ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses students’ critical thoughts embodied in the literature review chapters that they wrote for their master’s theses. Critical thoughts represented in written language are seen as the end products of students’ application of critical thinking skills, accessible through analysing their evaluative argumentation constructed through engaging with research literature. Drawing on the Paul-Elder Framework for Critical Thinking, this chapter first examines features of eight elements of argumentation in students’ drafts. It then analyses the structure of argumentation in the drafts and the quality of evaluative thoughts, particularly the way in which knowledge gaps are defined for justifying proposed research. The last section juxtaposes students’ drafts with their institutional contexts, revealing how group features of students’ writing reflect their conceptions of critical thinking, their understandings of academic writing, and their institutional requirements.
