The importance of critical thinking

There are clearly many overlaps between critical thinking, critical reading and critical
writing, and we encourage you to develop this essential skill as you work your way
through your PhD.

Critical thinking

Critical thinking is a crucial academic skill for any PhD student. To think critically,
means that you can examine ideas, evaluate them against current knowledge and make
some decisions based on the merit of what you have read. In critical thinking you need
to be able to balance the different sides of an argument and identify the strengths and
weaknesses of the argument by evaluating the strengths of the evidence you are
presented with.

To think critically means that you can formulate an objective response and keep an
open mind as you engage with the literature on a subject. You should be able to critically
question the claims made. It is important, as a PhD student to ask questions, engage
with ideas and made decisions about evidence without bias. To be able to think like an
academic you need to be able to defend your position, your decisions, and your way of
thinking to an external audience. Building your critical thinking skills means that you
will be able to assess what you read with logical reasoning.

Critical reading

Critical reading is a vital skill when reading scholarly material at doctoral level,
especially because of the importance of your thesis making a contribution. As such you
must be able to identify the deficiencies of the existing scholarship in your area.

When drafting and redrafting, again focus on your research questions and remember
the literature review should be organised around themes, not presented as a list. In
other words, you need to avoid a review which looks like “the furniture sale catalogue,
in which everything merits a one paragraph entry no matter how skilfully it has been
conducted: Bloggs (1975) found this, Smith (1976) found that, Jones (1977) found the
other, Bloggs, Smith and Jones (1978) found happiness in heaven.” (Haywood and
Wragg, cited in Bell, 2010: 104)

The keys to finding relevant social science literature for PhD research are good
planning, organisation and time management. This section aims to help you manage this
information-gathering process as well as managing the resources you locate in terms of
critical analysis of that material and compiling your literature review on this basis. You
will already be familiar to some extent with the literature relating to your subject area,
because you will have reviewed this for your proposal in order to identify areas of
original research to investigate. However, it is essential to continue your literature
review throughout the period of doctoral study to ensure that you have a command of
the full range of coverage in the area, and to take account of changes and developments
in this field. As well as having knowledge and understanding of your own discipline, you
may also have to investigate literature from other disciplines as you proceed, depending
on your research questions.

Moreover, whilst most PhD students will have carried out research of this kind at
master’s level and be familiar with traditional sources and methods of information
searching, the increasing number of resources available electronically may require you
to adapt existing skills and develop new approaches to finding the relevant material.
Although the abundance of information available through the Internet can cause
difficulties in accessing, controlling, and evaluating resources, several electronic
services make it much easier to keep up to date with developments and of course to
facilitate communication with other researchers in the field.

Obviously, using high quality resource materials that enjoy a good reputation amongst
scholarly experts in the subject area requires students to use an academic library as the
main source of information. For Leicester students on campus the University library is
often seen as a repository for books, journals, newspapers, reports and so on. In
contrast, for distance learning students, it is best to think of the library as a portal that
helps you to navigate to a myriad of online resources. Indeed, if you can’t access the
campus library in person, as a registered student at the University of Leicester you
nonetheless have at your disposal a vast array of learning materials, both online and via
interlibrary loan. The range of resources available to you includes books, databases,
journal articles, market reports, newspapers and company records.

In most cases the information that is available on-campus is also available off-campus.
The quantity of information available and the technological developments in how we
access these resources can be exciting, especially if you are accustomed to more
conventional methods involving physical visits to a library, browsing the shelves and so
on. However, it is also crucial that you learn to use the vast array of information
resources available to you carefully and selectively. And remember what we said above:
research at doctoral level means it is essential to keep up to date with new ideas,
arguments, and empirical findings in your discipline throughout the process, because
the production of the final thesis can take up to six years. A literature review carried out
at the beginning of the research would need to be significantly expanded during the
later stages.

A key skill set for any doctoral student is therefore the ability to identify, obtain,
analyse, and evaluate key materials in their subject area. Whatever your own situation,
experience, research area and existing skills, a systematic and ongoing approach to
finding and reviewing the relevant literature can make the whole process less daunting
and prevent information retrieval and management becoming an excuse not to start
writing. Please start by exploring the University of Leicester library website; which can
be found at http://www.le.ac.uk/library/. This URL provides you with links to
information on the library service itself, to the library catalogue (the search facility for
which encompasses the electronic books the library holds), to online resources, to
helpful guides on library resources and how to use them, and a whole host of additional
support. The catalogue and the ‘Find a journal’ link on the home page should usually be
your starting point when searching for material for your research.

The importance of an argument

You will have come across this concept during your academic progress to date.
Academics frequently tell students that they need to have a clear and strong argument
in their writing, and this will also be important as you engage with the assignment for
this module.

Older, but nonetheless seminal literature on this is helpful here, as Toulmin (1958) and
Booth et al., (1995) outline that an argument has four basic elements:
A claim
Evidence
A warrant
Qualifications to the argument where necessary

In their proposals, then, Toulmin (1958) and Booth et al. (1995) show that the claim, is
the point that you are making in the argument, that is, what is being argued for. The
evidence is the foundation upon which you are making your claim. This may be data, or
literature. The evidence you provide needs to support the claim being made and any
weaknesses need to be acknowledged. The warrant is the general principle that connect
the claim and the evidence, that is, it is the logical reasoning that connects the two.
Qualifications are those concessions you may need to make within your argument
which limit what you might be able to claim.

When developing your argument, you need to be clear about the premises of your
argument, the sequential connections across those premises, and the logical conclusion
that follows from those premises. In laying out your argument it is useful to thematise
the core issues at stake that you are dealing with so that there is a sensible flow to the
way in which you present your reader with material. Make sure you provide context
and examples as you illustrate those key points to your reader. Importantly, you need to
clearly link the points of the argument together and signpost your reader through the
premises.