Critical Thinking and Analysis - with an Egg and Cheese McMuffin
Have you ever received the feedback, “You need to be more critical”, “Your critical analytical skills need some work”, or “This assignment was descriptive rather than critical”?
Well, you’re in the right place!
In this blogpost, I’m going to teach you how to start being more critical by thinking critically about something OUTSIDE of an academic context - the McDonalds Egg and Cheese McMuffin.
You’re going to learn the two key things you need to do when you’re thinking critically: firstly, exploring the quality of the argument, and secondly, considering the strength of the evidence.
Let’s get started by looking at this statement:
“The best thing on the breakfast menu at McDonalds is the Egg and Cheese McMuffin, so many people order it.”
That is what we’re going to critically analyse!
The quality of the argument
Okay, first up, the quality of the argument. Let’s look at the claim that’s being made: that the Egg and Cheese McMuffin is the best thing on the breakfast menu at McDonalds.
What could we say about this? We could look at how the Egg and Cheese McMuffin is being described – it’s being described as the BEST thing on the menu.
One thing we could be critical of here is the word “best”. Best in terms of what?
The best value for money in terms of how much food you get?
The best in terms of the nutritional content of the food?
The best because it’s not as messy to eat at some of the other options?
The best because you can eat it quicker than the other options available?
The best because it’s tastier, but what do we mean by tasty? That’s going to depend on personal preferences, right?
The strength of the evidence
Lets now consider the strength of the evidence. After it says, “The best thing on the breakfast menu at McDonalds is the Egg and Cheese McMuffin”, it says, “so many people order it.”
That is the evidence that is being presented in support of the claim. How could we critique this?
What do they mean by ‘so many’ people?
Are they referring to some kind of survey they’ve found on breakfast items at McDonalds?
Are they basing this on what they’ve seen in the restaurant whilst they’ve been in there?
Are they judging this based on what people they know buy in McDonalds?
‘So many’ is really vague, and it isn’t presented in a way we can compare it to other items on the menu. It might be better if they were to present a percentage of people who go to McDonalds for breakfast and order an Egg and Cheese McMuffin, then provide percentages of people who order other items like a Double Bacon and Egg McMuffin or Pancakes and Syrup.
And what are they basing this ‘so many’ claim on? ‘So many’ people – well, what people, where? Is this a representative sample of everyone who goes into McDonalds at breakfast time?
Even if that is true, that lots of people order Egg and Cheese McMuffins in McDonalds, does that really provide us with evidence that it’s the best thing on the menu? It doesn’t does it? It just tells us that it’s a popular item that’s purchased frequently.
Just because someone buys it doesn’t mean they think it’s the best thing on the menu. Maybe someone buys an Egg and Cheese McMuffin because they’re on a calorie controlled diet and they can have this without breaking their calorie limit for the day? They might think that the best thing on the menu is actually the Double Sausage and Egg McMuffin but they’re not going to have that because that’s too many calories for their diet.
You’re a critical thinker!
And just like that, we’ve started to think critically. Today, you’ve been critically analysing a statement about a McDonalds Egg and Cheese McMuffin and that might not feel like a huge leap forward in terms of your critical thinking – but what you’ve learned in the process of doing this and some of the questions we’ve asked and the challenges we’ve made to this statement have sparked your critical thinking skills.
You know the two key things you need to do when you’re thinking critically about something:
(1) examine the quality of the argument
(2) consider the strength of the evidence
Step-by-step guide to critical analysis with literature review log sheet
My step-by-step 15-page PDF guide on how to critically analyse a piece of academic literature is now available to buy in my shop. Click on the image below to go straight there!
