Critical Thinking and Essay Writing Skills

I. Gaining the main points of a document (Reading)

Fact – A piece of information, a state of affairs, or a set of relations that is true (e.g., World War I began in 1914).

Claims – A proposition or assertion that is advanced to explain events or processes.

Presuppositions – Facts, principles, or assumptions that may be required, implied, or unstated in an argument.

Evidence – Materials that furnish proof (drawn from observations, analysis, facts) used to support a hypothesis or claim AND the rules, systems, or methods by which such materials count as useful in supporting the claim or hypothesis.

Argument – A set of propositions (containing evidence of many sorts) connected together in order to establish or prove a specific claim, or advance a particular conclusion concerning events or processes.

Theory – An attempt to bind together a complex of knowledge and arguments (with all that includes) that will explain, order, and often provide predictive power a larger set of phenomena, or processes (i.e., an attempt to explain the entire French Revolution that includes an explanation of its origins, development, outcome, and overall importance).

Rhetoric – The art of speaking persuasively or communicating effectively; techniques by which one may argue well (even if one does not believe the point one chooses to support). In the pejorative sense it is merely persuasion (all art) that lacks substance (evidence and meaningful claims).

II. Using primary and secondary sources together

For more on primary and secondary sources, see "A Reader's Guide to Primary and Secondary Sources"

What is a “text”?
Historians’ concepts
Historical argument
Comparing and contrasting positions

III. Critical analysis and essay writing

What do I say about all of this?
How to approach writing an essay
Crafting a thesis, and then making it a good one
Relevance

Who is the author? (For critical reading skills, see "A Reader's Guide to Primary and Secondary Sources")
What is the author’s main claim?
List any facts presented by the author that supports his/her position. List any facts in the textbook that supports his/her position.
List any facts that contradict his/her position.
List two to three propositions or logical components of the author’s argument.
Can you describe any presuppositions held by the author?

Response Papers

Using critical thinking to write an essay
How to ask historical questions, or what is the big picture?
How to answer historical questions, or is there a “correct” answer?
Looking at history as the past
Looking at history as the present
The use of history for life