6. Critical Thinking
"Critical thinking" is the attempt to be clear and rational in thought and in expression so as to avoid making mistakes in our own ideas and to make fair judgements of the ideas of others.
Critical thinking is less about describing or reporting - it is more about creating and evaluating ideas.
Thinking critically involves:
- reflection and asking questions
- avoiding bias and aiming for objectivity
- drawing conclusions (evaluation)
Writing critically involves:
- building an argument
- having support for the points you make (e.g. references)
- showing your own voice (rather than just collecting what other people have said)
- being clear
Reading critically involves:
- asking questions and seeing if the text can answer them
- not assuming the text you are reading is correct and unbiased
- not assuming that the view of the author you are reading is the only possible or correct view - it isn't.
- being sceptical
- thinking about whether the source you are reading has political / ideological / commercial motives that might have introduced bias
For more examples, resources and activities to help you with critical thinking, go to our Critical Thinking page and do our Mini-modules:
