Critical Thinking Skills: Effective Analysis, Argument and Reflection

by Stella Cottrell

Written by internationally renowned author Stella Cottrell, this is an essential resource for students looking to refine their thinking, reading and writing skills. Stella Cottrell's student-centred approach demystifies critical thinking and breaks down a complex subject into manageable chunks. With clear explanations, relevant examples and plenty of exercises throughout, this book helps students to develop their analytical reasoning skills and apply them to a range of tasks including reading, note-making and writing. This text will turn even the most hesitant student into a proficient critical thinker.



This is an ideal companion for students of study skills, humanities, social sciences, business and arts programmes, where assessment includes essay and report writing. It is suitable for students of all levels.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Reference, Logic, Psychology, Academic, Science

296 pages, Paperback

First published October 22, 2005

Reviews

[Piyush Bhatia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine source for developing your reasoning and being self-aware for (accurate) judgment. This book is not meant to be read line by line because there are certain pages that contain obvious information. But then, sometimes it is imperative to get through the rudiments of a subject - to develop deeper insights into the subject.

The book is an instructive source for those who want to ameliorate their writing skills ( for eg, writing an essay) in analytical ways. Moreover, the book also enables the reader to assess their own skills which can be quite useful for writing arguments and identifying the possible flaws in the same.

All in all, this book is an excellent source to deepen your understanding, reinforce your learning, and develop the skill to read between lines; not to forget effective note-making.

4/5 from my side

[Diz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is designed to teach academic skills to first year university students. It explains how academic writing and research are done in a way that is easy for students to understand. There are a lot of examples, so the points that the book is making are clear. This is a good choice if you are teaching an academic skills course to first year students. I wish I had this as a first year university student.

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellant text to assist anyone who wants to develop critical thinking skills, through effective analysis and argument...

For me its an ongoing reference text, the exercises are also quite effective for skills development...
Definitly not one of those books to read from cover to cover and its quite enjoyable too...
.

[Vignes Karthic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book showed me the way of thinking of academicians. Also helped me to spot flaws in mass media's like newspaper and TV news. Only thing that I disagree with the author is that early on the book, the author insist on being non-emotional while accessing an argument. Although it will be helpful in getting a clearer picture, humans are emotional beings. Its what makes us who we are. Hence it seems no wonder that at certain times the academia or science in general feels stale.
Apart from that its a good read.

[Charles Aldridge]

ABSOLUTE MUST FOR BMAT STUDENTS.
This may be one of the most valuable books I have ever read. It provided great insight but also was enjoyable to read and work through. This book helped me immensely with my critical thinking skills, so much so I can see the benefits in other parts of my education.
The main thing this helped with was my BMAT section 1 where I instantly saw my marks skyrocket once armed with the knowledge from this book.

[Khaled · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, especially for people that are just starting university and who may need a good "tutorial" for learning a solid reading and writing method. People later in their careers may find it a bit basic but you can consider it as a sort of reference.

If possible try to pick the paperback version instead of the ebook one as you will find it easier to highlight stuff and doi the suggested exercises

[Bamboo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very basic introduction of critical thinking. The first half of the book is great, because it introduces you some principles of how to think critically. The second half of the book is more about some practical tips.

[Nadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

An immensely useful book. I liked that it was not overly theoretical and that it had lots of examples and practical exercises.

[Maria Popescu]

Just finished it! to refer back to at a later time when I am writing an essay

[Praharshita Krishna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you have absolutely no critical skills whatsoever then this book might well be worth it, although they will teach you these skills in high school english class over and over again without you even noticing. I read this in the hope of gaining some extra knowledge which could help me significantly better my ability to write critical reviews and critically analyze case studies (I'm a BSc biological sciences student). However, I was left disappointed. It really doesn't teach you anything different or anything more than what your average high school english teacher will teach you. Its great that the chapters give you the possibility of doing a few exercises to practice the skills, however there is very little novelty in the book. Personally, the only valuable information I got from the book was a review of what critical thinking is and a step by step guide to be able to put them into practice better. Other than reminding me what critical skills are and how to put them into practice I do not believe the book added anything to my skill set. The only chapters that were useful to me were 1,2,10,12 and I didn't find all the pages useful, only a couple from each chapter.

[Casey Browne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll be coming back to this one!
This book is designed to teach academic skills to first-year university students. It explains how academic writing and research are done in a way that is easy for students to understand. There are a lot of examples, so the points that the book is making are clear. This is a good choice if you are teaching an academic skills course to first-year students.
flag8 likes · Like · 3 comments · see review

[A.J. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting breakdown of how to analyse arguments. I found that a lot of it was really just common sense, but the book spells out what common sense actually is in the context of responding to written arguments, which is helpful and made me realise quite how much is involved in a process that I previously took for granted.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for my Commentary of texts class and, even though it has provided me with more information, I thought it would be more centered in the analysis of literary texts, which is not. It is a general text book for students of all types, and it's more focused on research work.

I will come back to it in the future for advice to write academic essays.

[Padmini Ashok · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read it during my research but picked it up as an aid while teaching my students. It is quite well written, and easy to refer to while preparing for a lecture.

[Tuğba Uğur]

Critical Thinking Skills: Developing Effective Analysis and Argument (Palgrave Study Skills)