{"id":419,"date":"2015-11-30T13:42:59","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T00:42:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/?p=419"},"modified":"2015-11-30T13:42:59","modified_gmt":"2015-11-30T00:42:59","slug":"critical-thinking-get-questioning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/2015\/11\/30\/critical-thinking-get-questioning\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical thinking: Get questioning!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One way to approach critical thinking in the context of an essay is to break it down into stages.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Start by identifying the argument: What is being argued? What reasons\/evidence are given?<\/li>\n<li>Evaluate\/assess the reason\/evidence given and arrive at a conclusion (are the reasons\/evidence good\/bad, strong\/weak? why?)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>One way to assess\/evaluate an argument\/reason\/article\/topic is to ask (and answer!) the following kinds of questions (which ones are relevant will depend on topic and the nature of the evidence\/arguments):<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Is there other evidence to support this claim?<\/li>\n<li>How strong is the evidence?<\/li>\n<li>Is there any counter evidence?<\/li>\n<li>Do you agree with conclusions (do they follow from the premises)? Why?<\/li>\n<li>Are the premises flawed? Why?<\/li>\n<li>Are there any other weaknesses\/limitations?<\/li>\n<li>Is the method flawed?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And it is important to remember that critical thinking need not be negative, it could be that your assessment\/evaluation is positive. So, it can be a good idea to ask positive questions like:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are the strengths of this position\/argument\/evidence?<\/li>\n<li>What contribution does it make?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Also see:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/study-skills\/critical-thinking.php\">http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/study-skills\/critical-thinking.php<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/pdf\/studyup-critical-reasoning-handout.pdf\">http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/pdf\/studyup-critical-reasoning-handout.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/pdf\/studyup-critical-reasoning.pdf\">http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/pdf\/studyup-critical-reasoning.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/pdf\/Academic-Writing-Guide-5-Critical-Thinking-and-Other-Useful-Tips.pdf\">http:\/\/owll.massey.ac.nz\/pdf\/Academic-Writing-Guide-5-Critical-Thinking-and-Other-Useful-Tips.pdf<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One way to approach critical thinking in the context of an essay is to break it down into stages. &nbsp; Start by identifying the argument: What is being argued? What reasons\/evidence are given? Evaluate\/assess the reason\/evidence given and arrive at a conclusion (are the reasons\/evidence good\/bad, strong\/weak? why?) &nbsp; One way to assess\/evaluate an argument\/reason\/article\/topic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419\/revisions\/421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/thelighthouse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}