Critical Thinkin : "Why" question

[aeadmin]

I still have some difficulties in understanding critical thinking. Especially for question “why”. What kind of question should we should we ask for “why”? Are we always ask “why does the author talk about this?” or “why is this topic being discussed?”. But in another passsage, i found question like this : “why do iceberg exist?”.
So, how to make the “why” question?
Thanks

[aeadmin]

Hi Erika,
Thank you for your question. In critical thinking the ‘why’ question is important to understand purpose, the reason for a piece of information. Do not confuse this with ‘why’ questions in the test(s). When you ask the former ‘why’ – purpose – it leads you to understand the EXPLANATION more clearly. When you practice identifying this purpose or explanation make sure you keep it simple. Many of the questions which follow the passage ask for these PURPOSE or EXPLANATION type information. Hope this helps.

[aeadmin]

Hi again,
I’m still not clear on composing the right question in critical thinking.
In a lesson video “IELTS Reading – Academic – Key Strategy and Practice Part 2” on aehelp’s youtube account, there’s an example about Critical Thinking which used the first paragraph of “Mountains of Ice” passage.
In that example, the “how” question for the paragraph is “How does this happen?”.
I compared it to other examples from aehelp and I found various form of the “how” question.

Why don’t we make the “how” question for the 1st paragraph of “Mountains of Ice” become like this: “how does the author explain the paragraph” or “how is this idea presented in this paragraph?”

How to make sure that I make the correct “how” question?

[aeadmin]

Hi Erika, That is an excellent question! It is true that there are many different ways to use ‘why, how, and what’ for a certain piece of information. So what is the ‘right’ question? The answer is, by inferring the likely connection of ideas or details. Generally, good information is detailed and one idea connects and narrows to the next. While you are right that the reader could ask, “how does the author explain the paragraph” or “how is this idea presented in this paragraph?”, these questions would make for very general non-related answers to the actual information in the paragraph. A simple way to approach it is, find a point, a clear ‘what’. Once you have this think of the most likely ‘why…’ and then the most likely ‘how…’ which follows.

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