"Besides the pragmatic benefits of college and career success, learning to write well can bring you the personal pleasure of a richer mental life"
I chose this as a hotspot because I never really thought about writing well leads to a richer mental life. Now that I think about it though, it does make sense. I guess to me I always just thought of writing as just in school or for work. But learning to write well does enhance the mind and broaden your knowledge, as well as showing off your intelligence.
Hot Spot #2
"The kind of questions that stimulate the writing most valued in college are open-ended questions that focus on unknowns rather than factual questions that have single right answers"
I totally agree with this hot spot. I believe that college is all about finding different ways to come around problems or questions rather then just searching for one specific answer. Already reading some of this book I see a lot of differences in the way college writing is in comparison to the way we were taught in high school.
Hot Spot #3
"New college students tend to shut down their creative thinking processes too quickly and head straight for closure to a problem"
I picked this hot spot because I believe that this can be definitely true for freshmen in college. When I was in high school I always searched directly for the closure to a problem and never think around it or search for other ways to find the answer to a problem. I hope now to learn how to find different ways to resolve problems creatively and effectively.
Hot Spot #4
"Critical thinkers are actively engaged with life... They appreciate creativity, they are innovators, and they exude a sense that life is full of possibilities"
I really like this quote that was stated by a psychologist in the book. I like it because it is a perfect description of what critical thinkers are like. When thinking critically, people are extremely active and can think creatively and inventively with the world at their fingertips, having endless possibilities.
You raise a good point - probably, for a lot of the class, the only writing you've ever had to do was in school. But my hope is that through engaging blog assignments, freewrites, etc. a few people who've never been that interested in writing might find it a little more enjoyable. I'm also glad to see that you are interested in finding different viewpoints and answers to a problem - it's a skill essential to writing a good paper in this class, I feel, and one that we'll be working on.
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