Intro to 232

This course is analytical writing. We will look into the ways in which writers construct and present their ideas with writing. Mostly, we will be looking into argumentative writing.

Argumentative writing shares a certain faculty of mind with analytical reading, reading that allows us to look beyond main ideas and major supporting details (the kind of reading we do when we read for content). Analytical reading encourages us to interpret as we read and to evaluate the quality of the ideas we are learning. Analytical reading allows us to think critically of both the author's ideas and the way that they presents them to us, the audience.


There are different kinds of writing in composing an analytical piece. If you are concentrating on capturing the essence of the author's ideas, you write to summarize. If you want to interpret what an author has written, you respond by analyzing. If you want to evaluate the quality of information, you critique an author's work.