How do I start this process?

Critical literacy starts with reading or listening. For the purposes of critical literacy in academic writing, we are generally talking about your work with reading texts.

There are two parts to engaging with academic research or texts:

1. A reporting element where you describe what you’re engaging with; and

2. A reaction or response element where you then respond to and interpret the text.

The first element is necessary, but the second element is crucial to being critically literate.

Critical questions

The first thing you need to do is to identify key elements of text as you read. To do that, you need to ask questions and make notes.

Reporting/describing questions

• Who are the authors/researchers? What did they do?

• What is the main position or argument or themes of the text?

• How did they do the research? Where was it done? With who?

• What did they find? What do they conclude or recommend?

Then you need to ask some deeper level questions.

Critical/interpretive questions

• What are the researchers claiming? Is it in scope with the study? Do the findings support the aims?

• What are the strengths of the study? Limitations? Weaknesses? What makes you think so?

• Are any biases evident? Is the source reliable?

• Is the research pivotal? Important? Why?

• Is there other research that supports or contradicts it?

• Is it replicable? Is it applicable to your study?

Making notes

Try to group notes by some sort of organising principle. This will vary depending on the assignment, but it may be:

• Topical as determined by the sections of an assignment. E.g. section 1 of the paper might be the research that examines causes of something, while section 2 looks at effects, 3 at solutions

• Thematic so research is grouped by larger themes

• By author, grouping together authors/studies by similarity or difference

• By more generic themes, such as major studies or chronology – ordering by time

Critical writing

Reporting

When you are reporting on what you have read, you are describing the study.

• If the idea is clearly finished, use simple past (e.g. Evans (2010) found that…)

• If the idea still has currency now or is a still-held belief, use simple present (e.g. Wright (2011) maintains that…)

• If there needs to be a link made from past to now, use present perfect (e.g. Wang and Lu (2015) have shown…)

However, don’t stop there; you need to move on to critical engagement.

Interpreting

There are a range of elements to critically engaging with text. On one level, you might interpret or highlight the significance or importance of the ideas you are reading. For example:

• Evans (2010) found that the method was successful and this was significant because it represented a major shift from prior research.

• Wright (2011) maintains that the true focus should be on the method not the outcome, and this is crucial as it highlights a renewed focus on the process of development. This, in turn, suggests that…

This type of interpretive language, therefore, is powerful as it shifts your writing from the descriptive to the critical and it also shows your voice – it is you reacting to the ideas in the text.

Other examples of this type of language are:

• This is important because… This tells us that…

• This shows* that…  (*suggests/implies/gives the impression/means that…)

• This is worth noting as/because it…

• This calls attention to… highlights the need for…

• This can be illustrated by…

• What this means* is… (*shows/tells us/reveals/highlights/points to/implies)

• …importantly* suggests that… (*crucially, significantly)

• …which points to/suggests the need for…

• …which is vital/crucial/significant/illustrative as it…

• …which shows/illustrates that…

• …meaning that …

• …illustrating/pointing to the need for…

• In doing so, it points to…/In so doing, tells us that…

Critiquing

Another key element to critical literacy is to form opinion or response to the value of the text or the research; in other words, to evaluate it.

Perhaps one of the most important things to realise as a student is that you can be critical – you are expected to be. You can do this in a range of ways.

The impulse when attempting to be critical is to look for the negative, however, critique is inherently evaluative and as such can be:

• Positive (strengths-based), and/or

• Negative (limitations-based), and/or

• When appropriate, solutions (action/recommendation-based)