14 Drafting & Writing
Remember, no matter what the assignment, identifying key words in guidelines can help you determine what type of thinking and ability the professor wants you to demonstrate. The following six areas of competencies are from Bloom’s Taxonomy. To learn more, visit: Jerz’s Literacy Weblog.
- Knowledge: This becomes evident in how well you remember the subject matter, such as the major ideas, dates, places, events, etc. Questions may begin with: Identify, describe, examine, when, where, who.
- Comprehension: How well you understand the information presented. Can you describe the information in your own words? Questions may begin with: Interpret, contrast, predict, discuss.
- Application: Can you use the principles learned to solve other problems in different situations? Questions may begin with: Illustrate, examine, modify, experiment, relate.
- Analysis: Can you recognize hidden meanings, see patterns, identify the underlying parts? Questions may begin with: Separate, order, connect, classify, divide, explain.
- Synthesis: Can you relate knowledge from different areas to draw conclusions? Questions may begin with: Modify, rearrange, substitute, design, invent, generalize.
- Evaluation: This involves verifying the value of the evidence when solving controversies, developing opinions, etc. Questions may begin with: Decide, convince, select, compare, summarize.
If you need clarification on what your instructor is looking for, do not hesitate to ask.
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Suggested Readings:
Shitty First Drafts by Anne Lamott
Resources for Specific Practice:
How to write thesis or purpose statement
Licenses and Attributions CC LICENSED CONTENT
Composing Ourselves and Our World, Provided by: the authors. License: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
CC LICENSED CONTENT INCLUDED
This section contains an adaptation from Reading and Writing in College by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
This chapter contains an adaptation from Rhetoric and Composition/Analyzing Assignments Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Wikibooks.
Composing Ourselves and Our World Copyright © 2019 by Auburn University at Montgomery is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
