Thinking, Reading and Writing Critically

In order to get the highest possible grades in a subject assessed in writing you need to be able to demonstrate an ability to think critically about the sources of information (text-books, academic papers, academic websites and the like) that you use in the construction your answer. You must, in other words, do more than simply take information from other sources and use it construct an answer. It is not enough to select some apposite quotations and demonstrate in that way that you have read around a subject widely and found some pertinent sources of supporting information. To get the highest grades you must be able to replicate a professional academic’s ability to critically assess the academic work of other, published authors. Many professional academics are capable of doing this because over the course of a career they have read an enormous number of text-books and papers in a subject area and, as a result, possess and have mastered a large body of knowledge that they can use to critically assess any new work they encounter. Indeed, for such academics the process of reading critically may have become almost entirely subconscious. As they read a new paper in their subject area they cannot stop their brains from critically comparing the new information with the knowledge they already possess. Clearly, as students, you do not yet possess such an extensive body of knowledge, nor can you hope to acquire one quickly enough to apply it to any given assessment task. Nevertheless, in order to get the highest possible grades you need to be able to emulate this kind of critical reading behaviour and then demonstrate that you understand what is required in your written work. At first sight this appears an unreasonable and impossible task; however you need not despair. You may not be able to assimilate the requisite body of