a beginner's guide to critical thinking and writing

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• Humanities & Social Sciences
• Health & Social Welfare

A Beginner's Guide to Critical Thinking and Writing in Health and Social Care

This bestselling guide takes you through every stage of becoming a critical thinker, from approaching your subject to writing your essays or dissertation in health and social care. Each chapter tackles a different aspect of critical thinking and shows you how it's done using examples and simple language.

Beginning with an overview of the importance of critical thinking, the book goes on to cover:

• How to think critically about different types of information as potential evidence, including books, journals, articles, websites, and, new to this edition, social media
• How to demonstrate critical thinking in written work and presentations
• How to adopt critical thinking in practice
• The key tool 'Six questions for critical thinking' which will assist you in developing your skills for academic work and practice - updated for this edition in response to student evaluation
• An expanded worked example of critical analysis
• New exploration of the connection between theory and practice

"This is an amazing book that I recommend to all levels of students as there is something in it for all. It is written in an easy to understand and friendly style that is accessible to anyone has an interest in critical thinking whether they are studying or not. I love this book and the sound of the penny dropping for my learners!" Liz Rockingham, Adult Field Lead / Teaching Fellow, University of Surrey, UK

"In my estimation this is the definitive beginner‘s guide to critical thinking and writing in health and social care. After reading this book any student should understand why and how critical thinking underpins professional practice and the highest endeavours in academic work and research." Dr Ruth Davies, Associate Professor Child and Family Health, Swansea University, UK

"I did not intend to read this book cover to cover but it was such a pleasure I did. The book by Aveyard, Sharp and Woolliams achieves exactly what it sets out to do and is a comprehensive and highly readable guide." Ailsa Espie, Senior Lecturer, Division of Nursing, Queen Margaret University, UK

"Health and social care professionals navigate through extensive quantities of information in the course of their work. The ability to think clearly and critically is fundamental for appraising and implementing evidence and knowledge in practice. This book is an excellent place to start learning these vital skills and I recommend it to my students and to you." Dr Martin Webber, Anniversary Reader in Social Work, University of York, UK

"I would recommend this book to any health care student, not just nurses, that require help in starting out how to write critically in essays, presentations, literature reviews and dissertations." Jade Day, Student Nurse at Anglia Ruskin University, UK

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A Beginner's Guide To Critical Thinking And Writing In Health And Social Care Paperback – 1 Mar. 2015

• ISBN-10 0335264344
• ISBN-13 978-0335264346
• Edition 2nd
• Publisher Open University Press
• Publication date 1 Mar. 2015
• Part of series UK Higher Education Humanities & Social Sciences Health & Social Welfare
• Language English
• Dimensions 15.19 x 1.12 x 22.91 cm
• Print length 192 pages
• See all details

Product description

About the author.

Pam Sharp is a qualified nurse and Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, UK. She is co-author of A Beginner's Guide to Evidence Based Practice, 2nd edition.

Mary Woolliams qualified as a nurse and health visitor in 1990, then specialised in acute general medical nursing and the care of older people. In 2003 Mary joined the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences at Oxford Brookes University, UK, as a Senior Lecturer in Adult Nursing.

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open University Press; 2nd edition (1 Mar. 2015)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0335264344
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0335264346
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 15.19 x 1.12 x 22.91 cm
• 1,138 in Family & Lifestyle Nursing

About the author

Helen aveyard.

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A Beginner's Guide to Critical Thinking and Writing in Health and Social Care, 2nd edn

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Malcolm Payne, A Beginner's Guide to Critical Thinking and Writing in Health and Social Care, 2nd edn, The British Journal of Social Work , Volume 45, Issue 7, October 2015, Pages 2229–2231, https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcv066

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I want to start with a paragraph of warning, especially to students. Although it has its merits, this book is written by and for nurses. You would have thought that, if the authors (or perhaps it was their publishers) were going to add ‘and social care’ to the title, they would have taken their own advice and, at least as a precaution against the kind of review this is going to be, carried out a simple computer-based literature search using the terms ‘critical’ and ‘social work’. They would then, perhaps, have felt the need to refer to critical social science, including work by Habermas and his predecessors in the Frankfurt School, and feminism. Informal, but according to this book uncritical, research techniques such as asking around or looking in a bookshop would have revealed to the authors the internet journal Critical Social Work and texts by writers such as Jan Fook, Mel Gay, Stephen Webb and many others interpreting that social science in social work and building the concept of critical reflection, since it is a major stream of writing in our profession. A social work student will fail an assignment on critical practice if they fail to deal adequately with this material, and this book will not help them.

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A Beginner's Guide to Critical Thinking and Writing in Health and Social Care 2nd Edition

• Author(s) Helen Aveyard; Pam Sharp; Mary Woolliams
• Publisher Open University Press

Print ISBN 9780335264346, 0335264344

Etext isbn 9780335264353, 0335264352.

• Edition 2nd
• Copyright 2015
• Available from £ 15.68 GBP SKU: 9780335264353R180

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A Beginner's Guide to Critical Thinking and Writing in Health and Social Care 2nd Edition is written by Helen Aveyard; Pam Sharp; Mary Woolliams and published by Open University Press. The Digital and eTextbook ISBNs for A Beginner's Guide to Critical Thinking and Writing in Health and Social Care are 9780335264353, 0335264352 and the print ISBNs are 9780335264346, 0335264344. Save up to 80% versus print by going digital with VitalSource.

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A Beginner’s Guide to Critical Thinking and Writing in Health and Social Care

30 March, 2016 By Ibadete Fetahu

’I would recommend this book to any health care student, not just nurses, that require help in starting out how to write critically in essays, presentations, literature reviews and dissertations.’

Title: A Beginner’s Guide to Critical Thinking and Writing in Health and Social Care

Authors: Helen Aveyard, Pam sharp and Mary Wooliams

Publisher: Open University Press

Reviewer: Jade Day, student nurse at Anglia Ruskin

What was it like?

This book is a really easy to follow guide on Critical Thinking and how as healthcare professionals we can include this in our day to day practice or written work. Its logical flow starting with critical thinking as a concept and then moving on to how to use this, makes understanding and applying quite easy to follow.

What were the highlights?

Throughout the book it has wonderful little aids that help break up the text and help you look at things from a fresh perspective. Using bullet point introductions in each chapter, small activities to complete, key points that need summarised and highlighted and thought bubbles that bring important points to attention, this book has enough tools to keep you steady and engaged while reading.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

This book has a multitude of strengths including the tools I mentioned above. Further to that I loved the excerpts and demonstrations of how critical thinking has been included in written pieces. It has a wonderful Appendix full of really useful websites to look at, a glossary that helps define any unfamiliar terms and a whole bunch of useful references. I personally cannot find any issues or particular weaknesses regarding this book and I’m really glad I have it at my disposal moving forward into my next essay.

Who should read it?

I would recommend this book to any health care student, not just nurses, that require help in starting out how to write critically in essays, presentations, literature reviews and dissertations.

a beginner’s guide to critical thinking and writing

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