7 Level Up Your Thinking: From High School to College Writing
College is a new chapter in your education and comes with exciting possibilities, but also some new expectations – especially when it comes to writing. While you’ve learned valuable skills in high school, college writing requires a shift in focus. It’s not just about demonstrating what you know, but about doing something with that knowledge. This chapter will explore the key differences between high school and college writing, and how to “level up” your thinking using Bloom’s Taxonomy.
From Reporting to Reasoning: The College Writing Shift
Many students arrive in college with a sense of confidence, perhaps built on their success with high school essays. However, the feedback on those award-winning five-paragraph essays might be a bit of a shock. Comments like “lacks analysis” or “needs more critical thinking” can be confusing. It’s not that your previous skills are irrelevant; rather, college instructors expect something different. You’ve mastered the basics – the introduction, conclusion, body paragraphs, and thesis statements. Now, it’s time to build upon that foundation.
Filling the Jar vs. Taking Things Out: A New Metaphor for Learning
Think of your education up to this point as filling a jar with knowledge and understanding. You learned vocabulary, historical facts, scientific concepts, and literary devices. Each class added more to your growing collection of information. By graduation, your jar was overflowing, and you felt incredibly knowledgeable.
College learning, however, is less about filling the jar and more about taking things out. It’s about critically examining the information you’ve accumulated, asking questions like: “Does this matter?” “What are the implications?” “What can I learn from this?” You’ll still add to your knowledge base, but the emphasis shifts to analysis, synthesis, and evaluation – the higher levels of thinking.
Bloom’s Taxonomy: A Roadmap for Higher-Level Thinking
Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical model that categorizes thinking skills, providing a framework for understanding college-level expectations. It’s often represented as a pyramid, with foundational skills at the bottom and more complex skills at the top. Every college essay should, in some way, demonstrate all levels of this taxonomy:
- Knowledge: Recalling information or recognizing facts.
- Comprehension: Understanding the meaning of information; interpreting, translating, or summarizing.
- Application: Using knowledge in new situations; applying generalizations to specific instances.
- Analysis: Breaking down complex information into parts; identifying relationships and causes. This is a crucial aspect of critical thinking.
- Synthesis: Combining different pieces of information to create something new; forming new relationships and connections. This relates to creative thinking.
- Evaluation: Making judgments about the value of information or ideas; assessing and critiquing.
Knowledge and Comprehension: The Foundation
Knowledge and comprehension are the bedrock of learning. You demonstrate knowledge by showing you’ve learned the material, and comprehension by showing you understand it. These skills are often showcased in the introduction, where you provide necessary background information. However, avoid getting bogged down in these levels. The introduction should be concise, providing only the background necessary for the reader to understand your argument. Don’t let knowledge and comprehension dominate your essay, as this can detract from the higher-level thinking you need to demonstrate.
Application: Connecting Ideas
Application involves taking information and applying it to a new context. In essay writing, this can involve connecting the material to your own experiences, other readings, or the world around you. Using quotes and paraphrases effectively is one way to demonstrate application, as it shows you can apply the author’s words to your own points. However, simply inserting quotes without explaining their relevance is insufficient. You must explicitly connect the quote to your argument. Avoid “quote dropping” – inserting quotes without context or explanation.
Analysis: The Heart of Critical Thinking
Analysis is where you begin to truly engage with the material. It involves asking questions, solving problems, and exploring reasons. It’s not about providing “the right answer,” but about demonstrating your own thinking process. Your discussion of evidence should be analytical, explaining why you chose a particular quote or piece of information and how it contributes to your argument. Guide your reader through your thought process, demonstrating the critical thinking skills you employed.
Synthesis: Making Connections
Synthesis involves making connections between different ideas and sources. It’s about creating new knowledge by combining existing information. In an essay, you demonstrate synthesis by drawing connections between multiple sources, especially diverse sources. Go beyond simply quoting from the primary text. Explore related material from other fields, such as psychology, history, or other relevant disciplines, and connect these insights to your analysis of the primary text. The key is to make these connections yourself, rather than relying on sources that have already synthesized the information for you.
Evaluation: Reaching a Conclusion
Evaluation is the highest level of thinking, and it represents the culmination of all the other levels. It’s about making reasoned judgments and forming conclusions based on your analysis and synthesis of information. In an essay, your evaluation should be clearly present in your thesis statement and conclusion. A strong thesis presents a unique and arguable claim, demonstrating that you’ve engaged in critical thinking. Your conclusion should not merely summarize your points, but synthesize them into a comprehensive understanding. It’s your final opportunity to persuade your reader, so make it count.
Key Differences: High School vs. College Writing
| Feature | High School Writing | College Writing |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Demonstrating knowledge and comprehension | Demonstrating analysis, synthesis, and evaluation |
| Emphasis | Reporting information | Reasoning and arguing a point |
| Thesis | Often states the topics to be covered | Presents a clear, arguable claim based on analysis |
| Use of Sources | May be limited to the primary text | Encourages diverse sources and independent connections |
| Goal | Showing understanding of the material | Engaging in critical thinking and developing original insights |
Embracing the Challenge
College writing can be challenging, but it’s also incredibly rewarding. By understanding the expectations and applying Bloom’s Taxonomy, you can “level up” your thinking and produce insightful, well-supported arguments. Embrace the opportunity to explore new ideas, make connections, and develop your own unique perspectives.
Reading Questions:
- Remembering: According to the chapter, what are the six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy?
- Understanding: Explain in your own words the metaphor used in the chapter to describe the difference between high school and college learning.
- Application: Give an example of how you could demonstrate the “application” level of Bloom’s Taxonomy in a college essay.
- Analysis: Why does the chapter emphasize that “analysis” is a crucial aspect of critical thinking in college writing?
- Synthesis: How does the chapter suggest demonstrating “synthesis” in a college essay, and why is it important to go beyond relying on pre-existing syntheses?
- Evaluation: Based on the information in the chapter, what conclusions can you draw about the key differences between high school and college writing expectations?
Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes
Estimated Time for Questions: 25 minutes