critical thinking academic writing and presentation skills pdf

Critical Thinking in Academic Research - Second Edition

(4 reviews)

Cindy Gruwell, University of West Florida

Robin Ewing, St. Cloud State University

Last Update: 2023

Publisher: Minnesota State Colleges and Universities

Language: English

Formats Available

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Reviewed by Julie Jaszkowiak, Community Faculty, Metropolitan State University on 12/22/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

Organized in 11 parts, this his textbook includes introductory information about critical thinking and details about the academic research process. The basics of critical thinking related to doing academic research in Parts I and II. Parts III – XI provide specifics on various steps in doing academic research including details on finding and citing source material. There is a linked table of contents so the reader is able to jump to a specific section as needed. There is also a works cited page with information and links to works used for this textbook.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content of this textbook is accurate and error free. It contains examples that demonstrate concepts from a variety of disciplines such as “hard science” or “popular culture” that assist in eliminating bias. The authors are librarians so it is clear that their experience as such leads to clear and unbiased content.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

General concepts about critical thinking and academic research methodology is well defined and should not become obsolete. Specific content regarding use of citation tools and attribution structure may change but the links to various research sites allow for simple updates.

Clarity rating: 5

This textbook is written in a conversational manner that allows for a more personal interaction with the textbook. It is like the reader is having a conversation with a librarian. Each part has an introduction section that fully defines concepts and terms used for that part.

Consistency rating: 5

In addition to the written content, this textbook contains links to short quizzes at the end of each section. This is consistent throughout each part. Embedded links to additional information are included as necessary.

Modularity rating: 4

This textbook is arranged in 11 modular parts with each part having multiple sections. All of these are linked so a reader can go to a distinct part or section to find specific information. There are some links that refer back to previous sections in the document. It can be challenging to return to where you were once you have jumped to a different section.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

There is clear definition as to what information is contained within each of the parts and subsequent sections. The textbook follows the logical flow of the process of researching and writing a research paper.

Interface rating: 4

The pictures have alternative text that appears when you hover over the text. There is one picture on page 102 that is a link to where the downloaded picture is from. The pictures are clear and supportive of the text for a visual learner. All the links work and go to either the correct area of the textbook or to a valid website. If you are going to use the embedded links to go to other sections of the textbook you need to keep track of where you are as it can sometimes get confusing as to where you went based on clicking links.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

This is not really a grammatical error but I did notice on some of the quizzes if you misspelled a work for fill in the blank it was incorrect. It was also sometimes challenging to come up with the correct word for the fill in the blanks.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

There are no examples or text that are culturally insensitive or offensive. The examples are general and would be applicable to a variety of students study many different academic subjects. There are references and information to many research tools from traditional such as checking out books and articles from the library to more current such as blogs and other electronic sources. This information appeals to a wide expanse of student populations.

I really enjoyed the quizzes at the end of each section. It is very beneficial to test your knowledge and comprehension of what you just read. Often I had to return and reread the content more critically based on my quiz results! They are just the right length to not disrupt the overall reading of the textbook and cover the important content and learning objectives.

Reviewed by Sara Stigberg, Adjunct Reference Librarian, Truman College, City Colleges of Chicago on 3/15/23

Critical Thinking in Academic Research thoroughly covers the basics of academic research for undergraduates, including well-guided deeper dives into relevant areas. The authors root their introduction to academic research principles and practices in the Western philosophical tradition, focused on developing students' critical thinking skills and habits around inquiry, rationales, and frameworks for research.

This text conforms to the principles and frames of the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, published by the Association of College and Research Libraries. It includes excellent, clear, step-by-step guides to help students understand rationales and techniques for academic research.

Essential for our current information climate, the authors present relevant information for students who may be new to academic research, in ways and with content that is not too broad or too narrow, or likely to change drastically in the near future.

The authors use clear and well-considered language and explanations of ideas and terms, contextualizing the scholarly research process and tools in a relatable manner. As mentioned earlier, this text includes excellent step-by-step guides, as well as illustrations, visualizations, and videos to instruct students in conducting academic research.

(4.75) The terminology and framework of this text are consistent. Early discussions of critical thinking skills are tied in to content in later chapters, with regard to selecting different types of sources and search tools, as well as rationales for choosing various formats of source references. Consciously making the theme of critical thinking as applied to the stages of academic research more explicit and frequent within the text would further strengthen it, however.

