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Kristopher Warren

Professor Malcolm Campbell

WRDS 1104

March 31, 2022

They’re Dating? The Relationship Between

Critical Thinking and Writing

By definition critical thinking is the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order

to form a judgment. While writing is written work, especially with regard to its style or quality.

With these two definitions in mind, is there a relationship between these two words? Can using

both improve the way you think and write? On the other hand, can you see a difference in your

approach to different things?

There is a quote from a French philosopher named Rene Descartes that says “I think

therefore I am”. Many students tend to not go towards thinking when it comes to improving their

writing. They tend to say mostly to proofread, use a dictionary, or to find their voice as a writer

when they talk about improving. Improving as a writer can happen for everyone but it all comes

from thinking. If you don’t think then you can’t do anything at all. Being a writer comes from

within a person rather than just writing on a piece of paper.

With all of this being said both writing and thinking skills have declined in recent years.

In a study made, 63 percent of employees lack the ability to think critically and solve problems.

While in a 2019 report, the Society for Human Resource Management found that 51 percent of

its members who responded to a survey said that education is the reason that many of these

lacking skills are the way that they are. With a lot of over-emphasis on standardized testing in

public school systems there has been a de-emphasis on the writing part of education. With
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education they have found some connection between critical thinking and writing by showing

that challenging writing assignments are the ideal way for students to explore deep thoughts. For

example, they have studies with data that shows how even the good students' writings are often

shallow because while they are doing the writing they aren’t being encouraged to reach inside

and dig deeply into their subject matter.

From problems in critical thinking we go into some writing aspects of it. Two-time

Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough said, “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think

clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.” Great writing is a combination of many things like observation,

reflection, analysis, and an artful presentation of information. By improving your writing you can

most definitely improve your thinking. Even though it is very simple it is a very misunderstood

relationship between the two. Writing improves the thinking process and also contributes to the

development of critical thinking skills. This is because an individual has to clearly state ideas and

lay out arguments in such a way as to develop a thinking level that is higher than memorizing

facts. When a writer is responding to a complex problem , they have the opportunity to state all

of the ideas they have and explain how they would solve these problems. All of this is the

process of critical thinking in action.

Writing not only helps with thinking but also helps with learning and becoming closer

with a subject. Although, it all circles back to one thing and it is thinking. Studies have shown

that the repeated and reflective nature of the writing process can contribute to the students'

learning while also the writing helps them think. Writing about a subject every day brings you

closer to it whether you think that's true or not. When dealing with large, complex problems, or

writing about a research subject you are moving closer to solving the problem or research subject
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each day by thinking about it right as it comes to mind. For example, writing about these topics

everyday keeps it fresh in your mind.

Writing and thinking isn’t all about the English subject as both of those can come back to

different types of subject to prove how they have such a connection. With pharmacy education

they use writing not as much as most people but do reflective writing in portfolios where they do

self-reflective essays. These are all examples of critical thinking as you have to reflect on

yourself and analyze what has been done. Also, people were expressing concern in the U.S. that

college graduates could not adequately solve problems and think critically. As a result, these

people did a study where they compared critical thinking performance of students who

experienced a laboratory writing treatment with those who only experienced the traditional quiz

based laboratory in a general biology course. Surprisingly not the results indicated that the

writing group significantly improved critical thinking, analysis and inference skills where the

non-writing group did not. This study is a direct result of the information given before with being

shown that with the combination of writing and any subject that there will be a great

improvement in critical thinking that comes with it because of this connection that they have. It

also shows that reflecting with writing can allow you to increase different skills like analysis and

evaluation too not only in critical thinking.

You use critical thinking and writing all the time everyday that we actually never realize

that it is that. With you using them at the same time to figure something out and don’t realize the

actual stuff you do. As you go grocery shopping, caring for your health, evaluating online

information, etc are all examples of critical thinking in our daily lives. Whenever you text on

your phone whether it’s Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, or just through your phone you are writing

in your daily life. You may be using these social media apps just to message but as you are doing
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these messages you are actually using critical thinking as a way to evaluate and analyze what you

want to say and apply it toward a conversation. These types of things that happen create an

unknown relationship that is under our noses the whole time.

In the last 30 years higher education in the U.S. has emphasized the role of critical

thinking and writing when preparing for academic success, the workplace, and life. In classroom

settings teachers try to get you to use this skill of thinking as a way to write and answer questions

better as a student. All of this information given here to show how much of a positive

relationship these two things have toward a person. There is a great improvement in both things

when used together that can lead a person to think and write. People will say that you may not

need critical thinking to write well. This is correct but it won’t be as good as someone that uses

their thinking skills to go through depths of ideas.

With all of this it means one thing: they go best together as a pair to create the best

outcome with any subject. We need to focus on being able to think critically and problem solve

better with the first step being education. There is a need to create a better understanding and

show how much of an impact critical thinking can have on everything in life including writing.

Critical thinking is a necessity in jobs because of problem solving with managing money,

bookkeeping, and creating business ideas. They all revolve around critical thinking to solve

problems. If we can help people be better problem solvers then those percentages mentioned will

be able to go down and create better thinkers even if it's with writing or not. The information that

has been given shows how much of an improvement these two skills can have on one another

and to write you have to think. This as a whole needs to be shown that these can be in any

situation and shows how much good it can do for a person's mind in the future, with positive

outcomes.
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Works Cited:

Fjortoft, Nancy F., PhD., et al. "Writing and Thinking." American Journal of Pharmaceutical

Education, vol. 83, no. 9, Nov 2019, pp. 7785-7786. ProQuest,

www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/writing-thinking/docview/2330759423/se-2?accountid=14

605. Accessed 31 Mar. 2022.

Miller, Mark James . “Writing, Thinking: A Critical Connection.” Santa Maria Times, 15 Jan.

2021,

https://santamariatimes.com/news/opinion/editorial/commentary/looking-forward/writing-thinkin

g-a-critical-connection/article_b916a328-2730-11e3-a3ab-0019bb2963f4.html. Accessed 31

Mar. 2022.

Quitadamo, Ian J, and Martha J Kurtz. “Learning to Improve: Using Writing to Increase Critical

Thinking Performance in General Education Biology.” CBE Life Sciences Education,vol 6,2

(2007): 140-54.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1885902/#:~:text=Results%20indicated%20that%20the

%20writing,but%20not%20the%20nonwriting%20group. Accessed 31 Mar. 2022.

Wilkie, Dana. “Employers Say Students Aren't Learning Soft Skills in College.” SHRM, SHRM,

28 Feb. 2020,

www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee-relations/pages/employers-say-students-are

nt-learning-soft-skills-in-college.aspx. Accessed 31 Mar. 2022.