Criticality

Academic and study skills

 Outline
1. Criticality
• what does it mean to be ‘critical’ when engaging with a source?

2. Active reading
• using the critical questions: who, what, when, where, why and how

3. Discourse community
• looking at the bigger picture

4. Higher-order critical skills

• analysis and synthesis
 Critical Reading

Question: what does it mean to be critical when reading?

 Critical thinking
• Not taking things for granted
• Evaluating strengths and weaknesses
• Demonstrating wide reading
• Aiming for a deeper understanding
• Using critical questions such as why and
how
• Going beyond what is stated on the surface
• Evaluating premises and bias
• Challenging and exploring

We do it everyday: do you trust everything that you read in the media?...

Critical reading

• Beware unscrupulous journals

• Always seek reliable, peer-

reviewed academic journals

• Use the MMU library search

facility or Google Scholar

• Check the journal source,

University location etc

• Think while you read

 Active Reading
Reading that goes beyond just understanding a text
How do you do this:
• Analyse the author’s argument:
• What is their main claim (take-home point)?

• Identify strengths, weaknesses and biases:

• How strong is their argument?
• Why are they making this claim?
• What evidence do they use?
• Compare to other authors:
• Which academic ‘camp’ do they fall in?
• What methodology or theoretical approach do they use?
• Who are they responding to?

• Use critical questions:

Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?
 Exercise

Read through the extract from a published academic

article.

How is criticality demonstrated? Think about:

• Synthesis of ideas
• Identification of flaws in evidence
• Development of an argument
• Analysis of evidence
 Discourse community
Discourse community: a group of people communicating about a topic

How do you do this:

• Looking at the ‘bigger picture’:
• how does this source relate to the broader
academic context (the ‘discourse community’)?
• Which ideas, theories or approaches is it
responding to or has been influenced by?
• How has understanding of the topic changed
since the article was written? What are the key
questions at the moment?
• What are you going to do with this source: How can you apply this
knowledge to your own academic and professional interests?
Blooms taxonomy

Critical

Explanatory
Descriptive
 Analysis
Analysis is about breaking down the problem,
claim, question, topic or the individual source that
you are reading, in order to understand the
individual parts:

• How does this source support or disagree

with the claim or topic?
• What are the different steps in the author’s
argument:
• What type of evidence do they use?
• What premises or initial claims do they make about the topic?
• What are the limitations or issues with their argument or evidence?
 Synthesis
Synthesis is about finding common themes, threads
or links between sources, topics and claims:
• What do other authors say about this topic?
Who agrees and who disagrees?
• What evidence or approach do they use to
support their claims?
• Are there common academic ‘camps’ or ‘fields
of thought’ about a topic?
• How can you relate one idea to another?

Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?

 Active notetaking
• Passive techniques such as
highlighting large sections or merely
reading a text without actively engaging
with it are very ineffective (especially for
memory and criticality)

• Make your reading and notetaking more

active: engage with the source as you
are reading it
 Notetaking
• Take concise notes: do not highlight or
copy large chunks.

• Only highlight key terms, main

argument, links to other sources.

• Note down questions, follow-up topics

to consider later in the margin.

• Print key articles.

 Notetaking
• Read large sections before making
notes (make sure you understand the
text).

• Use diagrams and mindmaps to sketch

out key terms, relationships to make your
note-taking more active.

• Cornell note system (opposite): highlight

key terms and summarise at the end.
 Keeping track of sources
Author Title Date & Key Discussion Critique Reflections Useful
publisher argument ideas evidence

Important for The gaps, e.g. problems,

your lit issues, issues, lessons
review – ambiguity, learnt – these
synthesise assumptions can be
and etc. identified become part
summarise in your of your
this! reading? critique in
your
conclusions

• Keep index cards for the main concepts/topics

• Keep track of sources with MMU Endnote:

https://libguides.mmu.ac.uk/endnote

• Keep a rolling annotated bibliography

 Annotated bibliography
• Helps keep track of your sources, influences and ideas
• Contains a short description and/or evaluation below the reference list entry

Ashkanasy, N. M. and Daus, C. S. (2005) ‘Rumours of the

death of emotional intelligence in organisational behaviour are MMU Harvard reference list entry
vastly exaggerated.’ Journal of organisational behaviour 26(4)
pp. 441-452
• Response to critiques by Landy (2005), Locke (2005) and
Conte (2005) against Emotional Intelligence (EI). Refutes Annotation: might contain summary,
claim by Landy and Locke that EI is politically motivated or background, influences, responses,
a subset of social intelligence. Very clear. Good range of evaluation and URL link to help you
sources. Ashkanasy is very influential in this field. keep track (maximum 100 words).
MMU library link.
 Exercise

Using critical language.

Using the handout taken from the Academic Phrasebank,

develop your own mini paragraph based on a topic you are
knowledgeable about.
 Recap

Critical reading: reading that goes beyond just understanding a text

• Analyse the argument (what is the take-home point?)

• Exploring the links to other ideas (how does this fit in the bigger picture?)

• Make effective notes (record your reading accurately)

• Use critical language to support your argument and integrate evidence.

To contact Alice your friendly Academic & Study Skills Tutor:
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