ENGL 1A: Critical Thinking & Writing (Crosby)

Critical Thinking & Writing is primarily a course about writing and rhetoric, but in this section, we will attempt to answer the questions: how do we know what are truth and facts? How do we find them, and why do people disagree over them? What are some of the biggest truth-related issues in our world today? Ultimately, this course seeks to increase writers’ rhetorical awareness and information literacy to become more critical, effective, and adaptable knowledge producers in a world of abundant, conflicting facts.

CTW 1 is the first of a two-course sequence that satisfies the university’s CTW requirement. As a fundamental part of your Core Curriculum at Santa Clara University, this course emphasizes critical thinking and communication, consideration of plural perspectives, and self-reflection on one’s learning. More specifically, the purpose of Critical Thinking & Writing is to help you grow and challenge yourself as a college writer—for academic assignments and also for the writing demands in your personal, professional, and civic lives. In this course, you’ll examine how writing is a communicative act that always occurs within a particular context, and you’ll gain practice writing for different purposes in multiple contexts.