Critical WritingDr. Mahmoud Jeidani

Outline

• Critical thinking.

• Taking a critical stance to sources and authors.

• Sources of critical thinking.

• Critical reading.

• Demonstrating critical thinking in writing.

• Critiquing our own writing.

• General guidelines.

• References.

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my introductory pack free of charge. It will explain to you how my failsafe method can bring you guaranteed

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Critical questions you may ask:

• Why do you want to help people you have never met?

• If your method is so wonderful, why have I never heard of it before?

• Is there really no risk?

• Are you really as rich as you claim?

• What will you do with my personal details once I give them to you?

• Is your method legal and ethical?

• Would I just end up making you richer, at my own expense?

Reflect on this piece of research!

• In a study seeking to evaluate the success of IKEA entering the Chinese market, Rixon (2005) analysed the performance of three IKEA stores for the first month since their opening. The results of the study show that IKEA was making tremendous success and that it should increase its market share in China.

Claim(proposition, thesis)

Evidence

(support or grounds)

Reasons

(warrant or argument)

How to approach the reading process:

• The reader asks at every point: ‘Have you given me sufficient grounds for accepting your claim?’

• Such a question need not imply that authors are untruthful. In most fields of enquiry it is not a matter of truth, but of viewpoints, interpretation and significance.

• Since each person has different knowledge and experience, it is sensible for the reader to adopt a critical frame of mind that maintains a distance from, and friendly scepticism towards, what authors say.

How to look at authors:

• The authors mean to be honest, but may have been misled by the evidence into saying something that I consider untrue.

• The authors mean to be logical, but may have developed a line of reasoning that contains a flaw.

• The authors mean to be impartial, but may have incorporated into the account some assumptions that I don’t share.

• The authors mean to tell me something new, but may not have taken into account other information that I possess.

Sources of critical thinking

• Reflection – the attempt to relate our reading to our perception of the

world.

• Intra-source and inter-source cross-referencing (note-taking).

• Personal experience.

Foreign language acquisition in adulthood.Paragraph A Paragraph B

…..and, as Smith (2008:90) has effectivelydemonstrated, 89% of his study participants were unable to attain a native-like language acquisition, retaining their L1 accent for instance. Although 11% of his participants managed to sound native-like, it is possible to note that this is statistically insignificant, and can easily be interpreted in the light of individual differences in relation to being phonetically gifted. Richardson (2004), for example, explains that some learners are more gifted.....etc. Although other writers argued that acquisition is possible, such as Johnson (2005:74) who studied a sample of three adult learners and found that two of them acquired French, it has to be noted that this sample is too small to generalise from........

…....Smith (2008: 90) believes that learners are unlikely to attain a native-like competence once they have reached adulthood. Richards (2004) holds that learners can differ in their aptitude to foreign language acquisition. Johnson (2005:74) has a different opinion...

What is critical writing?

• A clear and confident refusal to accept the conclusions of other writers without evaluating the

arguments and evidence that they provide;

• A balanced presentation of reasons why the conclusions of other writers may be accepted or

may need to be treated with caution;

• A clear presentation of your own evidence and argument, leading to your conclusion; and

• A recognition of the limitations in your own evidence, argument, and conclusion.

How to demonstrate criticality?

• Consider the quality of the evidence and argument you have read;

• Identify key positive and negative aspects you can comment upon;

• Assess their relevance and usefulness to the debate that you are engaging in for

your assignment; and

• Identify how best they can be woven into the argument that you are developing.

An example: Browning’s study (2005)….

• In a study seeking to establish whether or not English grammar needs to be taught, five

learners were taught English grammar explicitly for a month, while another group of 5

learners was left without any similar instruction. At the end of this period, the two groups

were examined in terms of their grammatical accuracy, only to conclude that the study

group performed better overall. This shows that an explicit approach to teaching grammar

is a better choice for English language teaching.

Based on our reflection, we can ask:

• Is a study of just ten learners sufficient to draw such a strong conclusion?

• What does ‘performed better overall’ signify? How exactly were they investigated in terms of grammar accuracy?

• Were the differences between the two groups sufficiently great for us to be satisfied that they would occur in a re-run of the experiment with different subjects?

• How were the two groups controlled? Is it possible that the study group might have benefited from an extra source of input in some other ways?

• What measures have been taken to ensure that the two groups were very similar on starting the experiment? Were the two sets of five children matched for intelligence, age, gender or other factors?

Another example: cross-referencing of materials

Evaluatetheclaimthatadultscanacquireforeignlanguage.