Modularity rating: 5

Chapters are divided in a logical, progressive manner throughout the text. The use of embedded links to further readings and some other relevant sections of the text are an excellent way of providing references and further online information, without overwhelming or side-tracking the reader.

Topics in the text are organized in logical, progressive order, transitioning cleanly from one focus to the next. Each chapter begins with a helpful outline of topics that will be covered within it.

There are no technical issues with the interface for this text. Interactive learning tools such as the many self-checks and short quizzes that are included throughout the text are a great bonus for reinforcing student learning, and the easily-accessible table of contents was very helpful. There are some slight inconsistencies across chapters, however, relative to formatting images and text and spacing, and an image was missing in the section on Narrowing a Topic. Justifying copy rather than aligning-left would prevent hyphenation, making the text more streamlined.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

(4.75) A few minor punctuation errors are present.

The authors of this text use culturally-relevant examples and inclusive language. The chapter on Barriers to Critical Thinking works directly to break down bias and preconceived notions.

Overall, Critical Thinking in Academic Research is an excellent general textbook for teaching the whys and hows of academic research to undergraduates. A discussion of annotated bibliographies would be a great addition for future editions of the text. ---- (As an aside for the authors, I am curious if the anonymous data from the self-checks and quizzes is being collected and analyzed for assessment purposes. I'm sure it would be interesting!)

Reviewed by Ann Bell-Pfeifer, Program Director/ Instructor, Minnesota State Community and Technical College on 2/15/23

The book has in depth coverage of academic research. A formal glossary and index were not included. read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The book has in depth coverage of academic research. A formal glossary and index were not included.

The book appears error free and factual.

The content is current and would support students who are pursuing writing academic research papers.

Excellent explanations for specific terms were included throughout the text.

The text is easy to follow with a standardized format and structure.

The text contains headings and topics in each section.

It is easy to follow the format and review each section.

Interface rating: 5

The associated links were useful and not distracting.

No evidence of grammatical errors were found in the book.

The book is inclusive.

The book was informative, easy to follow, and sequential allowing the reader to digest each section before moving into another.

Reviewed by Jenny Inker, Assistant Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University on 8/23/22

This book provides a comprehensive yet easily comprehensible introduction to critical thinking in academic research. The author lays a foundation with an introduction to the concepts of critical thinking and analyzing and making arguments, and then moves into the details of developing research questions and identifying and appropriately using research sources. There are many wonderful links to other open access publications for those who wish to read more or go deeper.

The content of the book appears to be accurate and free of bias.

The examples used throughout the book are relevant and up-to-date, making it easy to see how to apply the concepts in real life.

The text is very accessibly written and the content is presented in a simple, yet powerful way that helps the reader grasp the concepts easily. There are many short, interactive exercises scattered throughout each chapter of the book so that the reader can test their own knowledge as they go along. It would be even better if the author had provided some simple feedback explaining why quiz answers are correct or incorrect in order to bolster learning, but this is a very minor point and the interactive exercises still work well without this.

The book appears consistent throughout with regard to use of terminology and tone of writing. The basic concepts introduced in the early chapters are used consistently throughout the later chapters.

This book has been wonderfully designed into bite sized chunks that do not overwhelm the reader. This is perhaps its best feature, as this encourages the reader to take in a bit of information, digest it, check their understanding of it, and then move on to the next concept. I loved this!

The book is organized in a manner that introduces the basic architecture of critical thinking first, and then moves on to apply it to the subject of academic research. While the entire book would be helpful for college students (undergraduates particularly), the earlier chapters on critical thinking and argumentation also stand well on their own and would be of great utility to students in general.

This book was extremely easy to navigate with a clear, drop down list of chapters and subheadings on the left side of the screen. When the reader clicks on links to additional material, these open up in a new tab which keeps things clear and organized. Images and charts were clear and the overall organization is very easy to follow.

I came across no grammatical errors in the text.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

This is perhaps an area where the book could do a little more. I did not come across anything that seemed culturally insensitive or offensive but on the other hand, the book might have taken more opportunities to represent a greater diversity of races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

This book seems tailor made for undergraduate college students and I would highly recommend it. I think it has some use for graduate students as well, although some of the examples are perhaps little basic for this purpose. As well as using this book to guide students on doing academic research, I think it could also be used as a very helpful introduction to the concept of critical thinking by focusing solely on chapters 1-4.

