critical analytical thinking (moderated cynicism) research methods
TRANSCRIPT
CRITICAL ANALYTICAL THINKING(Moderated cynicism)
Research Methods
Critical analytical thinking …
is not believing everything you read or disbelieving everything you read … but, by trying to be objective, … striking a balance between the two
Information sources
Journal papers Conference papers Books Media (TV, radio, newspapers, etc.) Internet (WWW)
How would you rank these in terms of being reliable/trustworthy or up-to-date?
The critical analytical thinker …
doesn’t believe everything they read doesn’t disbelieve everything they read
The critical analytical thinker …
questions everything that doesn’t make sense to them
questions some things even though they do make sense to them
rereads material when they think they may have missed something
The critical analytical thinker …
considers the type of material they are reading before evaluating it
considers the context of material when they interpret what they read
considers the audience for whom the writing was intended
The critical analytical thinker …
tries to determine the author’s purpose in writing
decides whether they think the author has accomplished their purpose
The critical analytical thinker …
recognises that the author’s attitude will influence what they write
recognises that the effect on them of what the author writes may be caused more by the author’s style of writing than the facts presented
The critical analytical thinker …
analyses arguments
The critical analytical thinker …
recognises, in the case of an argument, whether or not the opponent’s viewpoint has been refuted
recognises unsupported opinions or allegations
recognises conflicting information and inconsistencies
discounts arguments based on poor reasoning
The critical analytical thinker …
recognises and understands metaphors, figures of speech, idioms, colloquialisms and slang
recognises the connotations (implicit meaning) as well as the denotations (actual meaning) of words
The critical analytical thinker …
distinguishes between what the author really says and what they might seem to say
distinguishes among humour, sarcasm, irony, satire and straightforward writing
The critical analytical thinker …
distinguishes between necessary inferences and probable (or possible) inferences
recognises actual or intended implications of statements made
recognises assumptions which are implicit in the author’s statements
The critical analytical thinker …
distinguishes fact from opinion and objective writing from subjective writing
doesn’t misinterpret given data
When do I do this?
All of the time? When I feel like it? Try to practice it at first so that eventually it
comes naturally Start with a couple of (silly) exercises …
Exercise 1
Little Jack Horner sat in a corner
Eating a Christmas pie
He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum
And said, “What a good boy am I!”
Discuss the following statements …
Exercise 1
Jack Horner was little
“True” is OK but “can’t tell” is better (“little” can be used as an absolute or comparative term)
Exercise 1
Jack was sitting in the corner while he was eating
“True” is correct. There is no other interpretation to the words (and tenses)
Exercise 1
Jack was eating a plum pie
“Can’t tell” is correct. It may have been but it may have been an apple pie, which unexpectedly contained a plum. Otherwise, why is he making such a fuss about it?
Exercise 1
Jack was standing in the corner
“False”
Exercise 1
Jack was sitting on a chair
“Can’t tell”
Exercise 1
Jack was a good boy
“Can’t tell” He said he was a good boy but maybe he’s mistaken or he’s a liar
Exercise 2
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children she didn’t know what to do.
Discuss the following statements …
Exercise 2
The woman was old The woman was small The woman’s children lived in the shoe with
her The woman didn’t really live in a shoe but her
house was so small that she called it a shoe The woman had a pet cat
Homework …
Read an academic paper Read a government white paper Watch TV Read The Times/The Sun Listen to Radio 1/Radio 4 Watch “How to Get Ahead in Advertising”
– http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097531/– (not essential but good for a laugh)
Read the last thing you wrote!