Brown2000 Smith2008 Richards 2003 Ladd 1998

Definition Native-likeperformance(p.4)

Native-likeperformance(p.30)

Native-likeperformanceinwritingonly(p33)

Nativeperformanceinallskills (p.50)

Positiveinfluencefactors.

Aptitudecanhelp(p.32)

Exposure iscrucial(p.24)

Negativeinfluencefactors

Ageiscrucial(p.66)

Mothertongue(p.101)

Identity (p.99) Practicality(p.66)

Previousstudies.

Experiment-success rateof15%(p.234)

Experiment–success rate of8%

Methodologically,nolong-termsuccesscanbeevaluated(p.77)

Questionnaire-successrateof81%(p.113)

From reading to writing:

In order to avoid being purely descriptive, you can comment critically on your sources. You will need

to include some account of the weaknesses that your critical questions raise, as a balance to your

description of what the authors are claiming. Here is an indication of how, in an essay, you might

comment on a published text that is useful, but not perfect:

• Describe what you are reading (to show that you can interpret what others write).

• Offer your views on what you have read.

• Support your views (illustrate critical evaluation).

Example 1: Browning’s study (2005)

• Browning (2005) found that learners taught grammar explicitly performed better than those who were left to

acquire grammar on their own(1). However, these findings need to be taken with caution (2) because the

study was small, the test rather limited, and the subjects were not tightly matched either for age or gender. An

examination of Browning’s test scores reveals that, although the mean score of the explicitly taught group was

higher, we are not given details about how the groups were tested at the end of the experiment, nor are we told

how the study group was ensured not to have absorbed grammar outside the classroom. Since this indicates

that the whole explicit approach is effective for only some learners at least, Browning is perhaps too quick to

propose that ‘the explicit approach to grammar is a better choice for teaching institutions’ (p. 89) (3).

Another example.

There are a number of definitions that equate e-Learning with Internet based learning. For example, Rodney Thomas, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of academy internet, a UK-based company offering e-Learning solutions to Universities and the business community, [a] associates e-Learning with Internet-based learning (2001: 2):

‘Today’s learning communities gather in the virtual space provided by the Internet –communicating at the speed of thought, on a global scale. E-Learning is the most effective, efficient means ever invented for people to get the knowledge they need, at the time when they need it most, wherever they happen to be.’

Example 2: a critical comment on e-learning being defined as internet-based learning.

…....[x] associates e-Learning with Internet-based learning (2001: 2). However, to restrict e-

Learning to Internet-based learning could lead to anomalies in deciding what is accepted as e-

Learning. For example, if a university has two groups of students studying a module, with one

set learning at home through the Internet, and the other set of students learning on-campus, with

both sets of students using identical ‘e-Learning’ software, then it would be inconsistent to

classify one type of learning as e-Learning, and the other not, just because it is not Internet-

based. To underline this point, WebCT’s course authoring software is used over the Internet and

on-campus, with 80% of its software used on-campus (Bates 2001), indicating that e-Learning

can appear in either pure e-Learning environments and also be part of a traditional teaching and

learning setting……

An example of complete, critically written, paragraph.

• The consequences of not moderating the intake of fast food are rather alarming. Experiments on rats carried out at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison indicate that overindulgence in foods high in sugars and fat results in long-lasting changes to the brain chemistry similar to those caused by the extended use of morphine or heroin. According to Martindale the results highlight that ‘ ... mere exposure to pleasurable, tasty foods is enough to change gene expression, and that suggests you could be addicted to food’ (2003: 43). A consequence of eating fast food is therefore a tendency to become addicted to it. As addiction means an abnormal dependency on something (Collins 1984), there is perhaps cause for concern. It is clearly important that people are made aware of the potential threat of fast food. Coupled with research on young American children and the rise of obesity by more than 42% over the last 25 years (Sclosser 1998), educating people on the risks associated with fast food from an early age is essential.

Critical paragraph writing template 1:Points in text Tick as appropriate

Starting sentence

Description of the rat experiment

Use of Martindale reference

Synthesis of ideas

Overall

Critical writing: critiquing our own writing by citing a different view.An important part of critical writing is to demonstrate awareness of both different views, and the ability to respond to such views:

• Argument counter-argument response.

• One way to produce a response is to expose the weaknesses in the opposing position.

• Another way is to anticipate the weaknesses in your own argument and provide some defense for it. This may lead you to to qualify or adjust your own position (thesis statement), thus strengthening it.

