20.7.16 Read A Text Critically and Evaluate Sources

CRITICAL THINKING

& READING

Sam Quearns
PSE 101
Retrieval: EXPRESSING STANCE: ADVERBS
Be careful: not all adverbs are minimisers or maximisers.
AIM

▪By the end of this lesson you will be better able to

read a text critically, and will have practised this
with source texts you have chosen for your
assignment.
CRITERIA MATCHING
In the back of your student handbook, you will find the criteria we mark your essays against.
Today’s class will help you achieve the following criteria:
Appendix 11:
6. You develop your argument (for example by analysing, evaluating and rebutting
counter-arguments)
7. You support any claims with evidence from your research
9. You follow citing and referencing conventions (for example including author and date,
dealing with common knowledge, etc)
10. You avoid unnecessary quotations
11. You are able to summarise and/or paraphrase You integrate source materials, showing
how they relate to your ideas
SOLVE THIS PROBLEM…
▪ 1. How do you put a giraffe into your refrigerator?

▪ Open the door, put the giraffe in, close the door.
▪ This question tests whether you tend to do simple things in an overly complicated
way
NOW, SOLVE THIS….
▪ 2. Now, how do you put an elephant into your refrigerator?

▪ Open the door, take the giraffe out, put the elephant in and close the door.
▪ This tests your ability to think through the consequences of your previous actions
AND THIS…
▪ 3. The Lion King is hosting an animal meeting. All the animals in the jungle attend
- except one. Which animal does not attend?
▪ The elephant – it’s still in the refrigerator
▪ This tests your memory.
LASTLY…
▪ 4. Now, you’re deep in the jungle. There is a river you

must cross but it is used by crocodiles and you do not
have a boat. How do you manage it?
▪ You can swim across – the crocodiles are at the
meeting, NOT in the river!
▪ This tests whether you learn quickly from your
mistakes.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

CRITICAL THINKING
▪ According to Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals tested

got all questions wrong.
▪ How many did you get right?
What is the moral of this/how

does it link to evaluating
sources?
- Think carefully! Don’t just
jump to your first answer.
CRITICAL READING V. CRITICAL THINKING:
WHAT ARE THEY AND WHY DO WE NEED TO USE
THEM?
▪We can distinguish between critical reading and critical thinking in the
following way:
▪ Critical reading is a technique for discovering information and ideas within a text.
▪ Critical thinking is a technique for evaluating information and ideas, for deciding what to
accept and believe.
▪ Critical reading refers to a careful, active, reflective, analytic reading. Critical thinking involves
reflecting on the validity of what you have read in light of our prior knowledge and
understanding of the world.
WHEN TO USE CT & CR
▪ For example, consider the following (somewhat humorous) sentence from a student essay:
▪ Parents are buying expensive cars for their kids to destroy them.
▪ As the terms are used here, critical reading is concerned with figuring out whether, within the
context of the text as a whole, " them " refers to the parents, the kids, or the cars, and whether
the text supports that practice. Critical thinking would come into play when deciding whether
the chosen meaning was indeed true, and whether or not you, as the reader, should support
that practice.
▪ By these definitions, critical reading would appear to come before critical thinking: Only once
we have fully understood a text (critical reading) can we truly evaluate its assertions (critical
thinking).
PUTTING IT INTO PRACTISE
1. “I should not challenge
experts”
1. Experts can be wrong – should follow logic of argument to see if you agree.
Well established authors/researchers can still be wrong
2. You can still have a view and you know if you disagree with something
2. “I should not be critical

of a topic I do not
understand very well”
How do we do our pre-reading
steps?
Hewings Unit 7. 7.1 How do you think this differs

from critical reading?
▪ 1.1: critical = evaluate – think about: do you

agree with the writer? Not always accepting
what you read as true. Challenge/evaluate it.
Read from a range of sources on the same topic,
evaluate them, then present your own argument
In pairs, discuss the tutor’s comments and

suggest 1 way the student could have avoided
writing just descriptively. How would you do
this?
1. What idea(s) are being presented here?

