ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION This chapter examines the skills necessary to develop a written argument. It addresses some of the problems to avoid when constructing an argument and the central elements of putting together an argument. It also explains how student work is expected to develop with each year of a University course, using the example of Bloom’s taxonomy (see Petty 2004: 8). It then considers the link between critical reading and writing critically, before discussing how reflective writing can support and develop reflective practice. There is an expectation that students’ writing skills will increase in sophistication and complexity as they progress through their degree and that their work will display excellent critical analysis as well as effective, well-evidenced argument. To achieve this, students need to use the feedback they are given by tutors as a developmental tool that will allow them to implement improvements in their writing. If used conscientiously, feedback can help students to develop over their university careers through the six levels of learning identified by Bloom (Table 6.1): moving from learners with lower order skills, such as simply recalling facts, to learners with high order skills who can interpret, apply, analyse and eventually evaluate (see Petty 2004: 8). Bloom’ s simple classification of skills can be helpful to students aiming to understand how their work is expected to develop as they progress from level 1 to level 3 because it demonstrates that learning, or rather understanding, becomes more complete as students progress through the skill levels. The higher order skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation require students to think more deeply about a subject and to make connections between different parts of learning. These different parts of learning could be new learning, such as different parts of the same course, or they could be aspects of existing learning, such as knowledge accrued prior to university or learning acquired during work experience or volunteering opportunities. It is these connections that lead to understanding, which in turn leads to the deep learning necessary for a student to produce thoughtful, well-evidenced and well-argued work.
