Stella Cottrell's student-centred approach demystifies critical thinking and breaks down a complex subject into manageable chunks. With clear explanations, relevant examples and plenty of exercises throughout, this book helps students to develop their analytical reasoning skills and apply them to a range of tasks including reading, note-making and writing. This text will turn even the most hesitant student into a proficient critical thinker. This is an ideal companion for students of study skills, humanities, social sciences, business and arts programmes, where assessment includes essay and report writing. It is suitable for students of all levels.

Introduction: Building our 'critical muscle' -- Do critical thinking skills matter? -- About this book -- Glossary -- Acknowledgements -- 1. what is critical thinking? -- 2. How well do you think? -- 3. What's their point? -- 4. Is it an argument? -- 5. How well do they say it? -- 6. Reading between the lines -- 7. Does it add up? -- 8. Where's the proof? -- 9. Critical reading and note-making -- 10. Critical, analytical writing -- 11. Where's the analysis? -- 12. Critical reflection -- 13. Critical thinking for your future career and employability -- Texts for activities in chapters 8, 9 and 11 -- Practice activities on longer texts -- Appendix: Selected search engines and databases for online literature searches -- Answers to activities -- Bibliography -- Index.