Questioning as We Write
A framework for improving writing by asking structured questions about reasoning before writing and evaluating clarity, precision, logic, and other criteria during and after writing.
THE IDEA
Questioning As We Write
To write well is to produce written work that is both clear and well-reasoned. To achieve this end, the skilled writer routinely asks questions of self-analysis and assessment.
Analyzing Your Reasoning Before Writing
Prior to writing, it is important to understand clearly the logic of your position. You can best determine this by focusing on the elements of reasoning. You can ask the following types of questions:
- Purpose: What is my purpose in writing this piece?
- Question: What question(s) am I attempting to answer?
- Information: What information do I need to support my position?
- Inferences: What do I want to convince the reader of?
- Concepts: What are the main ideas I need to use in my thinking to effectively write this piece? Which of these ideas do I need to explicitly define and elaborate?
- Assumptions: Should I question what I am taking for granted in writing this piece? Should I explicitly state my assumptions?
- Point of View: What am I looking at, and how am I seeing it? Should I include other viewpoints?
- Implications: What am I implying? What am I trying to get the reader to believe and/or do?
Evaluating Your Writing As You Write
To write well, you also need to evaluate as you write.
- Clarity: Am I clear about what I am saying or is my thinking muddled? For each paragraph, have I stated my main idea, then elaborated it? Have I provided examples to make my points clear? Have I illustrated important ideas? Have I written sentences that can be interpreted in different ways or have I made my intended meaning clear?
- Precision: Have I provided adequate details for the reader to understand precisely what I mean? Do I need more details?
- Logic: Do all the ideas in my paper fit logically together? Have I used transitional words to make connections between ideas evident to the reader?
- Relevance: In the paper as a whole, do I keep a clear and consistent focus? Do I wander from the main point? In each paragraph, is everything in the paragraph relevant to the main idea in the paragraph?
- Significance: What is the most significant question to focus on? What are the most significant concepts? Facts?
- Depth: Do I clearly understand what makes the issue complex? Have I sufficiently detailed those complexities?
- Fairness: Have I been fair to all viewpoints relevant to the issue or have I presented opposing viewpoints in a “weak” form in order to dismiss them?
- Accuracy: Have I made sure that all the information I have presented as factual is so? Are my sources of information credible?
The source refers to an evaluation template on page 24. The questions above also provide a way to review a completed draft and examine your reasoning as you would another author’s.
When to use it
Academic essay writing to ensure thorough reasoning and clear communication.
Professional report writing where precision and logical flow are critical.
Self-review of blog posts or articles to improve clarity and impact.
Teaching writing skills by having students apply the questioning framework to their own drafts.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Analyzing Purpose Before Writing a Persuasive Essay
Before drafting a persuasive essay on recycling policies, a writer uses the purpose question to clarify: 'My purpose is to convince readers that a deposit-return system is effective.' This focuses the research and argumentation.
Evaluating Clarity and Precision in a Technical Report
While writing a technical report on battery efficiency, the writer pauses to ask the clarity question: 'Is my explanation of energy density clear?' They add a concrete example and define the term precisely, improving reader understanding.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
Choose a recent piece of writing (email, report, or essay). Apply the pre-writing questions to assess the logic of your position before rewriting.
While drafting a paragraph, use the clarity and precision questions to revise it. How did your understanding of the text change?
Review a completed paper with the fairness question: Did you present opposing viewpoints fairly? What would you change if not?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- The Art of Asking Essential Questions Based on Critical Thinking Concepts and Socratic Principles (Linda Elder, Richard Paul)