Critical Writing

How to find arguments

Arguments are likely to emerge from wide reading. Read journal articles around your topic. What are debates within a topic area or field? What themes are emerging? Which main ideas are contested? If you present a view, offer an opposing point of view and anticipate and neutralise counter arguments. What major ideas prevail? Are there new ideas? Are any ideas outmoded and why? Remember to use regular signposting to the reader to indicate what sense you make of the different threads of information contributing to your overall argument.

Criticality and your subject area

Different subject areas may require different approaches to criticality. Ask your subject tutors for advice on what they understand by good critical writing.  It is likely you will need to read widely to obtain research and evidence no matter what the subject. Be guided by your assignment question and spot the key verbs. Are you being ask to analyse or evaluate?

Criticality in your field could emphasise particular thinking and writing skills. Check this list below and try to identify thinking processes that may be important for your subject area/field. Some critical ways of writing may not be expected in your subject. There may be different emphases placed in our subject area. Bear the following possibilities in mind when you are preparing your assignment answers.

• Providing supporting evidence and arguing an opinion based on reading
• Examining cause and effect
• Analysing constituent parts or factors, deconstructing
• Comparing and contrasting-processes, functions, ways of doing things, different theories and outcomes
• Offering solutions to problems
• Making recommendations after discussing options
• Synthesising information and identify new thinking
• Theorising about causes, other contributory factors, problems, failure, unexpected outcomes
• Innovating: taking known ideas and combining them and adapting them to introduce something new
• Discussing conditions which help and hinder
• Identifying trends, categories, criteria
• Drawing parallels
• Discussing why something will or won't work/ did or did not work e.g. in science
• Asking critical questions and using theory to explain phenomena
• Identifying contradictions, discrepancies, inconsistencies, lack of clarity on any issues
• Applying particular theoretical perspectives or lenses to offer understandings
• Exploring complexity, rather than offering simple explanations
• Being aware of fallacies, mental traps and biases in the thinking of others and yourself
• Contributing new ideas and understandings to the discussion of your subject area
• Sometimes it is possible to use theory from another setting to explain phenomena e.g psychological theory could explain phenomena in a management problem
• Analysing gaps between theory/ policy and implementation in reality- Are any recommendations implied? What problems could you forecast with real-world implementation? Are there any foreseeable problems or anticipated problems adapting ideas to your setting or context? Are there barriers to implementation? Could you comment on conditions which need to be in place to ensure effective implementation? What conditions would hinder implementation in your context?

How to ensure articles to back up ideas are appropriate

Ideally apply criteria for supportive evidence such as:

• articles in journals should be 3-5 years old (unless otherwise stated)
• peer reviewed journals
• with authoritative authors
• journal articles already cited by others.

You could use tools to analyse research validity, such as CASP tools. The CASP website provides a range of tools for different types of research studies such as systematic reviews, quantitative research, qualitative research, randomised controlled trials. 

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