Thinking critically

Introduction

Thinking critically means questioning the information that you read or hear, instead of just accepting it as true.

It means evaluating evidence and arguments. In other words, you think about them carefully and decide how good or bad they are.

For example, an article by Professor Prune of Ipswich University found that zoo animals preferred to eat bananas. By carefully reading his article, you discover a problem with the research methods. You decide to mention this limitation in your essay:

Websites

• Being criticalAcademic Phrasebank
• Critical reading and analysisUniversity of Queensland
• Critical WritingUniversity of Suffolk
• A short guide to critical writing for postgraduate taught studentsUniversity of Birmingham
• Thinking, reading and writing criticallyUniversity of Manchester
• Writing criticallyUEfAP

👉 See also Critical reading websites on the Reading page

Books

Complete books

• Critical Thinking Skills by Stella Cottrell. 3rd edn. (2017)

Chapters

• Assessing information critically
  Essay Writing : a Student’s Guide by MunLing Shields (2010)
• Critical analysis, perspective and argument
  Doing Essays & Assignments by Pete Greasley (2011)
• Critical thinking
  Study Skills for International Postgraduates by Martin Davies (2011)
• Critical thinking
  The Study Skills Handbook by Stella Cottrell. 5th edn. (2019)
• Digging deeper
  Ultimate Study Skills Handbook by Sarah Moore et al. (2010)
• Reflection in reading and writing
  Reflective Writing by Kate Williams, Mary Woolliams and Jane Spiro. 2nd edn. (2020)

👉 See also chapters on the Reading page

Collections

Critical Thinking
O’Reilly for Higher Education
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