Features of Critical Writing and Descriptive Writing
Read through the following list of statements and decide which ‘category’ they are features of
- which are features of descriptive writing and which are features of critical analytic writing?
Answers are given below for you to check against.
Academic Skills Advice service
www.brad.ac.uk/academic-skills/
Answers
The Features Listed
This means the following statements are features of descriptive writing:
States what happened
States what something is like
Gives the story so far
States the order things in which things happened
Says how to do something
Explains what a theory says
Explains how something works
Notes the methods used
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Identifies why the timing is of importance
Says when something occurred
Whilst the following are features of critical analytic writing:
dence
The end...
As can be seen by the list of descriptive features there are a number of important things that
description can achieve in academic writing. Description can be an important part of
demonstrating that knowledge you have acquired or concepts which will drawn upon in a text.
It is simply that writing for academic purposes does not stop there: description can be vital to
full understanding but demonstrating critical thinking about an issue, research problem or
dilemma posed in an essay question or in a discussion section of a scientific paper is what
higher education is about. Whether you are showing critical understanding of an entire issue
or simply showing that you understand that sources you have read may not be without
deficiencies or merit, it is evidence of critical thinking which your course is aiming to foster
and reward.
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