•

An example: should euthanasia be legalized?• One important factor is the suffering that terminally ill patients go through. Many

researchers agree that the pain such patients go through is more complex than is traditionally realised. Smith (2000:21), for examples, identifies two types: psychological and physical, the latter of which is explained in Harrison (2007:33) who explains that such pain can be debilitating…..while the former is described in detail in Hawkes (2004: 90)...... It is often feared that basing medical end-of-life decisions on patient consent may lead to abuse, since many terminally ill patients are depressed, and therefore unable to make sensible decisions on such important matters. Although terminally ill patients are more likely to be depressed, it cannot be justifiably assumed that all patients are depressed, or that depression, when present, prevents a patient from consenting in a balanced and acceptable way. Depression is generally manageable nowadays, and medical diagnosis can determine when a person is incapable of making such a decision. Therefore, the issue of depression should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, and not be a reason for prohibiting choice about end-of-life decisions in general.

Analysis:

Argument Counter-argument Response to counter-argument

The primary focus in medical end-

of-life decisions should be on

patient consent, rather than doctor

intention, because it is not a breach

against a patient's rights if s/he

consents to the termination of their

life.

Terminally ill patients are likely to

be depressed, and therefore unable

to consent to their hastened death in

a balanced or acceptable way.

Depression can be managed. The

relevance of depression must be

made on a case-by-case basis.

Depression does not warrant a

general rule prohibiting patients

from consenting to a hastened death.

Critical paragraph writing 2: Points in text Tick as appropriate

Starting sentence

Description of the rat experiment

Use of Martindale reference

Synthesis of ideas

Counter-argument

Response.

Overall

Another example:

• The consequences of not moderating the intake of fast food are rather alarming. Experiments on rats carried out at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison indicate that overindulgence in foods high in sugars and fat results in long-lasting changes to the brain chemistry similar to those caused by the extended use of morphine or heroin. According to Martindale the results highlight that ‘ ... mere exposure to pleasurable, tasty foods is enough to change gene expression, and that suggests you could be addicted to food’ (2003: 43). A consequence of eating fast food is therefore a tendency to become addicted to it. As addiction means an abnormal dependency on something (Collins 1984), there is perhaps cause for concern. Although it is feared that other variables to do with the environment might play a role, none of these variables has been proven yet. It is clearly important that people are made aware of the potential threat of fast food. Coupled with research on young American children and the rise of obesity by more than 42% over the last 25 years (Sclosser 1998), educating people on the risks associated with fast food from an early age is essential.

Critical writing is a skill

• Most novice critical readers take a while to learn how to interpret authors’ signals, and to work out

how to respond to them.

• Often, part of the learning process is that one goes too far towards one or both extremes – uncritical

acceptance or overcritical rejection of authors’ claims – before finding a happy medium.

• Because critical writing is a skill, it get developed and refined as you continually read and write

critically.

General guidelines:Element of critical reading:

When I read an academic text I:

Element of self-critical writing :

When I write an academic text I:

1. 1 try to work out what the authors are aiming to achieve;

2. try to work out the structure of the argument.

3. try to identify the main claims made;

4. adopt a sceptical stance towards the authors’ claims, checking that they

are supported by appropriate evidence;

5. assess the backing for any generalizations made;

6. check how the authors define their key terms and whether they are

consistent in using them;

7. consider what underlying values

may be guiding the authors and influencing their claims;

8. keep an open mind, willing to be convinced;

9. look out for instances of irrelevant or distracting account, of necessary

material;

10. identify any literature sources to which the authors refer I may need to

follow up.

1. state clearly what I am trying to achieve;

2. create a logical structure for my the; account, to help me develop my

argument and to help the reader to follow it;

3. clearly state my main claims;

4. support my claims with appropriate evidence, so that a critical reader will

be convinced;

5. avoid making sweeping generalizations;

6. define the key terms employed in my account, and use the terms

consistently;

7. make explicit the values guiding what I write;

8. assume that my readers can be convinced, provided I can adequately

support my claims;

9. sustain focus throughout my avoid irrelevancies material, and for the

absence and digressions, and include

10. ensure that my referencing in the text and the reference list is complete

References:

• Biggam, J. 2011. Succeeding withyour Master’sDissertation: A step-by-step handbook. McGraw-Hill: Open University Press.

• Language and Learning Online (Monash University). Accessed on 12/8/2016 from http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/writing/law/legal-process/2.3.3.xml

• Student Learning Development (Leicester University). Accessed on 12/8/2016 from http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ld/resources/writing/writing-resources/critical-writing

• Wallace, M; Wray, A. 2016. Critical Reading and Writing for Postgraduates(SAGE Study Skills Series) 3rd ed.

•

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