The University Writing Center (UWrite): Critical and Clearer Thinking

What is critical thinking?

Scriven and Paul (1987) state, “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.”

According to dictionary.com, critical thinking is defined as “disciplined thinking that is clear, rational, open-minded, and informed by evidence.”

The Lexico Oxford Dictionary refers to it more succinctly as “the objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgement.”

Academic or intellectual thinking must be critical. As we can see from the definitions above, it is not a single step procedure, but rather it is a process that begins with readers displaying a healthy amount of skepticism about what they are reading. In other words, you should not accept blindly the arguments and evidence you are given, even if they come from a leading expert in the field. Instead, you should be more like a jury member in an important legal case. You should read a text critically by weighing up all the available evidence in an objective and rational manner before arriving at your informed judgement on any particular issue. This involves looking for different angles to any argument and critically evaluating the claims made and supporting evidence used. In short, you must not accept what you read before questioning its validity.

Why is it important?

It is important because the ultimate aim of academic study and endeavor is to create new knowledge. In academia, as pointed out by the University of Edinburgh, knowledge is "provisional" and "contestable." In other words, the knowledge that is accepted today may not necessarily be accepted tomorrow if "new, more convincing evidence or theories are produced."

While memorisation, description and explanation of ideas and concepts may suffice at secondary school, higher education, especially graduate studies, requires critical thinking to be evident in the oral and/ or written work that you produce. When critical thinking is applied to current knowledge, it can ultimately result in the creation of new knowledge, which in turn will be critically analysed and built upon by future scholars.

Both at university and in the workplace, the ability to think critically is of vital importance. At university, you need to be able to support your arguments/ opinions with appropriate evidence. However, arguments and evidence are only of value if they have been critically analysed, as it is this element that demonstrates a deeper understanding and engagement with the subject matter. The same critical thinking skills can be applied practically in the workplace when, for example, you are involved in planning or problem solving.