Think, Read, Write: A Guide to Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing

The significance of Think, Read, Write: A Guide to Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing lies in the ordering of the words: think, read, write. You can’t do the last one without doing the first two. Using the cover picture as a metaphor, thinking is the soil, reading is the seed, and writing is the plant that grows from both of these things. You can also see critical thinking as the water that nourishes your writing; the more you think, the more you water your plant, the better your paper will be, and the bigger your plant will grow. This book teaches writing as a process that begins with thinking. But not just any thinking; there’s thinking, and then there’s critical thinking. A writer needs to be able to think and read critically before they produce their writing. That’s why this book was created: to give students a foundation of critical thinking and reading skills that will nourish their writing skills, culminating in a successful thinker, a successful reader, and a successful writer.

In Think, Read, Write, students learn what critical thinking is, as well as skills to improve thinking. We then move on to reading critically and responding critically to texts. After that, we discuss the process of writing and rhetorical situations to consider when writing. Finally, we learn three different genres of writing, putting our newly formed critical thinking, reading, and writing skills into action. We will learn about conducting formal research, including how to find, evaluate, and incorporate sources into your writing. The last chapter in this book is a style guide to help you with grammar and punctuation.

By learning and practicing “the art of questioning,” students build thinking, reading, and writing skills that will carry them throughout college and beyond. In summary, the purpose of this book is to promote the process of writing based on questioning and thinking, a writing guide that hopefully will empower students to become skilled thinkers and confident writers.