Introduction
Part I. What is Critical Thinking?
Part II. Barriers to Critical Thinking
Part III. Analyzing Arguments
Part IV. Making an Argument
Part V. Research Questions
Part VI. Sources and Information Needs
Part VII. Types of Sources
Part VIII. Precision Searching
Part IX. Evaluating Sources
Part X. Ethical Use and Citing Sources
Part XI. Copyright Basics
Works Cited
About the Authors

Ancillary Material

About the book.

Critical Thinking in Academic Research - 2nd Edition provides examples and easy-to-understand explanations to equip students with the skills to develop research questions, evaluate and choose the right sources, search for information, and understand arguments. This 2nd Edition includes new content based on student feedback as well as additional interactive elements throughout the text.

About the Contributors

Cindy Gruwell is an Assistant Librarian/Coordinator of Scholarly Communication at the University of West Florida. She is the library liaison to the department of biology and the College of Health which has extensive nursing programs, public health, health administration, movement, and medical laboratory sciences. In addition to supporting health sciences faculty, she oversees the Argo IRCommons (Institutional Repository) and provides scholarly communication services to faculty across campus. Cindy graduated with her BA (history) and MLS from the University of California, Los Angeles and has a Masters in Education from Bemidji State University. Cindy’s research interests include academic research support, publishing, and teaching.

Robin Ewing is a Professor/Collections Librarian at St. Cloud State University. Robin is the liaison to the College of Education and Learning Design. She oversees content selection for the Library’s collections. Robin graduated with her BBA (Management) and MLIS from the University of Oklahoma. She also has a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Bemidji State University. Robin’s research interests include collection analysis, assessment, and online teaching.

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Subject Guides

Academic writing: a practical guide

Criticality in academic writing.

Academic writing
The writing process
Academic writing style
Structure & cohesion
Working with evidence
Referencing
Assessment & feedback
Dissertations
Reflective writing
Examination writing
Academic posters
Feedback on Structure and Organisation
Feedback on Argument, Analysis, and Critical Thinking
Feedback on Writing Style and Clarity
Feedback on Referencing and Research
Feedback on Presentation and Proofreading

Being critical is at the heart of academic writing, but what is it and how can you incorporate it into your work?

What is criticality?

What is critical thinking.

Have you ever received feedback in a piece of work saying 'be more critical' or 'not enough critical analysis' but found yourself scratching your head, wondering what that means? Dive into this bitesize workshop to discover what it is and how to do it:

Critical Thinking: What it is and how to do it (bitesize workshop)[YouTube]

University-level work requires both descriptive and critical elements. But what's the difference?

Descriptive

Being descriptive shows what you know about a topic and provides the evidence to support your arguments. It uses simpler processes like remembering , understanding and applying . You might summarise previous research, explain concepts or describe processes.

Being critical pulls evidence together to build your arguments; what does it all mean together? It uses more complex processes: analysing , evaluating and creating . You might make comparisons, consider reasons and implications, justify choices or consider strengths and weaknesses.

Bloom's Taxonomy is a useful tool to consider descriptive and critical processes:

Bloom's Taxonomy [YouTube] | Bloom's Taxonomy [Google Doc]

Find out more about critical thinking:

What is critical writing?

Academic writing requires criticality; it's not enough to just describe or summarise evidence, you also need to analyse and evaluate information and use it to build your own arguments. This is where you show your own thoughts based on the evidence available, so critical writing is really important for higher grades.

Explore the key features of critical writing and see it in practice in some examples:

Introduction to critical writing [Google Slides]

While we need criticality in our writing, it's definitely possible to go further than needed. We’re aiming for that Goldilocks ‘just right’ point between not critical enough and too critical. Find out more:

Critical reading

Criticality isn't just for writing, it is also important to read critically. Reading critically helps you:

evaluative whether sources are suitable for your assignments.
know what you're looking for when reading.
find the information you need quickly.

Critical reading [Interactive tutorial] | Critical reading [Google Doc]

Find out more on our dedicated guides:

Using evidence critically

Academic writing integrates evidence from sources to create your own critical arguments.

We're not looking for a list of summaries of individual sources; ideally, the important evidence should be integrated into a cohesive whole. What does the evidence mean altogether? Of course, a critical argument also needs some critical analysis of this evidence. What does it all mean in terms of your argument?

Find out more about using evidence to build critical arguments in our guide to working with evidence:

critical thinking academic writing and presentation skills pdf

Critical language

Critical writing is going to require critical language. Different terms will give different nuance to your argument. Others will just keep things interesting! In the document below we go through some examples to help you out:

Assignment titles: critical or descriptive?

