Three Touchstones of Academic Thinking and Writing

Image Credit: Togetherediting.com

Academic writing is not an objective in and of itself, it is product of careful thinking. Academic writing should show your reader how you came to your conclusions. When you examine how you came to your conclusions this helps you to become intellectually honest and self-reflective. Thinking about how you arrived at a conclusion is the very essence of "critical thinking". There are three touchstones that will help you to do this work: (1) Think about what brings you to the topic you are exploring; (2) think about different theoretical perspectives for exploring this topic; and (3) think about the source material you are working with.

1. Think About What Brings You To This Topic: 

Learning about a topic is a journey. Before you embark on this journey ask yourself this:

What makes you curious about this topic?

What problem(s) are you trying to solve?

What puzzles are you wrestling with?

How might your inquiry into this topic be useful to others?

Any journey of inquiry is motivated by a desire to know or understand something in your life and your surroundings. What is it that you desire to know or to understand? What originated this yearning? Take time to think and write about this. Once you have completed your journey, go back and think about why others might be interested in what you have learned. How might your journey be useful to others?

2. Think About How You Are Engaging Methods of Analysis and Interpretation (Theory):

Theoretical and methodological perspectives call our attention to things that we probably would overlook otherwise. There are many theoretical and methodological perspectives out there. You should be familiar with at least of few of them, and you should be able to distinguish between them.

How would different theoretical lenses (different ways of thinking) approach this phenomenon differently? Contrast and compare them. It is useful to take the examples, given by a source with one theoretical perspective, and examine that same case using a different theoretical perspective. How do your conclusions, using one approach, differ from those that you would arrive at using a different approach? What rival hypotheses can you come up with to interpret what the author observed and recorded? What interpretation of behavior, other than those used by the author, seem plausible to you? In order to do these exercises you first have to understand the theoretical perspective, interpretation and analysis that the author used.

What does this method of thought and observation prime you to look for and pay attention to? If you take one method of analysis or interpretation, how might this approach change what you pay attention to and observe when you go out into the field or you observe raw data?

What are the truth-claims of this particular method of analysis or interpretation? How do these truth-claims differ from those of another method of analysis or interpretation? Some research is intended to discover things that hold true for most cases, most of the time. This kind of research is intended to explain social or personal phenomena. Other research is intended to describe or explore an experience or meaning that a person or group of people construct. It may also be used to explore a theoretical perspective and to examine how this perspective plays out through particular examples. A case study is an example of this. The difference between the two approaches is that one claims to give you information so that you will know about a topic, and you may be able to use that knowledge for operational purposes (you can manipulate and change things in your environment); the other claims to explore ideas and meanings constructed in the minds of subjects under investigation. This approach claims to help you to understand the dynamics of the group or individual and their environment. The first approach claims to enable you to know; the second approach claims to enable you to understand.

3. Think About the Sources You Are Working With:

What is the difference between different types of sources? Is this an academic source, a journalistic source, or a public relations piece from an organization, institution or agency? Is it a blog or opinion piece; and, if so, what is this person's particular experience or expertise that makes us interested in what this person has to say? Why should we care about what this person says? Do they have the power to change things? Do they have the power to influence other people's opinions? Have they done careful and systematic research on this topic? Can they provide us with a first-had account of how people are affected by what we are studying?

Is this a primary source or is it a secondary source? Is it raw, first hand, material from which we can form our opinion or is a secondary source that has processed the raw material and is presenting us with the author's summary or perspective on it? A transcript, unedited footage, or an actual research report are all primary sources. A newspaper clipping or blog post is usually a secondary source. A lot of what is "primary" or "secondary" depends on what you are using it for. For example, if you are writing about the kinds of letters that migrant workers sent to their loved ones back home then the actual letters of migrant workers would become primary source material. If you are trying to understand how bloggers or news reporters are writing about a particular event then these resources, which are otherwise secondary sources, become primary sources because they are raw data, not about the actual event but about what people are saying about it. In this sense they would be raw data for what you are trying to understand.

What is the difference between sources in terms of the style of its presentation? Is it formal or informal? Is it dry and academic or is it conversational? Was this source subjected to professional peer review? What experts or professionals reviewed this source and checked it for accuracy?

What is the difference between sources in terms of the degree of their partisanship? What is the degree of the source's objectivity or subjectivity? An academic study is usually more objective than a newspaper article. A newspaper article is usually more objective than literature published by an organization about itself. Is the producer of the source an advocate for a particular cause, interest or point-of-view? Is the source an artifact from a particular interest group? If the source is from an interest group it can help us to understand how that group is trying to frame the discussion, but we should also ask what kind of information opposing groups are circulating.

How does this source attempt to appeal to your emotions as opposed to your reasoning? What emotive language do the producers of this source use? What logic or reasoning do they use? What kinds of evidence do they provide and work with?

What kinds of metaphors are the authors using? What is implied by these metaphors? What alternative metaphors can you come up with that might have different implications for how we think about the topic? People think metaphorically but usually we don't take time to examine the metaphors we are using. If we examine our metaphors we can more easily trace and understand our patterns of thought. This is useful because it helps us to identify unexamined assumptions and to think of alternative ways of approaching and thinking about the situation. When we examine our metaphors we become more self-reflective about our thought patterns and this helps us deepen our skills of observation and our thinking.

What is the difference between sources in terms of letting you know how the authors know what they know? To what degree do they discuss how they arrived at their conclusions? To what degree do they discuss the sources they draw on? To what degree do they discuss the limitations of their knowledge? To what degree does the source entertain other points-of-view and attempt to provide balance, context, and nuance?

These three touchstones (what brings you to the topic, what theoretical perspectives you are working with, and what sources you are working with) will help you to think and write more deeply about any topic that you want to explore.