Mark Tredinnick - The Little Red Writing Book-University of New South Wales Press (2006)

most people something like ‘negative’. It also means ‘very important’.
But its primary meaning is ‘exacting’, ‘sceptical’, ‘disinterested’,
‘discerning’, ‘analytical’. We take it from the Greek word kritikos,
meaning ‘one who is skilled in judging; one who takes things apart’.
The writer is the kritikos, but she’s also skilled at putting things
back together again.
Good, sustained critical thinking underlies good, clear writing:
you could almost say that good writing is critical thinking. It is
critical thinking resolved and put down on paper—elegantly.
TRY THIS
Critical questions
Try asking these questions of each sentence in a piece you are
writing.
1 What am I trying to say here?
2 What does that mean?
3 … compared to what?
4 What is the evidence for that assertion?
5 How is that fact or argument relevant?
6 Can I offer an example.
7 Can I quantify that?
8 What exactly does that word mean? Is it the right one? Will
my readers understand it to mean what I intend it to mean?
9 How does this relate to my argument?
10 Will this interest my reader? How?
These critical questions should be in your mind as you write
anything. If they slip as you draft, that’s all right. It might even
help. But make sure you ask them of your prose as you edit
and redraft.
Lore 47