How to Develop Critical Points in Your Writing
Five years ago I took a master degree in Liverpool, England. I did that after 6 years of working experience and after 7 years since I graduated from my undergraduate university in my home country, Indonesia. I was excited to go back to university. After 3 years working in a company (my second workplace), it felt like being released from a life and routine that constantly demand your full effort and energy on your work because the consequences of your work are real. University, on the other hand, feels like a simulation. You can relax a little bit if you want.
I took a course on E-Business. Anyway, there was one concept I found myself struggling in the beginning to understand. Critical thinking. We were expected to develop some critical points in our academic writings which are written assignments and exam. It turned out I wasn’t the only one who was having difficulty. I found it such a rather vague concept. It was not definitive, there was no precise formula and guidance to it and, let’s be honest, what’s critical for one person (in this case, the lecturer) may not be critical for the others. I never had this concept of thinking during my undergraduate. I might have applied it at some degree without realising it during when I was still working in companies but, I never had it structurally framed or thought about.
So, how do you do it?
I remember the first time I got my assignment feedback. I got a low grade so I decided not to read it (there was so much pride in me that I just didn’t want to look at it). Instead, I borrowed one of my classmates’ feedback (he got much better grade) and read it. I began to understand what I was expected in general in my writing. And it worked most of the time. My writing got better and I got higher grades for both my assignments and written exam.
So, the process of critical thinking is essentially developing our own argument based on what we’ve read (which was journal articles) — that was what I understood in the end. I remember one of the comments written on one of my assignment feedbacks. It went like this: I presented some facts found on a few articles, arranged them into a logical structured narrative on a particular topic. I remember that I had carefully chosen the articles (it was up to date, published by well-respected publishers, etc), but right next to it, my lecturer wrote, “So what?”.
It was pretty obvious that the narrative should have not ended there as it was. What I had done was only rephrasing those articles. There should have been the next step: based on what I had read about the topic, then what was my understanding?did I agree or disagree with those articles and why?what was my opinion on the topic?those key questions would then develop my critical thinking. It really helped. Although I was still struggling with doing assignments (I have a major problem with concentrating), but at least I began to know what I had to do.
Hope that helps!
