his own about our responsibility as human beings. As readers we are engaged by clear, compelling writing and riveted by critical thinking that produces a movement of ideas that give the essay depth and meaning. The challenge Dillard set forth in her essay has been met and the baton passed along to us.

Discussion

1. Write about your experiences with critical thinking assign- ments. What seemed to be the most difficult? What approach- es did you try to overcome the difficulty?

2. Respond to the list of strategies on how to conduct textual analysis. How well do these strategies work for you? Add your own tips to the list.

3. Evaluate the student essay by noting aspects of critical think- ing that are evident to you. How would you grade this essay? What other qualities (or problems) do you notice?

Works Cited

Dillard, Annie. “Living like Weasels.” One Hundred Great Essays. Ed. Robert DiYanni. New York: Longman, 2002. 217–221. Print.