critical analytical thinking (moderated cynicism) research methods

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!