Personality and Intelligence

CRITICAL EVALUATION Thinking, reading and writing critically

Index

Critical Thinking Critical Reading

Critical Writing

Introduction

Thinking, reading and writing critically are key elements for many assessments. When you see words such as evaluate, discuss or compare and contrast in the assessment brief, this indicates that you will be required to think, read and write critically. We tend to use critical evaluation in our daily lives without even realising it! For example, when choosing a new home appliance or planning a project at work. In doing so, you synthesise information, apply analytical reasoning and identify arguments. These skills are transferable to academica where we are critically evaluating evidence from the literature. This resource will help you to develop critical skills that you can use in your assessments.

Think of someone who is sceptical - they are constantly questioning and evaluating everything they hear and read. They never just accept the information. This is what you need to do when you are evaluating research. Being sceptical in academia involves looking for any gaps in the literature, disagreements in the arguments, noting any assumptions and assessing whether these are valid. To do this, we need to have a really in-depth knowledge of the topic area, through a thorough reading of the research.

What does critical evaluation mean?

Critical Evaluation

CRITICAL THINKING .... E V A L U AT E I N F O R M AT I O N A N D I D E A S

What is critical thinking?

Thinking critically means you are examining ideas, evaluating them against what you already know and making decisions about their relevance to your topic area.. The key aim is to remain objective, which helps you to weigh up all sides of an argument and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. As your goal, when thinking critically, is to respond objectively to what you are reading or thinking, you need to keep an open mind and be prepared to question the authors claims.

Actively seek out all sides of the argument

Evaluate the reliability of claims

Evaluate the reliablity of evidence supporting claims

Why is critical thinking important?

Evaluate Develop Assess

Critial thinking enables you to evaluate, compare and contrast theories, methods, concepts and the key debates presented in the literature.

Critical thinking enables you to develop more reasoned arguments. Here,you draw upon theories and research, synthesising evidence to justify your arguments.

Thinking critically when you are reading allows you to assess the evidence and identify unsupported claims or those that just don't make sense.

Thinking critically will help you to develop strong arguments, which means you will be able to present and justify any claims you make, based on the evidence you have evaluated.

Activities such as multiple choice questions help consolidate your understanding of a topic. However, assessments o�en require interpretation and synthesis of the evidence. This uses higher-order thinking skills, which are used to analyse information (see Bloom's (1956), taxonomy, on the next page).

Higher Order Thinking Skills

Bloom's (1956), Taxonomy: Levels of intellectual skill

Knowledge

Understanding

Analysis

Application

Evaluation

Synthesis

Knowledge Knowledge Remember, recall, repeat information

Understanding Summarise, demonstrate, discuss

Application Use and apply knowledge; Solve problems; Demonstrate; Interpret

Analysis Assess theories; Compare and contrast; Evaluate outcomes; Critique; Argue opinion

Synthesis Integrate research/theories; Infer; Predict; Combine

Evaluation Organise ideas; identify patterns; Understand relationships; Compare and contrast

Critical Evaluation

CRITICAL READING .... D I S C O V E R I N F O R M AT I O N A N D I D E A S

It does takes time for critical evaluation to become almost second nature when not

only reading through journal articles, but also in your own writing. When you are

reading through the articles, try to do so in a quiet space and approach the papers in

bite-sized pieces. As with everything, the more practice you have the easier it

becomes.

Why is critical reading important? We spend a vast amount of time reading every day and although it's not something we notice, we read

di�erent things in di�erent ways. We may become deeply engrossed in a work of fiction, we may skim through the news headlines, yet there is always a purpose to our reading. When we read in academia there are three

approaches we can take:

2 3

Information

Overview: Read to find specific information Examples: Finding out dates and times of Zoom sessions or papers an author has written Technique: Skimming the text to find keywords or phrases to answer your question.

1

Understanding

Overview: Draw together general information to get an overview of the topic area Examples: Background reading on a topic area Technique: Passively reading the text from start to finish

Analysis

Overview: Use your existing knowledge and actively apply it to your reading Reading for a literature review, essay, dissertation or thesis Actively reading the text multiple times. This is critical reading

You listen to arguments from both the defense and prosecution, actively cross-examining their

arguments. In academic reading you are cross-examining the arguments made by authors in the

literature

What claims are these authors making?

Are there any inconsistencies between these claims and those of other authors?

How are they justifiyng their claims?

Are their claims supported by robust evidence?

Imagine you are a judge....

Question everything! Question everything you read, examine all the evidence you can find and see how the evidence is

related. From this you can make a critically informed decision about the validity and relevance of the arguments. Use each of the steps below to actively engage with and focus on your reading. Be aware of

the small details as well as the wider context.

1

Predict

What do you expect to read?

