Expressing Critical Thinking through Disciplinary Texts: Insights from Five Genre Studies

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Description

Exploring how critical thinking is expressed in writing, this book investigates the specific linguistic elements involved in this process. Ian Bruce takes a genre-based approach to compare the textual expression of critical thinking in samples of academic, professional and journalistic writing, using five studies to examine the similarities and differences in the elements deployed across different genres. Looking at phenomena such as the relations between propositions and words which express the writers personal attitude, content-organizing patterns, and the role of metaphor, this book highlights the most important contributory factors in the expression of critical thinking. Providing an in-depth exploration of how it is articulated through different types of specialist writing, this book provides a lens to both examine texts and to identify and practice this skill.

Reviews

This book represents a flowering of many years of Bruces published work in the area. His theoretical analysis of how different genres actualize critical thinking will serve as an important resource to educators seeking to help their learners to understand the often-unspoken rules of their respective academic communities. * Gregory Hadley, Professor of Sociolinguistics and Western Cultural Studies, Niigata University, Japan *
Critical thinking is widely vaunted as a must-have attribute in education and the modern workplace. What it means, though, is nebulous. Anyone wanting to know what critical thinking actually looks like in writing should read this book. Ian Bruce brings his own take on genre analysis to bear on diverse texts to show its more complex than many might believe. By revealing key features of critical thinking, this book should be of real value to scholars and educators wishing to demonstrate or teach this essential skill. * Karl Maton, Professor and Director of the LCT Centre for Knowledge-Building, University of Sydney, Australia *

Author Bio

Ian Bruce is Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.