Building an argument: criticality
time to complete: 15-25 minutes
Have you had feedback from tutors that your work lacks criticality? Needs more engagement with sources? That they need to hear your voice? Keep reading!
It’s not enough to just include relevant sources, even if you summarise their ideas in perfect English, there needs to be your own ideas too, but ideas that build on sources. Your tutor wants to see how you have read, understood and really thought about your sources. You need to make the sources work for you and help you to build your argument. After every source you include, there needs to be a kind of critical comment.
What comments show criticality?
Critical comments can be sentences that:
- explain the source e.g. a complex concept, therefore showing your understanding
- evaluate the source e.g. argument, methodology/findings, other limitations, etc.
- express opinion about the source
- link the source to your essay question, thesis, context, etc.
- link the source to a different source by highlighting a similarity or difference in arguments, methods, findings, themes, etc., also known as synthesising
Let’s look at an example together. Read the table below to see what type of critical comment the student provides after introducing the source.
| Yoon (2010) cites research on how “different grammars display affiliations with different interaction patterns” and explains that phrasal unit boundaries in Korean “serve as a space within a turn” where a hearer can respond, repair or take the floor (425-6). | Introduces idea from source (a combination of summarising & quoting) |
| She explains that invitations to respond are often indicated with rising intonation and/or an elongated final syllable of a phrasal unit. | Explains a concept i.e. how phrasal units indicate a turn in interactions, in order to show understanding of the source |
| Whether speakers are likely to invite others to speak, or whether they feel empowered to take the floor seems bound up with hierarchy, which has implications for language teaching. | Evaluates the argument (expresses doubt/choice, possibility, caution, connection) and links to essay question/thesis |
Text adapted from Whitehead (2016)
Now, try to identify the type of critical comments on your own.
Task: Read the extract and identify the type of critical comments that the student used:
- explain the source to show understand
- evaluate the source
- express opinion about the source
- link the source to essay question/thesis
- link the source to another source (synthesising)
In English, it is more common to have no gap or only a slight gap between turns (Sacks et al. 1974). Heldner and Edlund (2010) build on Sacks et al.’s and other more recent work explaining that for this absence of gap to happen, “speakers have to project not only what the current speaker will say, but also the exact point in time when she or he will finish” (557). Clearly, this aspect of conversation is incredibly difficult for non-native speakers, particularly when pausing in their own language is common so teachers need to expect gaps between turns and to allow students planning time.
Text adapted from Whitehead (2016)
Introducing the source
Critical comments:
- Linking to another source (synthesising)
- Expressing opinion about the source
- Links to essay question/thesis statement
In English, it is more common to have no gap or only a slight gap between turns (Sacks et al. 1974). Heldner and Edlund (2010) build on Sacks et al.’s and other more recent work explaining that for this absence of gap to happen, “speakers have to project not only what the current speaker will say, but also the exact point in time when she or he will finish” (557). Clearly, this aspect of conversation is incredibly difficult for non-native speakers, particularly when pausing in their own language is common, so teachers need to expect gaps between turns and to allow students planning time.
If you need more information on criticality as well as more practice, feel free to visit our Criticality lesson (see Further Resources & References).
Reflection
What type of critical comments have you used in previous essays? Which of the above types of critical comments could you use in an essay you’re working on now?