2

Identify

What are the key arguments?

3

Question

How do we know this?

4

Clarify

Is anything unclear?

5

Summarise

What is the article saying?

2

Predicting the answers to your questions will enable purposeful

reading. Create links between what you already know and what you are reading, enabling you to make

connections between concepts.

Provides focus so you get what you need from the article.

Before you start reading ask yourself:

What do I want to get from this article?

What is my goal? What do I think the main arguments

are?

Predict

2

Focus on understanding the article by identifying the key debates.

These debates stem from theories, data and research findings in the

literature.

Once you start reading, ask yourself:

What is the key narrative in the text?

What are the relevant pieces of information I'm looking for?

How does this synthesise with other literature in the topic area?

Identify

Now you have read and understood the article, you can begin your

analysis.

Look for: Weaknesses and limitations in the argument/evidence provided.

Limitations may be explicity stated or they be more implicit and harder to

find.

Ask yourself: Are the arguments valid?

Is there any information missing?

Is the data reliable?

Is there a bias in the authors stance?

How does it fit with the other evidence in the topic area?

Question

Make sure you understand the terminology used in the articles. If you are unsure you may misinterpret the meaning and nuances of the debates.

Ask yourself: Are there any words or phrases that I

don't understand?

Do I understand the terminology used?

Are there any authors cited that might be relevant to my assessment?

Clarify

Summarise the article, making sure you have understood the key debates.

Summarise in your own words as this

furthers your understanding.

If you are unable to summarise in your own words, go back and ensure you

understand the key arguments.

Ask yourself: Did you get what you needed from

the article?

Does the evidence support your own argument or do you need to source

further articles?

Summarise

Critical Evaluation

CRITICAL WRITING .... D I S C O V E R I N F O R M AT I O N A N D I D E A S

Introduce Your arguments

and ideas to your reader

Demonstrate Your thought

process Your reader through the

evidence and analysis

Guide New knowledge to the literature in the

topic area

Contribute

01 02 03 04

Critical Writing Many of your assessments will ask you to write critcally. Here, you take the analysis you have accumulated from your reading and apply it to your writing

Writing critically is analytical not descriptive. Although there will be elements of description,

you need to incorporate analysis. It is really important to recognise the distinction between

descriptive writing and analytical writing.

2

What is it? Mainly reports facts and data

What does it do? O�ers an account without drawing conclusions. It does not help your reader understand the importance of the information.

What is it? Interpretation of facts and data

What does it do? Compares, contrasts and synthesises information, claryfing the importance of the debate. Remember that all your arguments must be supported by the evidence from robust academic sources.

Descriptive Critical

Describes what happened

Describes what something is like

Tells a story

Lists details

Discusses links between phenomena

Describes the methods used

Explains a theory

Provides information

Identifies the significance of the evidence

Evaluates strengths and weaknesses

Argues the case in line with the evidence

Weighs up the evidence

Synthesises the evidence

Shows the relevance of links between evidence

Provides an evidence based evaluation

Draws conclusions

VS

Descriptive Writing Critical Writing

It says ...

These are the theories, evidence and data you take from the literature to support your argument.

I say ...

This is where you analyse the evidence, showing that you understand the topic area and the nuances of the debate. This guides your reader as to how you arrive at your conclusions.

And so ....

Here you outline the implications of your critical evaluation and how this links with your narrative. I also provides your assessment with a logical flow rather than lots of unrelated paragraphs

Break down your writing into three areas

Qualitative intersex di�erences were embedded within the items of the Mach IV (Christie & Geis, 1970), for example, 'Most men are brave'. The argument was made that the male inferences may have semantically di�erent meanings for females comparatively to males (Miller et al., 2019). The latter authors revised the items, replacing 'men' with 'people', yet found that even a�er replacing the sex specific word with a generic term, the items were not invariant across sex. This suggests that the Mach IV does not assess female manipulative strategies, leading to the view that the scale is incompatible with the female manifestation of Machiavellianism.

It says - this is the evidence

And so - connects the evidence to the main argument

I say - This is the authors point

Example

Conclusions must flow from your evaluation of the literature and the claims must be logical.

AVOID FLAWED ARGUMENTS

1

Freud was a clever man

(true)

2 3 4

MAKE SURE YOUR ARGUMENT IS VALID

Freud smoked cigars (true)

All men who smoke cigars

are clever

The conclusion is not true!

We cannot conflate smoking cigars with being clever. Premises can be true but they can still lead to a false conclusion.

Critical Evaluation

Being critical in your thinking, reading and writing, is a crucial element of academic writing. The benefits are found in a far more in-depth understanding of the topic area and greater assessment success. I hope you found this resource helpful. If you have any questions, please contact me - [email protected]