Critical thinking

• To succeed on your course you have to move beyond describing knowledge and reciting facts to questioning, analysing and evaluating knowledge
• To have a convincing argument in your assessments you need to consider whether you have thought your argument through; whether it flows, whether it is logical and what evidence you have to support it. If you were challenged on it, would you stand by your convictions?
• To find and avoid errors you need to never stop asking questions. People make mistakes and some deliberately mislead. It is important to question the evidence behind arguments, ideas and decision making and ask – could it be better?
• To solve real world problems and even to change them! The complex and changing world we live in require us to respond to difficult problems with no obvious solution. It is vital for you to be able to critically engage with information to make informed and justified decisions in whatever career you choose.
• To be an outstanding graduate; the ability to reason, analyse, evaluate and argue is what makes your education ‘higher’.

Start with a simple set of questions:

• What is the main argument?
• Where is the evidence?
• Is there a hidden agenda?
• Are referenced sources reliable?
• Is there any bias?
• What are the conclusions?
• How does this relate to other arguments on the topic?

You can apply these questions to anything you read, hear or watch. Try them out next time you are browsing newspapers, watching documentaries, or reading academic texts.

Get informed

The best way to be a critical thinker is to read as much as possible to be fully informed about the arguments you are making. Go beyond the recommended reading list, follow up references within journal articles and relate your arguments to wider social concerns. For example if you are interested in childhood obesity in the UK you would first want to look at issues around health promotion but you may also bring in wider debates relating health to poverty and make global comparisons to consider the impact of the UK context.

Critical thinking at university also involves processes of reading and writing critically. Here are a few pointers:

Thinking

• Have a questioning attitude to everything you see, hear and read. Always consider questions of evidence and assumptions and how you might challenge these ideas with an alternative.
• Have an open mind to what your conclusions are about a topic. Critical thinking is about being open to possibility by being sceptical about the idea that there is only one answer or one way to do things. 

Reading

• Ask questions of the writer as if you are interviewing them e.g. what is your argument? What evidence do you have? Use these questions as prompts for your note-taking. Download our Book review sheet and Journal review sheet.
• Read how other academics have used the ideas in the source by searching online for who has cited them. This can help you understand how others have interpreted the source and alternative ways to approach the topic

Writing

• Critical writing requires more than simply describing ideas and evidence. It means exploring, evaluating and comparing ideas by asking: Why? What if? So what? What next?
• Critical writing needs to be well structured for the reader to follow your line of reasoning. See the University of Sussex Guide to Critical Writing

Critical thinking involves engaging with complex academic ideas and consequently, it is supposed to feel like a challenge.   However, there are also a number of other barriers that students tend to come across:

• Emotional barriers - it is sometimes uncomfortable to say you disagree with someone. It places you in a position of defending your claim against potential academic experts. However, critical thinking is not simply about negative disagreement nor should it be considered a personal attack. Most often, critical thinking involves making smaller claims about inconsistencies in the argument or the data or even recognising positive contributions to knowledge.  As long as your critique is well informed, you should feel confident that this is exactly what is required of you as a university student.
• Questioning authority – questioning the authority of others, especially experts, can be intimidating but Western academic culture relies on such debate. Your authority as a student is valid, but it should come not simply from your personal opinion but from the structure of your argument and the evidence you use to support it.
• Language barriers - Critical thinking relies on having a solid grasp of academic vocabulary and writing style. Expressing your critical thinking in writing involves a subtle language such as using ‘hedging’ words like ‘perhaps’, ‘potentially’ or ‘research suggests that’. Reading how other academic sources write critically, such as in book reviews, can guide your thinking and the Academic Phrasebank has examples of critical phrases to use in your writing.

Here is a list of other resources to help you think critically:

University of Sussex Guide to Critical Writing for a comprehensive look at how to write a critical essay

University of Portsmouth Critical Thinking Guide (pdf) for more on critical thinking

The Writing for Assignments e-Library - for examples of critical writing with annotated explanations

Skills4Study Critical Thinking mp3 - for advice you can listen too, rather than read