2. Is it clear that the author has understood or thought about this in any great depth or what
this means in a real-world context?
3. Have they formed a clear opinion? How might they do this?
So, how do we do this?
1. Textbook
2. She is an academic professor in Australia and a
“nurse-leader” meaning she’s an expert in her
field.
3. Professionals in health care and possibly patients.
4. That the health service serves those who work in it
rather than the people it is intended to care for,
she is in favour of this being changed to show
priority for the patients.
BEFORE STAGE 2: WHAT DO YOU KNOW
ABOUT CLAIMS/ARGUMENTS?
▪ Claim = not always true, but author will try to convince you. Strong viewpoint of
author
▪ Often found at beginning of paragraph
▪ Claims try to persuade you of writer’s viewpoint
▪ Claim = general, followed by supporting info
When looking at a claim, think about:

⮚ Am I convinced? If yes, why?
⮚ Is there anything missing that might convince me? (e.g. statistics,
expansion, an example, supporting evidence from another source)
What is a claim?
Answers Sufficient details
More details needed
▪ Stage 2: as you read ▪ 2. supported by evidence? Is evidence convincing?
▪ 1. fact or opinion: a) Viewpoint/opinion of community + health professionals – expansion
in following sentence: “that is,…”
a. O
b) Illness is compared to commodities where choice is taken into
b. O account. Could be expanded more, such as examples, but is not
necessary
c. O
c) This might need to be explained more – how does illness touch
d. F people?
e. O d) We might need supporting evidence to show how these play a vital
role.
f. O
e) This claim made by proponents of the user pay models probably needs
a reference or expansion: what exactly do they argue? Why? How
would they continue to have free care?
f) Statistics (how many people are disadvantaged) to support this
HOMEWORK
▪ Stage 3
1. Healthcare should not have to be paid ‘up front’, as some disadvantaged people
would not be eligible for health benefits if all had to pay
2. Writer could have included:
▪ Arguments for why healthcare should not be a choice to buy (claim b)
▪ Reasons why people not eligible for financial support but still disadvantaged would not
be eligible for this financial support in a ‘user pays’ system (claim f)
▪ Arguments made against the ‘pay up front’ model by those who support the ‘user pays’
model (claim f)
TASK 1: LOOK AT SENTENCES A-C, THEN ANSWER
QUESTIONS 1-3 BELOW.
Task 2. Which word in each sentence helped you answer the questions?
Task 3. If you remove these words, how does the meaning of the sentence change?
TASK 1: LOOK AT SENTENCE A-C, THEN ANSWER
QUESTIONS 1-3 BELOW.
1a. No
2b. No
3c. No
Task 2. Which word in each sentence helped you answer the questions? a = apparently; b
= arguably; c = blatantly
Task 3. If you remove these words, how does the meaning of the sentence change?
a + b: removing the words makes the sentences sound stronger, like facts (arguably and
apparently soften the message
c: removing the word makes the message sound less strong (blatantly is used to
strengthen the message)
CRITICALLY EVALUATE YOUR TEXTS
1. Find a book/article from the reading lists on your MA module lists. Use the 3
stages from Hewings p.98-99 to evaluate it.
2. Look specifically at some of the paragraphs. Can you identify any adverbs that
show the stance of the writer? What exactly is their stance?

20.7.16 Read A Text Critically and Evaluate Sources

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

20.7.16 Read A Text Critically and Evaluate Sources

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

20.7.16 Read A Text Critically and Evaluate Sources

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

CRITICAL THINKING

▪By the end of this lesson you will be better able to

▪ 1. How do you put a giraffe into your refrigerator?

▪ 2. Now, how do you put an elephant into your refrigerator?

▪ 4. Now, you’re deep in the jungle. There is a river you

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

▪ According to Anderson Consulting Worldwide, around 90% of the professionals tested

What is the moral of this/how

2. “I should not be critical

Hewings Unit 7. 7.1 How do you think this differs

▪ 1.1: critical = evaluate – think about: do you

In pairs, discuss the tutor’s comments and

1. What idea(s) are being presented here?

When looking at a claim, think about:

You might also like