Critical thinking is perhaps the most important skill you will develop at university.
Critical thinking is the ability to:
Critical thinking begins with selecting useful and reliable sources of information to support your arguments. Your tutors will examine your references to see whether you've built your case on current, trustworthy evidence. If your sources lack credibility, your arguments will be weakened and less persuasive.
Find out more on literature searching and how to evaluate sources on our Finding Information pages. You can also evaluate sources using the CRAAP Test Worksheet or REVIEW Sources Checklist below.
Reading critically means not taking information at face value. Analyse and evaluate what you read. As you work, ask questions of ('interrogate') the sources.
Find out more about critical reading on our Reading page.
As you read, make notes, but avoid copying long quotes or chunks of information. Note-making should be a critical process.
Write notes in your own words, including your own response to your reading. Download the Approaches to Note-Making Worksheet for ideas on how to approach this.
The Cornell Notes Guide (also sometimes called 'Column Notes') and the Evidence Matrix Worksheet provide more specific guidance on these techniques.
Your tutors want to see you examining current academic debates in your field. You should compare and contrast sources, using this evidence to develop your own argument.
Practise your skills at paraphrasing and summarising from your reading. Download our Paraphrasing and Summarising Information worksheet to help you with this.
Synthesising information from different sources improves the criticality of your academic writing. Download our Synthesising Sources in Writing worksheet which explains how to do this.
Tutors often tell students that their writing is too descriptive and needs to be more critical. You might be asked to analyse material more closely or explain your points more thoroughly. All of these points relate to critical thinking.
Here are our three top tips for making sure your work demonstrates your critical thinking skills:
One mistake students sometimes make is to write everything they know about a topic, without developing their own thesis statement.*
Once you have completed some broad reading on the topic, organise your ideas. This way, you can create a clear plan for responding to the question. At this stage, you should decide what your main argument/case will be. Try to sum it up in one sentence (this will be your thesis statement). Download the Essay Planning Worksheet to help you.
*Your thesis statement is a sentence in your introduction that sums up your overall argument or position.
PEAL stands for Point, Evidence, Analysis, Link. To make a strong argument, your points need to be supported by evidence. You should make it clear to the reader how the evidence helps demonstrate your point. Using the PEAL structure for writing paragraphs can help. Download the PEAL Paragraph Structure Worksheet to help you.
Use reporting verbs to explain or comment on your evidence from published sources. Download our Reporting Verbs Worksheet to help you.
When we write descriptively, we answer questions such as ‘Who wrote it?’, ‘What did they say?’ and ‘When did it happen?’. You will always need some descriptive writing in your assignments as it gives context. However, you should avoid too much description. Prioritise critical discussion, demonstrating your independent thinking. You will gain marks for analysing and evaluating the evidence to draw your own conclusions. Download the CRAAP Test and Critical Analysis Questions Worksheets to help you.
Critical thinking is a skill that takes time and conscious effort to develop. Here are our top tips for improving your critical thinking skills:
We have two recordings available focusing on Critical Thinking. We recommend starting with Critical Thinking 1, then progressing to Critical Thinking 2.
Critical Thinking 1:
Critical Thinking 2:
Our interactive Essay X-ray tool can also help you begin to formulate sentences that demonstrate critical thinking.
Skills for Learning workshops and events are mixture of live sessions and on-demand recordings.
