Essay writing is one of the most essential parts of academic and professional life. Whether you are studying or pursuing a career, you will be required to write an essay. If you find any difficulty regarding it, maybe it’s time to polish your critical thinking skills.
Critical thinking in writing is essential to make your essay more logical and convincing. Critical thinking means thoroughly examining, evaluating, and investigating the information to draw logical conclusions.
Critical thinking essay stimulates your cognition, allows you to think clearly, interpret ideas and judgments, explore new vistas of knowledge, and gives you enough room to bring your twist to the writings. Living in a consistent environment and being surrounded by the same people might condition you to look at things in a generalized way or how others see them. However, critical thinking and writing allow you to develop an analytical mindset and learn to voice your opinion about life and things.
What is the Difference Between Critical Thinking and Non-Critical Thinking?
Understanding the notion of critical thinking might be confusing if you do not know how to differentiate it from non-critical thinking. It’s called non-critical thinking when you just absorb the information you are getting and focus more on learning. It is part of our everyday life, particularly when we are looking for facts and information.
Critical thinking involves looking at the provided information from its written context. You look beyond what the text says.
What Is Critical Thinking Essay?
Are you still wondering why critical thinking is important in writing or how to write one? It’s critical thinking that makes an essay worth reading. It helps you bring uniqueness to your writing and add a fresh perspective to pre-existing ideas. The basic purpose of a critical thinking essay is to evaluate the information, ask the right questions, and systematically answer them.
Critical thinking, reading, and writing allows you to categorize the information more usefully. It enhances your cognition and problem-solving skills by enabling you to differentiate between knowledgeable and less important parts of the information and use it more effectively than another person would do.
How to Write a Critical Thinking Essay?
Writing a critical essay requires thinking critically, which does not happen over time. However, once you know how to develop that mindset, you will unknowingly start thinking that way. Here is how you can begin practicing critical thinking:
- Look at the purpose or reasons for the written text you are studying. Make sure you understand the central claim of the writing, which you can usually find at the beginning.
- Look for the text’s historical background, i.e., when it was written. What were the social circumstances during that time that may have influenced it? Moreover, knowing the text’s target audience will also help you interpret it better.
- Can the text be viewed in light of any theory? Is its integration with the text subtle, or can it be found between the lines? What other concepts are there in the text? However, do know that every subject has a different way of arguing; you must look closely to find the underlying implications and meaning.
- Is there any evidence in the text? What kind of evidence is it? (historical, statistical, or literary)
- Depending upon the requirements of your essay, you will have to make evaluations while reading the text critically.
Effective critical reading leads to critically written essays. Knowing how to start a critical thinking essay, tackling your arguments and claims with evidence, and keeping the defined structure of the essay makes your writing impressive. The essential parts of critical essays include:
- It is important to state your argument, aka thesis statement or claim, clearly in the beginning because the audience of critical essays is more concerned about knowing the central idea at the start, which helps them with reading. You can write it as ‘in this essay, we will explore’ followed by your argument.
- The essay body defines the success or failure of your essay. The way you handle your claim and support it with evidence makes your essay impressive for the readers. You must include credible sources as a reference to back your claims. Using your critical reading skills, you should include all the relevant information that you have found through other essays that can support your thesis statement and validate its credibility. The more well-researched the body of your essay is, the more informative and compelling it will be.
Critical thinking essays call for deeper exploration, i.e., you need to find the underlying meaning of the information or text you are writing about. You can read about the pre-existing implications of it to get a broader perspective on it. The diversity of ideas will help you write more effectively and is mandatory for putting things into perspective.
- Coherence and organizations of ideas make your critical thinking writing engaging for the ideas. It is easy to incorporate different sources and arguments, but mastering the art of writing and structuring them makes you a successful critical essay writer. Making an outline before you start the essay will keep you from missing important information and help increase readability by making the whole essay coherent.
Have you ever read an essay where the transition between ideas is so abrupt that it keeps you wondering how it relates to the next one? Whether you have missed reading a line? What happened to the previous thought by the writer? You need to avoid abrupt transitions between the ideas and ensure you can establish a link between the paragraphs. The best way to do it is by using the terms ‘similarly, moreover, however, likewise, besides,’ and any other phrase or word that can keep your paragraphs connected to one another.
- As a critical thinker, you will be well aware of the possible counterarguments the readers can raise. You can easily anticipate potential arguments; therefore, it becomes easier for you to effectively address them in your essay. A well-reasoned response to the possible opposing viewpoints will surely leave a lasting impression on the audience.
- The conclusion and introduction of critical essays are equally important. Your conclusion cannot be merely based on personal judgments or biases. Instead, as a critical essay writer, your essay culminates through rigorous research and reading. Your deductions are drawn from solid evidence and are well-researched and well-versed.
Critical Thinking is a Learning Process
Simply put, becoming a critical thinker requires some effort, hard work, and persistent practice. It is easier to get influenced by the general opinion and get along with what other people say. However, it requires a passion for opposing the pre-existing notions and opting for a valid different view. You may find it hard initially, but with more practice, you will become better at it!
Does Critical Thinking Mask Your Creativity?
This is a common misconception that rationality and logic (critical thinking) can mask creativity. It’s the opposite, actually! Critical thinking skills let you think ‘out of the box.’ They make you look at things with a fresh viewpoint, which fuels your creativity. The more closely you look at things, the deeper meanings you can find. Anything that’s new is indeed creative!
How Critical Thinking Helps Us in Daily Life?
Critical thinking isn’t just needed for essay writing; it can aid personal growth and betterment. You will need these skills to be empowered and clearly deal with difficult situations. It helps you to identify the pros and cons and possible consequences of the situations, thus, saving you from many unwanted problems. Once you develop critical thinking skills, it will become a lot easier for you to make wise decisions that will benefit you in the long run.
Problem-solving is likely to become a piece of cake for you. Critical thinking enables you to see things from a different perspective. You will know your way to solutions while dealing with everything logically and systematically. Instead of panicking, you will learn how to overcome obstacles with innovative resolutions.
Effective communication is often considered key to success in professional and personal life. However, many of us lack the ability to convey our ideas and share our viewpoints understandably. Improving your critical thinking skills will help you to express your ideas more clearly and logically. You will be able to share your ideas persuasively and leave a lasting impression on people. Moreover, navigating through conflicts will become breezy.
We live in a world where newness and innovation are the new normal. We wake every day to face a situation or see something that has never existed earlier. Critical thinking skills allow you to remain relevant to your surroundings. You will find it easy to grow and adapt to the rapid changes.
Conclusion
Critical thinking is involved in every single step of essay writing; it facilitates the development of the thesis statement, structuring and organizing your ideas and evidence, dealing with counter arguments, and creating thoughtful conclusions. Using your critical thinking skills with your impeccable writing ability results in a valuable contribution to intellectual discourse. Therefore, if you want to excel in your career as an essay writer, honing critical thinking and writing skills will define your path to success.
