Hi all,

Ughhh...my supervisor said that I am not being critical enough in my first submission. l get confused what exactly 'critical' in terms of writing means? Have not heard for the second submission and worried whether I was critical enuff or not? Having hard time thinking...and writing..

Critical in terms of writing means the same as it does in life. Without being critical for the sake of it, you need to read the literature and give your honest opinion about it. If you think it is crap, then say so, if you agree with something but think it needs to be tweaked, then say so. With a PhD, you need to excel yourself and value your own judgements. I am only learning this now after a year in!

But be careful! You need to have evidence, i.e. through other literature you agree with, or through primary research.

Thanks Jinio for such a prompt reply. I will bear in mind what u have said..

I have much the same problem - my supervisor ticks me off for beating about the bush and not being 'critical' enough and to really 'go for them' lol - trouble is, I think that I tend to under-value my own opinion and to still be in U/G mindset that these are 'professionals' and know a lot better than I do. I must confess though (with evidence to hand lol) I rather enjoyed the last piece I wrote for the board and gave a couple of academics a really good mauling (politely) - well, they write rubbish and make wild generalisations they should expect it ;-)

Exactly Stressed....I agree with u.

In my case, rather than being critical I tend to flow with what the literature says...have not overcome with it yet.

I was just reading on the link about the literature review - what to do n what not to!

http://www.uq.edu.au/student-services/linkto/phdwriting/fr_phsta.html

Hope, will be useful to someone like me who is struggling with the ideas...
:-)

One lesson I learn from my supervisor and which I have mentioned in many posts here, is to start comparing scholarly positions. I notice, it is when I ask who disagrees with whom and why, that some patterns begin to emerge. These can be of so many kinds. So, useful questions between two warring paradigms or even micro positions could be to ask where the debates are and then what is the way forward.

This is increasingly becoming part of my training as a researcher, by example, rather than by instruction. It usually works. So, for instance if you see below in Amanda's (Stressed=Amanda) post, she speaks of an instance where people make unthinking generalizations. And she adopts a position of thoughtful contextualization probably as a response, or whatever the case may be, in order to counter the arguments. So if these were to be two slightly different positions in a field, then 'being critical' would mean being able to spot the differences (identify any other alternatives to the debates) and then with your own thinking along the lines of these divides, to take the argument forward.

best

Pbug

Thanks Phdbug!

It's been really useful. I did the same for my second submission, mostly caught up with debates and gaps in the field. After reading what u said, feeling bit confident and positive for response from my supervisor...otherwise its been many nights I spent sleepless with tension.

I tried to find amanda=stressed discussion but could not figure out....will u make it clear what the thread title is?

haha, i was referring to the post by 'stressed' down below in this same thread. Her name is Amanda though i see I must stop useing it as nobody uses it and every time I do, people are confused!

Critical thinking takes a lot of practice. It took me ages to get more critical and confident of my own opinion (it was the confidence to question my 'superiors' that was the hardest), and i've still a long way to go. Problem is, I think I've become more critical of everything in my life, and have turned into a cranky old cow, damn phd side effects :-(

I‘m on my first year of a Ph.D. and I think I‘m not very critical either. For me, I think it‘s for two reasons 1) I‘m not used to be critical and 2) I think all the other ones are sooo smart, so if I have one opinion, and they have other, I tend to think that I‘m wrong... I guess critical thinking comes with exercise??

it is hard to be critical, especially if you are doing it to work done by your supervisor! I still feel that I should be taking the 'great man's' work as gospel, and the same with the work of people he knows, and he knows so many in the field it is impossible to write much without mentioning some of them. At the moment I'm just putting in the thoughts of loads of people, and will then try and sort it out from there -I'm scared that one day he is going to say ' I didn't mean that at all ' :$, he has much more confidence in me than I have, hope he isn't going to be disappointed!