To write an academic paper, the student must know something about the topic of the paper, and to understand the topic they must be able to think about it critically (Thinking, 2003). Critical thinking involves asking questions about the material they intend to write about, and this begins with writing down everything they know about the topic. Then, they must organize the material into groupings, and ask themself how these groups fit together, how are they related, and what general groupings are there? The student must determine the significance of the data they have, what it can be used for, and what are its implications. They have to determine if there is anything that does not fit the facts or the theory they are working on.
When students write, they cannot remain passive players as they can in reading assignments and lectures (Teaching, 1997). Even the simplest writing assignment, such as criticizing an article, requires making critical choices about what is important in the article, what could be left out, and what is the overall message conveyed by the article. To prepare to write a paper, the student must make observations to establish facts, and from the facts, make assumptions. Assumptions lead to opinions, which are then used to develop arguments through the principle of logic. Critical analysis is used to challenge the observations, facts, inferences, opinions, and assumptions of others. This is critical thinking. Critical thinking is essential to academic writing. It is what gives papers merit, and makes them worth reading.
Gocsik, K. (1997). Teaching critical thinking. Retrieved at:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~compose/faculty/pedagogies/
Thinking critically. (2003). Retrieved at:
http://www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/crit.html
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