EXAMINATION CARD 4

1) What critical thinking skills do you need to develop in academic writing?

Critical thinking means reading what experts have said and presenting a general

summary of their ideas. Critical thinking means saying that everything you read is wrong. Critical thinking means not being afraid to challenge what experts have said, and using this as a way of shaping your own view about a topic. Critical thinking is a term which you will frequently read

and hear during your time at university. Feedback for student essays often says that they ‘lack critical thinking’. However, little guidance may be given as to what this means, or how you can improve. Although it is difficult to give an exact definition of the term, it is possible to identify some key characteristics. Three important ideas - identified here as the ‘3 Cs’ - are as follows:

Challenge:Do not be afraid of questioning what ‘experts’ and scholars have written

about a particular topic. They are not always right.

Consider:Reflect on what you have read, and identify what your po s it io nis. As the

second text in part B shows, good academic writing is analytical rather than just

descriptive (i.e., it says why and how, not just what, when and where).

Combine:Having read a range of sources, you need to synthesize your ideas. Good

academic writing analyzes the issues from all angles and is based on a wide range

of evidence and sources.

2)How should you define unfamiliar words and phrases?

Reasons for defining

Academic writing regularly uses language which needs to be defined and explained to the

reader. There are three main reasons for this:

• Some words have a different meaning in academic English than in general English (e.g.,

criticize).

• A bs tra ct no u n swhich, as their name suggests, do not have a universally agreed meaning,

are used on a fairly frequent basis (e.g., democracy, beauty).

• Some terms may be unfamiliar to your audience and therefore need explaining so that the

essay can be fully understood. This is particularly important for k e yw o r d s .

Many of the words that require definition will be found in your title. When given an essay

question, one of the first jobs you need to do is decide which terms require definition. From the

example questions in part B, it is likely that the following words would need to be defined.

These definitions should appear in either the introduction or the second paragraph.

1. civil law/common law 4. state

2. palaeography 5. full employment

3. game theory/perfect competition