Ever gotten an English essay back and seen in the feedback section, your teacher has written ‘needs more critical thinking’ or ‘unpack this idea more.’ Now, what exactly is that? Teachers mention critical thinking all the time and they are right, it is the key to success in many subjects such as English but what exactly is it? And how can we implement it correctly?

Critical thinking is all about asking ‘and why?’ It is taking a piece of information such as a quote from a text (like Shakespeare) and then asking why? Why is this quote important to your essay about how love is undermined by power? Why did you pick this quote to talk about love and power? Clearly it was important enough for you to include it so tell your marker why! In many English essays, marks come from how much you unpack a quote, not how many there are. Anyone can put a bunch of Shakespeare quotes into a paragraph, but a Band 5-6 student can successfully tell you why that quote is important in more than just one sentence.

But how exactly do we do this? Well it is all about the language you use. Incorporating a quote into a sentence about love and power like normal. But an extra important sentence that starts with ‘This demonstrates…. Or ‘This indicates….’ needs to be added. As you unpack a quote you should use more sentences that build to an idea or concept. These sentences should start with words like ‘Furthermore,’ and ‘Additionally,’ to really show the marker that you are continually building to a central idea for your paragraph. The final piece of resistance is to link this strong idea that you have built, to the author’s own purpose. Now that you have said what the quote says about love and power, ask yourself why Shakespeare specifically has made this comment. By using this structure you will begin to see that unpacking one quote can have 3-4 sentences to it and you can really see your ‘voice’ coming through as it is your ideas about Shakespeare’s quote, not just Shakespeare talking throughout your essay.

I really hope this helps to give some sort of structure to the concept of ‘unpacking.’ Sometimes it feels like an abstract concept that teachers talk about all the time but critical thinking is really key to your essays and when done correctly can really elevate responses into the higher bands.

Alana O’Sullivan