Thinking, Reading and Writing Critically
In order to get the highest possible grades in a subject assessed in writing you need to be able to demonstrate an ability to think critically about the sources of information (text-books, academic papers, academic websites and the like) that you use in the construction your answer. You must, in other words, do more than simply take information from other sources and use it construct an answer. It is not enough to select some apposite quotations and demonstrate in that way that you have read around a subject widely and found some pertinent sources of supporting information. To get the highest grades you must be able to replicate a professional academic’s ability to critically assess the academic work of other, published authors.
Many professional academics are capable of doing this because over the course of a career they have read an enormous number of text-books and papers in a subject area and, as a result, possess and have mastered a large body of knowledge that they can use to critically assess any new work they encounter. Indeed, for such academics the process of reading critically may have become almost entirely subconscious. As they read a new paper in their subject area they cannot stop their brains from critically comparing the new information with the knowledge they already possess. Clearly, as students, you do not yet possess such an extensive body of knowledge, nor can you hope to acquire one quickly enough to apply it to any given assessment task. Nevertheless, in order to get the highest possible grades you need to be able to emulate this kind of critical reading behaviour and then demonstrate that you understand what is required in your written work.
At first sight this appears an unreasonable and impossible task; however you need not despair. You may not be able to assimilate the requisite body of knowledge to exactly replicate the behaviour of a professional academic expert, but you can certainly be critical in the way you select material to read, and then demonstrate critical thinking in the way you use and write about that material.
Techniques
The comparison of multiple texts
If you can obtain more than one relevant, published source that deals with the subject upon which you are being assessed, you can adopt a critical approach. Instead of simply referring to the sources you have found and quoting extracts that support your answer, you can go further by comparing and contrasting various aspects of your sources. Thus you might consider:
• the breadth of different pieces of work - how wide a range of the possible subject matter defined by your question(s) or task(s) do different pieces of work cover?
• the depth of the different pieces of work - how detailed is the analysis of the subject matter in each piece of work?
• the relevance of each piece of work to your specific question(s) or task(s) - how much of the subject matter you are being assessed on do different pieces of work cover? What details do each source miss out? - and so on.
• gaps in the form of relevant details of the subject matter that one might reasonably have expected the works you are reading to have dealt with, that are present in one piece of work but not another.
• contradictions and inconsistencies that arise from comparisons between the work of different authors
In some subject areas you will find a number of suitable academic publications discussing the advantages and disadvantages or costs and benefits of a given policy or course of action. In such circumstances it is possible to become more critical by looking for examples of authors arguing for and against the same factor within that subject area.
For example, at the time of writing, there is a large amount of material published on the debate about whether the UK should join the Euro. Some authors argue that joining the Euro would enhance UK competitiveness. However, it is also possible to find academic authorities arguing that it was precisely the fact that the UK did not allow its currency to match that of the rest of Europe in the months following Black Wednedsay in 1992 that led to a sharp increase in UK competitiveness. Thus it would be perfectly possible to offer appropriate, high quality, academic sources arguing for and against the same topic. You could then use each to critically assess the other. This procedure is applicable in any subject area where there are arguments for and against a policy or course of action.
The identification of logical flaws
The comparison of published sources is a good place to start, but the award of the highest grades will be assisted if you can also apply more sophisticated forms of criticism. Some of these do not require an expert’s mastery of the detail of a subject area. Thus you may draw upon your understanding of critical reasoning theory and identify logical flaws in the sources you are employing by:
• recognising uncovering and challenging key, un-stated, invalid assumptions in arguments.
• distinguishing when authors mistakenly use unproven hypotheses as though they were established facts.
• identifying occasions when authors wrongly employ opinions whilst claiming that they are facts.
• highlighting the absence of evidence that is relevant and essential for the validation of an argument in the work you are referring to.
• identifying when arguments contain irrelevant statements and evidence.
• identifying logical fallacies.
The critical assessment of Research Methods
If you are working with empirical studies you may be able to draw upon your understanding of Research Methods and critically comment upon:
• the suitability of the research design.
• the effectiveness of the data collection process.
• the validity of the sample selection process .
• the appropriateness of the chosen research methodology to the subject being researched.
This kind of critical analysis is helped if you can find more than one published piece of empirical research and compare the way the different authors approached the task. Again, the process of comparison may highlight deficiencies in one or other piece of work.