What, If Any, Is The Relationship Between One’s Ability To Think Critically, One’s Ability To Write Well, And One’s Effectiveness As A Strategic Leader?

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What, If Any, Is The Relationship Between One’s Ability To Think Critically, One’s Ability To Write Well, And One’s Effectiveness As A Strategic Leader? Does This Relationship, Or Absence Of Relationship, Warrant Any Sort Of Institutional Change?

1. To determine your baseline as an academic writer

1. To make sure you can quote and cite correctly so as to avoid problems with plagiarism

1. To begin building strategic level critical thinking skills

1. To provide an initial opportunity for you to wrestle with the issues you will face as senior leaders over the next 15 years

1. To familiarize you with TK20 (grading system of record).

Your Primary Faculty Advisor (PFA) will assess your mastery of writing mechanics and structure, and examine content in terms of logic, coherence and critical thinking. This assessment will help you target areas for improvement before the first graded written assignment.

Your assignment:

As background for this writing assignment, read these four articles:

· Marvin Swift’s “Clear writing means clear thinking…”, https://hbr.org/1973/01/clear-writing-means-clear-thinking-means

· Lynn Hunt’s “How Writing Leads to Thinking”, https://www.historians.org/publications-and-directories/perspectives-on-history/february-2010/how-writing-leads-to-thinking

· Thomas Williams’ “Education for Critical Thinking”, http://usacac.army.mil/CAC2/MilitaryReview/Archives/English/MilitaryReview_20130228_art011.pdf

· and Larry Miller and Laura Wackwitz’s “Writing, Integrity, and National Security”. http://ndupress.ndu.edu/Portals/68/Documents/jfq/jfq-79/jfq-79_57-62_Miller-Wackwitz.pdf

Write a 5-page double-spaced essay responding to the following:

In his 1973 publication, “Clear Writing Means Clear Thinking”, Marvin Swift makes a short argument in favor of the position that writing influences one’s ability to think. In 2010, Lynn Hunt of the American Historical Association published an article titled “How Writing Leads to Thinking”. In his 2013 Military Review article, “Education for Critical Thinking”, Colonel Thomas M. Williams makes the argument that “if we want better results, we should…change that way we teach”. And, finally, in their 2015 4th Quarter article, “Writing, Integrity, and National Security”, Larry Miller and Laura Wackwitz discuss the issue of plagiarism that takes place within Senior Service Colleges. Consider the thoughts of Swift, Hunt, Williams, Miller, and Wackwitz and respond to the following:

What, if any, is the relationship between one’s ability to think critically, one’s ability to write well, and one’s effectiveness as a strategic leader? Does this relationship, or absence of relationship, warrant any sort of institutional change?

Additional Information:

You may also find many of the following articles useful as one of your outside sources as you prepare your paper.

1. Brook, Eric. “What If?: Critical Thinking in Research and Writing.”

2. Cavdar, Gamze, and Sue Doe. “Learning through Writing: Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in Writing Assignments.”

3. Goodwin, Bryan. “Teach Critical Thinking to Teach Writing.”

4. Hall, John. “Why Every Leader Should Know How to Write.”

Your paper must include:

1. A School cover sheet

2. A thesis basis with a focus on inference in answering the question

3. At least three direct quotes, correctly cited

4. At least three uses of paraphrased material, correctly cited

5. One block quote

6. Citations from two outside sources, as well as citations from the four articles provided

7. Separate Endnotes Section (Not Footnotes)

Apply the format from the “Simply Put” Writing Guide located on the Eisenhower School Wide Information – Research and Writing section on Blackboard. A sample School over Sheet is also located on Blackboard. Again, use endnotes to reference specific ideas or text, appropriately formatted. As always, if you use a source’s exact words, be sure to use quotation marks and place a citation.

Once you have completed your essay, run your paper through SafeAssign on Blackboard to check for any errors in crediting sources. (SafeAssign instruction found in BB, Writing Assessment).

Email your Primary Faculty Advisor by COB, 17 August 2018:

1. The completed essay in a Word document – save as Last name, First name Writing

Assessment.doc.

2. The PDF of your SafeAssign report.

Your PFA will provide you with feedback on your writing mechanics, structure, organization,

and substance of your argument NLT 30 August 2018.

Helpful hints:

· This paper is not a book report, synopsis or summary. It is an essay – “an analytic or interpretative literary composition usually dealing with its subject from a limited or personal point of view” (Merriam-Webster Online).

· Five double-spaced pages is the guide; if you run a paragraph or two over or under, don’t be concerned. However, you will have to focus your essay carefully.

· There is no single correct answer to the questions, nor is there a “school solution.”

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