Critical Thinking

Daily Update
Today's focus was critical thinking, which we initially explored by looking at Frida Kahlo's painting Two Fridas, which you see above. We explored how to "read" texts--including art--on three interdependent levels: literal, figurative, and applicative.

The literal level includes what actually happened in a text--things that people would find very little if anything to disagree about. When you think about writing, a summary is an example of writing on the literal level: you're simply reporting what happened in a given text.

The second level is the interpretive level. When you read interpretively (which we could also call analytically, although there's some difference between the two) you're looking beyond what a text literally says and starting to figure out what it means. You ask questions, you look for connections between parts of a text, you try to figure out what an author is trying to commmunicate as well as how you as a reader interpret the text's meaning.

The third level is the applicative level, where you look at how you can apply the text's meaning to other ideas, situations, texts, etc. Sometimes this level is also called the synthetic level, since synthesis is the act of making connections between different or seemingly unconnected ideas.

Each of these levels matters when you're working to read and write critically. Chapter 10 of Literature for Composition, which you should have read for today's class, gives a concise but thorough overview of critical thinking, reading, and writing.


Homework Reminder
Your homework for Friday is to submit a revised copy of Essay 2 for me to review. Be sure to STAPLE the peer reviewed drafts to the revision you submit to me.