To practice critical, analytical thinking through the medium of writing, you will perform a text wrestling
analysis and synthesize your findings in an essay driven by a central, unifying insight presented as a thesis
and supported by evidence.
You will summarize, paraphrase, and quote the text while incorporating your own reflection on the content.
Summarizing is a basic level skill, and the hard work will be in formulating your own thoughts about the
content and presenting them here.
You may choose from one of the following essays:
The Hill We Climb
How Cell Phones Hijacked Our Minds
- Read the text several times using the active reading strategies contained in the textbook and the
appendix. - Consider what parts are contributing to the whole text, and develop an analytical perspective about that
relationship. Try to articulate this analytical perspective as a working thesis—a statement of your
interpretation which you will likely revise in some way or another. (You might also consider whether a
specific critical lens seems relevant or interesting to your analysis.) - Draft a text wrestling essay that analytically explores some part of your text using the strategies detailed
in this section.
Sample Solution