Assignment titles contain various words that show where you need to be descriptive and where you need to be critical. Explore some of the most common instructional words:

Descriptive instructional words

define : give the precise meaning

examine : look at carefully; consider different aspects

explain : clearly describe how a process works, why a decision was made, or give other information needed to understand the topic

illustrate : explain and describe using examples

outline : give an overview of the key information, leaving out minor details

Critical instructional words

analyse : break down the information into parts, consider how parts work together

discuss : explain a topic, make comparisons, consider strengths & weaknesses, give reasons, consider implications

evaluate : assess something's worth, value or suitability for a purpose - this often leads to making a choice afterwards

justify : show the reasoning behind a choice, argument or standpoint

synthesise : bring together evidence and information to create a cohesive whole, integrate ideas or issues

CC BY-NC-SA Learnhigher

More guidance on breaking down assignment titles:

<< Previous: Structure & cohesion
Next: Working with evidence >>
Last Updated: Apr 3, 2024 4:02 PM
URL: https://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/academic-writing

Academic Writing: Critical Thinking & Writing

Academic Writing
Planning your writing
Structuring your assignment
Critical Thinking & Writing
Building an argument
Reflective Writing
Summarising, paraphrasing and quoting

Critical Thinking

One of the most important features of studying at university is the expectation that you will engage in thinking critically about your subject area.

Critical thinking involves asking meaningful questions concerning the information, ideas, beliefs, and arguments that you will encounter. It requires you to approach your studies with a curious, open mind, discard preconceptions, and interrogate received knowledge and established practices.

Critical thinking is key to successfully expressing your individuality as an independent learner and thinker in an academic context. It is also a valuable life skill.

Critical thinking enables you to:

Evaluate information, its validity and significance in a particular context.
Analyse and interpret evidence and data in response to a line of enquiry.
Weigh-up alternative explanations and arguments.
Develop your own evidence-based and well-reasoned arguments.
Develop well-informed viewpoints.
Formulate your own independent, justifiable ideas.
Actively engage with the wider scholarship of your academic community.

Writing Critically

Being able to demonstrate and communicate critical thinking in your written assignments through critical writing is key to achieving academic success.

Critical writing can be distinguished from descriptive writing which is concerned with conveying information rather than interrogating information. Understanding the difference between these two styles of academic writing and when to use them is important.

The balance between descriptive writing and critical writing will vary depending on the nature of the assignment and the level of your studies. Some level of descriptive writing is generally necessary to support critical writing. More sophisticated criticality is generally required at higher levels of study with less descriptive content. You will continue to develop your critical writing skills as you progress through your course.

Descriptive Writing and Critical Writing

Descriptive Writing
Critical Writing
Examples of Critical Writing

Descriptive writing demonstrates the knowledge you have of a subject, and your knowledge of what other people say about that subject. Descriptive writing often responds to questions framed as ‘what’ , ‘where’ , ‘who’ and ‘when’ .

Descriptive writing might include the following:

Description of what something is or what it is about (an account, facts, observable features, details): a topic, problem, situation, or context of the subject under discussion.
Description of where it takes place (setting and context), who is involved and when it occurs.
Re-statement or summary of what others say about the topic.
Background facts and information for a discussion.

Description usually comes before critical content so that the reader can understand the topic you are critically engaging with.

Critical writing requires you to apply interpretation, analysis, and evaluation to the descriptions you have provided. Critical writing often responds to questions framed as ‘how’ or ‘why’ . Often, critical writing will require you to build an argument which is supported by evidence.

Some indicators of critical writing are:

Investigation of positive and negative perspectives on ideas
Supporting ideas and arguments with evidence, which might include authoritative sources, data, statistics, research, theories, and quotations
Balanced, unbiased appraisal of arguments and counterarguments/alternative viewpoints
Honest recognition of the limitations of an argument and supporting evidence
Plausible, rational, convincing, and well-reasoned conclusions

Critical writing might include the following:

