Critical Thinking
for Undergrads
DCU Student Learning
Learning Aims
1. What is Being Critical?
2. Critical Thinking in Assignments
3. What’s an Argument?
4. Getting What You Need from
What You Read
Being a Critical Student
• Developing a questioning attitude
towards what you read
• Looking for alternatives in what
you read:
Asking why/how something happens
Asking why something is important
Asking …… ??
Critical Cycle
Being Critical In Assignments
- Show understanding of topic
(ie) relevant reading and summarise main
points, key information
- Apply knowledge
(ie) select only relevant information
- Original ideas
(ie) your analysis of topic
- Valid argument
(ie) your position on topic, supported by
evidence; egs consider a range of views
What’s an Argument?
• Academic essays usually require
an argument
• You are being asked to present
your position on the essay topic
and to support your position with
reasons
Is It An Argument?
• Genetic Engineering really worries
me. I don’t think it should be
allowed
• That doesn’t convince me. I think
genetic engineering is really
exciting
Is it an argument?
• Genetic engineering should be
curtailed because there hasn’t
been sufficient research into what
happens when new varieties are
created without natural predators
to hold them in check
Reading Academic Texts
• Different types of reading
strategies for different texts:
Novels, Magazines Website Info
• Academic Texts: Critical Reading
Purpose – a specific objective
Selective – focused on questions
Active
– effective, targeted,
motivated
Critical reading…
• Is a technique for discovering
information and ideas in a text
• Involves reading with a purpose:
to fully understand the merits
and limitations of what a text
says and does
Active Reading Strategies
Your notes should identify
1. What is said:
what is the argument (what are you
being asked to accept as true)
2. What examples are given:
what does the text focus on, how is the
topic narrowed down
3. What kind of evidence is supplied:
what citations/authorities, samples/
cases, when/timeframe etc
Critical v Descriptive Reading
• Non-critical reading
– restates text
(ie) examines what a text says
• Descriptive reading
– examines what a text does
• Critical reading
– evaluates or interprets the text
Your doctor tells you to
eat less chocolate and drink less beer
• A restatement would repeat the statement:
The doctor said I should eat less chocolate & drink
less beer.
• A description would describe the remark:
The doctor advised me to change my diet
• An evaluation/interpretation would find underlying
meaning:
The doctor warned me to reduce my calories for the
sake of my health
Evaluation attempts to find the significance of the text
– (eg) that the foods mentioned are high calorie
Follow-Up Workshop
• Next Semester:
Moving From Descriptive Writing
To Critical Writing
• Critical Reading is the first step to
writing critically!