Argument & Critical Thinking

Welcome to Argument & Critical Thinking!

In this section of the OWL, you'll be introduced to formal academic argument and learn how critical thinking plays a "critical" role in writing a good argument. You may have heard a little about critical thinking and, perhaps, you have seen this term listed in course outcomes on your course syllabi or heard your professors talking about the importance of critical thinking. Still, you may have wondered what critical thinking is and how it connects to writing.

It's important to note that there is some disagreement about what critical thinking really is and some disagreement over how it can be taught. But, The Critical Thinking Community, an organization that shares research and advice on critical thinking, defines critical thinking in this way: “Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action.”

Now, you may really be wondering what critical thinking is. Essentially, critical thinking is about gathering and analyzing information in order to come to new conclusions on your own—or a new way of thinking. Obviously, this is going to take many forms in your college career, but in writing, it's about using all available information to make informed decisions about effective writing—and being persuasive.

And, that's really close to the way Aristotle, the famous Greek scholar and rhetorician, defined rhetoric. He defined it as the ability to observe the available means of persuasion in any situation. In essence, learning to write rhetorically is about learning to think critically about your writing.