This concise, no-nonsense guide shows students how to adopt a critical approach in order to unlock their academic potential. It explains:
- what 'getting critical' means
- why students need to adopt a critical approach
- how students can integrate critical analysis into their research, reading and writing
Each succinct chapter is visually engaging and informative, and includes plenty of snippets of real students' work to show readers what good critical writing looks like. This 3rd edition has been updated throughout, and now contains new chapters on getting critical with numbers and critical appraisal, fresh examples from a wider range of assignments and more STEM examples.
Getting Critical is an invaluable resource for all students who are required to write essays, reports and other pieces of extended writing as part of their course. It is also an ideal text to be used in conjunction with study skills programmes and critical thinking modules at Higher Education and Further Education level.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
PART 1: GETTING A CRITICAL MINDSET
1. Getting strategic
2. Getting critical with assessment
3. The stairway to critical thinking
PART 2: GETTING CRITICAL IN RESEARCH AND READING
4. A critical approach to reading lists
5. A critical search online
6. But is it any use? Evaluating your sources
7. Getting critical with numbers Catrin Radcliffe, UK
8. To read or not to read? A critical decision
9. A strategic approach to reading
10. Critical reading and critical appraisal
PART 3: GETTING CRITICAL IN WRITING
11. Answer the question!
12. Writing paragraphs: a critical skill
13. Writing for a critical reader
PART 4: CRITICAL STEPS
14. Using frameworks for critical analysis
15. Stepping up the stairway to critical thinking
Conclusion
References
Useful sources
Index