Applying an idea or theory to different situations or relate theory to practice. Does the idea work/not work in practice? Is there a factor that makes it work/not work? For example: 'Smith's (2008) theory on teamwork is effective in the workplace because it allows a diverse group of people with different skills to work effectively'.
Justifying why a process or policy exists. For example: 'It was necessary for the nurse to check the patient's handover notes because...'
Proposing an alternative approach to view and act on situations. For example: 'By adopting a Freirian approach, we could view the student as a collaborator in our teaching and learning'. Or: 'If we had followed the NMC guidelines we could have made the patient feel calm and relaxed during the consultation'.
Discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of an idea/theory/policy. Why does this idea/theory/policy work? Or why does this idea not work? For example: 'Although Smith's (2008) theory on teamwork is useful for large teams, there are challenges in applying this theory to teams who work remotely'.
Discussion of how the idea links to other ideas in the field (synthesis). For example: 'the user experience of parks can be greatly enhanced by examining Donnelly's (2009) customer service model used in retail’.
Discussion of how the idea compares and contrasts with other ideas/theories. For example: ‘The approach advocated by the NMC differs in comparison because of factor A and factor C’.
Discussion of the ‘’up-to-datedness” and relevance of an idea/theory/policy (its currency). For example: 'although this approach was successful in supporting the local community, Smith's model does not accommodate the needs of a modern global economy'.
Evaluating an idea/theory/policy by providing evidence-informed judgment. For example: 'Therefore, May's delivery model should be discontinued as it has created significant issues for both customers and staff (Ransom, 2018)'.
Creating new perspectives or arguments based on knowledge. For example: 'to create strong and efficient buildings, we will look to the designs provided by nature. The designs of the Sydney Opera House are based on the segments of an orange (Cook, 2019)'.

The Influence of Critical Thinking on Developing Writing Skills

Foreign Languages in Uzbekistan

EFL students face several challenges when they are asked to compose essays. As a result, EFL students are often reluctant to participate in written assignments. Language learners try to apply grammatical rules accurately and use as many academic words as possible. However, the concepts offered are highly general, without any specific proof. The sequence of statements also does not complement each other logically but repeats itself. When analyzing existing school textbooks and curricula, little attention was paid to exercises designed to broaden students ’horizons. To enrich the content of the essay, it is advisable to expand the existing ideas on the topic and organize classes to form new ideas. To this end, the Socrates Seminar – Discussion – Project Work. Presentation was organized using a sequence of exercises. As a result of this 4-week research process, it was observed that the essays written by the students were different from the previous essays in terms of content and essenc...

Related Papers

Haidar A Hamisi

Essay becomes a major part of the education nowadays. Writing and critical thinking has been related each other that it’s not only what we value critical thinking by itself or we value writing by itself, but they are one that working together although they seem to perhaps looks overlap each other but they are not exactly same (Yancey, 2015). The relationship between writing and critical thinking comes with the role of writing as a medium to express a critical thinking. The role of critical thinking and writing here will prepare the students to achieve their academic success as nowadays writing an essay are often used in some universities as their requirements as students to continue their study to the next level abroad, not only an obligation requirement in success test to the next level of university education, but also as a requirement in graduate attributes of the universities as stated by Wilson (2007). However, some of the students found it difficult to do an essay as they always faced lot of problems during their process in writing an essay. Fell &Lukianova (2015) stated that the problems regarding to the students’ performance in writing an essay are primarily linked to their lack of critical thinking skills. They are too afraid of doing a mistake in stating their arguments or judgments because of their lacking to be critics in analyzing the case. Meanwhile, this paper will outline problems faced by students in writing essay and how cans critical thinking can facilitate students in overcoming those problems.

Modern Journal of Language Teaching Methods

Milad Moradpour

The present investigation was an attempt to study the Effectiveness of Teaching Critical Thinking on Iranian Upper-Intermediate EFL Learners' Essay Writing Ability. To that end, an OPT test was administered to 110 university students learning English language in institutes. Learners who scored between one above and below the standard deviation were selected. 40 learners were selected and they were divided into experimental and control group, each group contained 20 learners. A writing test was administered to both groups as a pre-test to take their initial knowledge of writing ability. The writing section of the TOEFL test was selected to test the writing ability of the participants. The experimental group received treatment in order to help them improve their writing ability by teaching critical thinking in fifteen sessions .The control group received no treatment. Finally both groups sat for the post-test of the same writing test. The results were analyzed through ANCOVA and it was explored that teaching critical thinking had a positive effect on Iranian EFL learners' essay writing ability.

