On Analytical Thinking In English Writing

Writing helps to develop one's mind. It stimulates thinking, as it enables one to concentrate and organize one's ideas, and helps to cultivate one's ability to analyze and solve problems. Writing and thinking have a close and mutual relationship. Writing is a creative behavior that exerts a great impact on students' cognitive outcomes and prompts students to think analytically and logically. Analytical thinking is the process of examining facts, details, or ideas by looking at the separate parts in order to get a better understanding of the whole. Analytical thinking plays an important role in English writing. This paper aims at defining and probing into the functions of analytical thinking in English writing. It elaborates on the causes for the lack of analytical thinking in Chinese EFL learners' English writing and proposes strategies for developing their analytical thinking skills. We consider that writing pedagogy reform can be carried out as a breakthrough for developing students' analytical thinking skills in EFL teaching and learning. The author also mentions that analytical thinking can be promoted in other aspects such as teaching methodology reform and curriculum reform.This thesis consists of four parts:Chapter One introduces the definition of writing and thesignificance of writing. It also probes into the relationship between writing and thinking and the writing weaknesses of EFL learners in China. ^