Critical Thinking and Reading

Critical Thinking and critical reading are very important. These in my opinion, are the basis to a good essay as they help the writer to form an opinion on the topic that he/she is writing about and gives him/her a much broader understanding of the topic that is being wrote about by questioning the topic extensively. When in college, you are encouraged to think critically. This means looking at the topic and questioning everything about it, such as what?, why?,etc. Through this process you are gaining information on the topic. The topic is being described, analysed, critiqued and evaluated.This is known as the Critical Thinking Model. Not only is critical thinking important in college but also in the workplace, especially in management roles where decisions have to be made.

(Photo Credit: John Hilsdon, University of Plymouth)

My experience of critical thinking has expanded since I came to college, but it is the decision of which college to go to and what course that is the biggest decision I've made in recent years. The aim is to get a degree to help me get a job in Youth Work. So I questioned what I wanted to do and what I needed to do to get where I wanted. I also questioned which college I could do these courses in and weather I could travel from home or would I have to move. I feel that this critical thinking on my future helped me to pick between a few courses and also helped me in the decision to do my course in College. 

My opinion on critical thinking is that it is an extremely important skill to remember, but it is also important to remember critical thinking happens in everyday life (examples include what am I going to wear today?) so just remember that and it should become easy. 

Critical reading is defined by the University of Toronto as "making judgement's on how a text is argued." This means reading a text and not taking it at full value, stand back and don't look for information but look on opinion on information.

(Photo Credit: Peter Fitzgerald)

My experience of critical reading is minimal but recently during research for an assignment I found myself reading critically about a psychology theorist Abraham Maslow. I read many writings about Maslow's theory of Motivation and seen both sides of a debate into weather Maslow was right or wrong. I then wrote about this in my assignment.

My opinion on critical reading is that it is crucial to learn and think about, especially in an educational setting, as it helps you to base your own opinion on a topic and further your critical thinking skills. Therefore you will most likely begin to write better essays on a topic and your opinion on the topic.

References:

CATS Consulting Ltd. 2013. Critical Thinking and Reflection - a student resource. [online] Available at: http://archive.learnhigher.ac.uk/videoresources/criticalthinking_student/ [Accessed: 5 Dec 2013]. 

Crocker, J. 2013. Critical Reading Towards Critical Writing. [online] Available at: http://www.writing.utoronto.ca/advice/reading-and-researching/critical-reading [Accessed on: 5 Dec 2013].

Fitzgerald, P. 2010. Critical Reading and Thinking. [online] Available at: http://petermjfitzgerald.wordpress.com/2010/12/15/critical-reading-and-thinking/ [Accessed on: 6 Dec 2013].

Chron. 2013. Examples of Using Critical Thinking to make decisions in the workplace. [Online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-using-critical-thinking-make-decisions-workplace-12952.html [Accessed 7 Dec 2013]

Plagiarism & Referencing

As you begin your transition from secondary school student to college student, there will be a lot of new information and a lot of differences that you will have to get used to in a short amount of time. Two of the most important differences you will learn are Referencing your work and Plagiarism. This will be some of the most important information you will hear in your time in college, whether your course is only a year long or your doing a PH.D. When you do college work lecturers don't want to see work done straight from a book, as it means you have just looked at a book for the answer and not done any work. They use referencing to help to show you researched some information to do your work. In my opinion, it is extremely important to learn and implement referencing early in college and I also feel it needs to be brought into secondary schools for some subjects as it would make learning the more advanced academic referencing much easier to learn if there is basic knowledge. 

According to the Student Information Desk in IT Blanchardstown, Referencing is "acknowledging that the information has come from a different writer.". (ITB Student Information Desk, 2013) This means that anytime you use information from a source weather it is a book, website, journal entry etc. you must reference the writer and where you got the information from.

There are 2 main types of referencing that are used in academic writing, the Harvard Method and the IEEE Method. The Harvard method involves in-text referencing, which means referencing the name of the author and the year of publication of the source in the main body of the text as well as putting a reference in a bibliography at the end of the essay. IEEE referencing also involves in-text referencing using numbers. As a reference is used it is given a number and at the end of the essay put in the list of references in numerical order.

Plagiarism is defined by Cardiff University as “the wrongful publication as ones own, of the ideas or the expression of the ideas of another.” (Cardiff University, 2007). Plagiarism is a serious offence in all colleges and is punishable by minimum of a 0% mark if you are found to have some plagiarism.

As a college student my experiences of referencing have being minimal, as I am still learning to reference properly. Over the first semester of college, plagiarism has being mentioned a lot by lecturers, mainly to keep us aware and to defer us from trying to take somebody else's work as our own. 

As a student, there are tips I can give in terms of referencing. Listen to your lecturers about sources that they want referenced in essays given during the year. Some lecturers may not want their lectures referenced and certain websites, such as wikipedia, are seen as unreliable, therefore avoid using them.

References:.

Cardiff University. 2007. Avoiding Plagiarism. [online] Available at: https://ilrb.cf.ac.uk/plagiarism/tutorial/ [Accessed: 1 Dec 2013].

ITB Library. 2013. IEEE Referencing. [online] Available at: http://moodle.itb.ie/mod/scorm/player.php?a=135&currentorg=Referencing_and_IEEE_ORG&scoid=277 [Accessed: 1 Dec 2013].

ITB Library. 2013. Harvard Referencing. [online] Available at: http://moodle.itb.ie/mod/scorm/player.php?a=134&currentorg=Referencing_and_Harvard_1_ORG&scoid=275 [Accessed: 1 Dec 2013].

ITB Library. 2013. ITB Library: Your library. Your assignment.. [online] Available at: http://itblibrary.blogspot.ie/2013/11/your-library-your-assignment.html [Accessed: 2 Dec 2013].