The Impact of Critical Thinking on HUFI English-major Freshmen’s Essay Writing

Abstract

According to the final test results of writing courses, it is indicated that the essay writing process has been still a radical challenge among HUFI English-major students. This paper illustrates a preliminary study in which English-major students’ perceptions about how critical thinking skills impact their process of writing short essays is investigated. To verify the issue, survey research and classroom observations were planned and conducted. A set of questionnaires was first handed out to 120 students in the Writing 2 course (Essay Writing) to explore students’ insights on the importance of critical thinking in their writing, and then six sections of students’ in-class writing were observed to identify both benefits and challenges of applying critical thinking skills to the essay writing task. The findings indicated that critical thinking plays a crucial role in enhancing students’ ability to plan and capacity to write essays as well as minimizing weaknesses in students’ essay writing process.