Theory and Practice in Language Studies

Fatemeh Miri

The present study made an attempt to determine the effect of teaching critical thinking skills on Iranian EFL learners' essay writing ability. To do this, a sample of 60 EFL learners was selected based on their performance on Preliminary English Test (PET). The participants were randomly assigned to two equal groups of control and experimental. An essay-writing test functioning as pre-test was administered on both groups in order to ensure their homogeneity in terms of writing ability. The groups received 10 sessions of writing instruction; however, experimental group received additional instruction and practice regarding the techniques of critical thinking. Finally, both groups took an essay writing posttest in order to compare their writing achievements. Both pretest and posttest were scored by two raters using TOEFL rating scales. The results of paired and independent sample t-tests showed that critical thinking techniques significantly enhanced EFL learners writing ability.

Mojgan Rashtchi

Critical thinking as an issue with on-going importance has an immense influence on modern education. However, it is not a natural disposition but is a potential that needs cultivation. Training individuals to become critical thinkers is not an easy task, but by adopting appropriate strategies and classroom practices, it is attainable. The present article aimed to show how English writing classes in EFL settings could facilitate the practice of critical thinking skills. This paper suggests that critical thinking can be implemented as a classroom practice in writing courses by using several tasks that integrate writing and thinking skills. The article starts with an introduction to the definitions of critical thinking. Then, it underlines the classroom procedures, which can be implemented by teachers. Following this, some sample tasks and writing topics are proposed to help teachers employ critical thinking practices in their classes. Article visualizations:

SSRN Electronic Journal

Nabila Nejmaoui

Oscar Y Carascalao

The aim of this article is to share both theoretical and practical ideas about critical thinking development within English language teaching/learning contexts especially in teaching writing. This paper is triggered by a major problem that has been observed by teachers and academic researchers in Indonesia which is that many students coming from different majors in university have been either hesitant or disorganized in writing an English essay. It can be an issue that Raimes (1985) points out that writing in ESL/EFL context needs to be dealt with at the particular level of linguistic and discourse proficiency that the intended students have reached. Due to this fact, Teaching writing, moreover, to non-English Department students is often considered as more complicated than teaching other language skills by the teacher of English. Therefore, teaching writing requires the teacher to involve various activities. Then, a new way to teach English writing focusing on developing students' critical thinking should be proposed. Students should be trained to be critical readers first to create a good composition who can write a clear, relevant, truthful, informative, interesting, and memorable text.

Journal of English Language and Literature

Fahmy Imaniar

Academic writing and critical thinking are two things which strongly deal with higher education context, especially for EFL students. Unfortunately, the process of the teaching and learning which deals with the two aforementioned things was rarely researched. Hence, this current study aimed at revealing the process of teaching and learning of academic writing which involves critical thinking in higher education level. It was carried out through qualitative approach with non-participatory observation and interview as the data collection techniques. The participants were the subject teacher as the one who taught academic writing and also the students in the academic writing class. The result shows that the process of teaching and learning of academic writing consisted of several phases united into a set prevailing for each type of academic writing. Furthermore, critical thinking is engaged within almost all phases with different way of its existence. This study is expected to open eye...

International Interdisciplinary Journal of Education

Dalal Alqiawi

mehran memari

The goal of the current study was to investigate the effects of critical thinking skill on EFL learners’ cause and effect essay writing and their attitudes towards it. To achieve this goal, 60 Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learners were randomly divided into two equal control and experimental groups. After evaluating their knowledge of writing, the conventional teaching methods were used for the control group while an eight-step method was used to promote the critical thinking skill for the experimental group. Then the participants sat for the second test to assess the effect of critical thinking instruction and to compare the groups with each other. Elicitation of their attitudes towards the method was done by the questionnaire. The results revealed that the critical thinking instruction had meaningful consequences on the cause and effect essay writing of the participants, and the participants had positive attitudes towards the training. The findings of the research can recommend ...

Journal of Language Teaching and Research

Pantea Hashtroodi

This study tried to find out whether or not teaching techniques of critical thinking through writing to the Iranian English students at university level can lead them develop writing argumentative essays. We received the help of 63 university students in two classes at Islamic Azad University, with the average age of 21 whose major were translation. Those falling within two SD above and below the mean on TOEFL were chosen. Participants were asked to write two five-paragraph argumentative essays; one at the beginning of the term, and the other one after 6 sessions. Since the second session, for about four sessions and each session 30 minutes, the experimental group was received a treatment. Participants' papers were scored based on Unrau's scoring guide by two English teachers. T-tests were used to check the differences between experimental and control groups. This study's implication is that techniques of critical thinking can help the students to become critical thinkers because the improvement was positive, yet it cannot help them to write more argumentative essays, for the fact that the improvement was not significant.

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