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8. Critical Thinking
In this study guide:       What is critical thinking? Structure: organising your thoughts and materials Generating critical thinking Critical questions – a linear model Description, analysis and evaluation Developing an argument

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What is critical thinking?
This guide to critical thinking stresses the importance of asking and answering questions. In everyday life the term „critical‟ is often seen as negative or destructive. Being critical in academic life, however, does not mean questioning things randomly, or for the sake of „nit-picking‟. Instead, academic work aims to get as near as possible to the truth. Critical thinking in any subject or discipline is the way in which this is done, along with the more specialised applications of theory, the methods and techniques, which have been developed for the subject. Critical thinking then, is the attempt to ask and answer questions systematically. This means asking the most useful questions in the most productive sequence in order to yield a coherent and credible „story‟ So thinking critically means asking questions. Instead of accepting „at face value‟ what you read or hear, critical thinkers look for evidence and for good reasons before believing something to be true. This is at the heart of what it means to be a scientist, researcher, scholar or professional in any field. Whatever you are studying, critical thinking is the key to learning and to making progress. The common question words: what, who, where, when, how, and why will help you to get started; along with the phrases: what if, what next, and so what. Attempting to answer these questions systematically helps fulfil three vital functions for any serious