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Critical Writing

Opportunities to build your critical writing skills and use of argument.

Descriptive and Critical Writing

Descriptive writing merely describes information without any further comment, questions or evaluation. The table shows how critical writing can be added to descriptive writing, and if you click on the text, it provides pop-up examples using the topic of crumpets.

The BBC (Parr, 2020) reported that in 2018, a worldwide shortage of CO2 led to the Warburtons crumpet production facility temporarily closing. Crumpets are low in calorie, keep people fuller for longer, and contain 15% of the recommended daily allowance of salt (Parr, 2022). When Emma woke up, she decided to eat crumpets for breakfast. Parr (2022) found that when observed, participant A added butter to their crumpet, followed by marmite. When making crumpets, Parr (2021) suggests that the batter should be left to rise before cooking. According to Parr (2022), trypophobia, which is the irrational fear of lots of holes, is the reason why some people fear crumpets. You can warm up crumpets in a toaster. Toasters turn electrical energy into heat, and flow along metal filaments which toasts a crumpet. Parr (2022) surveyed 999 participants to discover the most popular breakfast choices in the UK. Sales of crumpets in the UK increased during Spring 2020 (Parr, 2020). Research by Parr (2020) suggests that people like crumpets because they taste delicious, have a great texture, and they can be made in just three minutes. A person can choose to add butter to their crumpet, or include extra toppings such as jam, marmite, or peanut butter. Crumpets can be eaten at various times of day, for example, at lunch, breakfast or as a supper. (Parr, 2018). People who eat breakfast in the morning, such as crumpets, are statistically healthier than those who do not eat breakfast (Parr, 2018). Crumpets are relatively quick to make. The CO2 shortage impacted the daily lives of the regular crumpet consumer, who would have either had to select an alternative breakfast item, or go without breakfast altogether. This could have led to more permanent changes in breakfast habits, which could affect future crumpet sales. For example... Although crumpets can help in terms of maintaining a healthy weight, eating too many crumpets could lead to an increase in blood pressure (Parr, 2017). Therefore, a reduction of crumpets, or changing to a lower salt option, may be necessary. Eating crumpets possibly provided Emma with the idea of using crumpets as the context for this description and critical writing table. Another possible answer is that crumpets may have seemed like a good option to provide a lighthearted application to an often-difficult topic. It is likely that both options played a part. Participant A may have added butter to her crumpet first as the heat would help the butter melt, compared to marmite which is already a liquid. However, this reason contrasts ParrParr’s controversial ‘Marmite first’ theory. The reason for this is that the yeast must have time to activate, and this is also what causes the holes in the crumpets (Parr, 2020). However, various chefs disagree on how long the wait should be, Chef Parr (2022) recommends 45 minutes, whereas Pärr (2020) suggest just 15 minutes. Therefore… For example, research by the University of Essex (2013) theorise that trypophobia comes from our evolution, where people used to fear dangerous animals with similar patterns. Although other researchers agree that evolution is involved, academics in Japan suggest that trypophobia is instead linked to an evolutionary fear of skin diseases. Therefore, there is no one answer as to why people have the phobia. Toasters are recommended over oven grills because of the timer function, which prevents the crumpet from being burnt, resulting in a better crumpet. This also works when making toast from bread. Surveys are a suitable method of collecting information from a large number of participants (ParrParr, 2013), such as the one in Parr’s research. Having a large number of participants can help improve the validity and generalisability of the findings, which helps us to take Parr’s findings seriously. A suggested reason behind this is due to the covid-19 lockdown. Similar comfort foods increased in sales during this time, such as chocolate (Parr, 2020). This could be due to people looking for comforting and familiar food in a time of great change and unfamiliarity. Ultimately, the most important component could be the texture. As Parr suggests (2006), the spongy consistency allows the butter to be soaked up, while also providing a different sensation on the tongue to toast. The reason why people prefer butter is likely due to its simplicity, which is preferred when people are tired in the morning (Parr, 2003). Although people can eat crumpets at any time of day, most people eat them in the morning for their breakfast (Parr 2022). This may be because people prefer a quick, easy, and light meal when they are tired and in a rush to get ready for the day. However, it may not be the eating of breakfast that makes people healthier. It may just mean that the type of people who have a healthy lifestyle, such as regular exercise and not smoking, are also more likely to eat breakfast. As discussed, crumpets have many benefits, such as being tasty and easy to make for tired people in the morning. Therefore, they are a good option for breakfast. >
 

Descriptive writing

Critical Writing
(Your comments on the descriptive writing)

States the findings / what happened

Identifies the significance of the findings/ what happened or the impact

Describes what something is like

Evaluates something (strengths & weaknesses)

Describes the story so far

Weighs one piece of information against the other & comes to a potential conclusion

States the order in which things happened

Makes reasoned judgments & possibly debates causes/ theoretical underpinnings

Describes how to do something

Argues why something should/ shouldn't be done that way

Describes a theory

Demonstrates through reasoning and evidence why a theory might be suitably applied/ argues why application could be problematic

Explains how something works

Indicates why something will work (best)/ explores conditions that would make implementation challenging

Describes the method used

Indicates whether the method is appropriate or suitable & could debate factors that could drive variance of the method

Describes when something occurred

Identifies why the timing is important/ debates factors that could impact on timing

States the different components

Weighs up the importance of components or weighted contributory factors

States options

Gives reasons for the selection of each option, may explore connections between options/helping & hindering factors that could influence the choice of options

Presents a list of randomly-ordered information

Structures the information in relation to importance or significance. May offer ranking with reference to criteria.

States links between items

Shows the relevance of the links between pieces of information

Describes information

Draws conclusions, identifies issues for consideration/ explores contributory and complicating factors

Adapted from Cottrell (2005); developed further from University of Plymouth (2010).


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