Hairston

The point I'd most like to explore is the idea that critical thinking skills go by the wayside in a writing course focused on ideology. The purpose of freshman writing classes should be to learn how to think. By learning critical thinking skills, we can develop more organized ideas which will aid us in writing. I'm not entirely convinced that ideological discussion based classes bar critical thinking. By learning about these issues and conversing with our peers, we're taking these ideas and internalizing them, organizing them, and shaping them -  that's a huge part of the writing pre-writing process.

Of course it is necessary to include the non-thinking part of the writing process in the course, but I think it's perfectly acceptable to emphasize thinking and discussion in a freshman writing class to enable the development of ideas and thinking skills.