Page 125 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

11 2 SMART THINKING: SKILLS FOR CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING & WRITING

This sort of general information helps us think about where and how to search
for more detailed information, and to settle upon an aspect of the topic on which to
concentrate. For example, in a report to a marketing firm about what people see on
television, the main focus would be on the former question, rather than the latter.
The context of, for example, a short lecture to high-school students would require
that we keep the information in our argument or explanation consistent with their
expectations and needs; if, on the other hand, we were writing a scholarly article
about television advertising, then the different context would require more advanced
and complex arguments. We need to gather background information in order to
gain a good understanding of the context in which our reasoning takes place.
Whatever we may think of a particular issue, we are also looking in our research
for different opinions and conclusions. For any particular topic, a range of ideas
will already have been expressed, and whatever we are doing needs to take account
of them. Reasoning involves acknowledging what others have done and integrating
our contribution (no matter how small) with the body of knowledge already
assembled. We need to criticise conclusions that we oppose, ponder those that are
interesting, and add to any with which we agree. In the advertising example, we
find that some critics argue that nationalistic television commercials promote
unhealthy competition and suspicion of'foreigners'. If we agree, then we should
seek to substantiate this claim further. On the other hand, if, as part of our analysis,
we are seeking to establish a different conclusion, we would not simply ignore this
'opposing' view, but would seek information or give arguments that refute it. We
need to consider these 'other' conclusions in relation to what we are concluding in
our own reasoning.
Most of all we need to base our reasoning on premises and further support for
those premises. We might think of these premises as evidence or 'the facts' (even
though we must understand that most 'facts' are only interpretations—claims that,
depending on one's perspective, may become more or less doubtful). This
information is usually what we produce through our own direct research, seeking
to answer specific questions that we have established to guide our activities. As
always, we need to be confident in the accuracy and acceptability of this infor-
mation and be able to demonstrate it convincingly in our reasoning (for example,
through appeals to authority). Referring back to our continuing example, we could
use the following as evidence:

• Telecom spent over a billion dollars on all advertising in 1994, and most of
the commercials had a nationalist theme.
• QANTAS consciously seeks to establish itself as a national Australian airline.
• Australians see themselves in the mould of Crocodile Dundee and other 'bush'
heroes.
Yet we could also gather evidence to support any claims we make about the
ways that intellectuals have previously written about advertising. For example, if
our investigation includes a critique of marketing theorists' conclusions that
television commercials are effective, we would need evidence, first of all, that these