ATS2946 Critical thinking: How to analyse arguments and improve your reasoning skills
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · S2 2026ATS2946 Overview
- 6 credit points
- Undergraduate study
- Semester 2, 2026
- Clayton flexible offering
Argument practice anchors this 6 credit points guide to critical thinking and reasoning. Critical thinking is a disciplined practice of reconstructing what someone is claiming, identifying the reasons offered, and deciding whether those reasons justify the conclusion.
- Argument representation Rewrite premises and conclusions before judging support.
- Evaluation discipline Explain a reasoning defect instead of relying on its label.
- Causal scrutiny Match statistical and causal claims to samples and alternatives.
- Task sequence Prepare for participation, reflection, analysis and take-home work.
How ATS2946 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| In-Class Participation Activity | 10% | First in-class exercise |
| Reflective Writing Essay | 20% | Written reflection |
| In-Class Participation Activity | 10% | Second in-class exercise |
| Analytical Exercise | 30% | Argument analysis task |
| Take Home Final Assessment | 30% | Take-home written assessment |
The Handbook lists two participation activities with the same official name. Moodle contains the full instructions and current timing for each task.
Assessment structure
Weights follow the current official assessment table. Use the table above for task names and formats.
What ATS2946 covers
Critical thinking is a disciplined practice of reconstructing what someone is claiming, identifying the reasons offered, and deciding whether those reasons justify the conclusion. This guide moves from argument maps to deductive, normative, statistical and causal evaluation.
Arguments, Claims and Representation
Extract premises and conclusions, make implicit reasoning explicit and map linked or convergent support02Support, Fallacies and Assumptions
Test acceptability and relevance, expose hidden premises and diagnose failures without relying on labels alone03Complex and Normative Arguments
Follow intermediate conclusions, distinguish independent from linked reasons and make value premises visible04Samples and Statistical Generalisation
Test population claims through sampling method, representativeness, size and selection effects05Causation and Digital Evidence
Compare causal alternatives and scrutinise generated, summarised or platform-mediated evidenceThis guide moves from argument maps to deductive, normative, statistical and causal evaluation. Arguments, Claims and Representation develops a specific reasoning route: Extract premises and conclusions, make implicit reasoning explicit and map linked or convergent support. Start with argument, which means A conclusion together with one or more premises offered as reasons for accepting it.
Then use premise as a separate analytical move: A statement presented as support for another statement. The chapter application asks you to reconstruct a public claim whose reasons are scattered across examples, qualifications and implied assumptions. Its controlling limit is equally important: An explanation tells why something happened; an argument offers reasons to believe a claim.
Identify the communicative job before mapping. Support, Fallacies and Assumptions develops a specific reasoning route: Test acceptability and relevance, expose hidden premises and diagnose failures without relying on labels alone. Start with deductive support, which means Support intended to make the conclusion unavoidable if the premises are true.
Then use validity as a separate analytical move: The property of a deductive form in which true premises cannot occur with a false conclusion. The chapter application asks you to evaluate a workplace proposal that relies on a false choice and an unstated prediction about staff behaviour.
Its controlling limit is equally important: Naming a fallacy is not an evaluation; show exactly how the move weakens relevance, acceptability or support. Complex and Normative Arguments develops a specific reasoning route: Follow intermediate conclusions, distinguish independent from linked reasons and make value premises visible.
Start with intermediate conclusion, which means A claim supported by earlier premises that also functions as a premise for a later conclusion. Then use linked support as a separate analytical move: Support in which premises must be combined before they provide the intended reason.
The chapter application asks you to map a policy argument that moves from evidence about harm to a recommendation through a contested value principle. Its controlling limit is equally important: Descriptive evidence cannot complete a normative inference until the relevant value or principle is stated and defended.
Samples and Statistical Generalisation develops a specific reasoning route: Test population claims through sampling method, representativeness, size and selection effects. Start with sample, which means The observed cases used to support a conclusion about a wider population. Then use representativeness as a separate analytical move: The extent to which a sample preserves the features relevant to the population inference.
The chapter application asks you to evaluate a public claim drawn from a small voluntary online poll. Its controlling limit is equally important: A larger sample reduces random variation but cannot by itself repair systematic selection bias. Causation and Digital Evidence develops a specific reasoning route: Compare causal alternatives and scrutinise generated, summarised or platform-mediated evidence.
Start with causal claim, which means A claim that changing one factor produces or helps produce a change in another. Then use confounder as a separate analytical move: A factor associated with both the proposed cause and outcome that can create a misleading relationship. The chapter application asks you to assess an article that combines a platform trend, an algorithmic summary and a strong causal headline.
Its controlling limit is equally important: Correlation, sequence and a plausible mechanism support inquiry, but none alone eliminates selection effects or alternative causes. The current assessment structure is In-Class Participation Activity (10%); Reflective Writing Essay (20%); In-Class Participation Activity (10%); Analytical Exercise (30%); Take Home Final Assessment (30%).
Treat those weights as a planning map rather than a substitute for task instructions. For each task, identify the required product, scope and audience in the subject LMS, then allocate revision time to the reasoning operations the task actually tests. A reliable study cycle has four moves.
Retrieve definitions without notes; apply them to an unfamiliar case; compare a credible alternative under the same criteria; and record the first point where evidence no longer supports the conclusion. That correction ledger is more useful than rereading because it reveals whether the recurring problem is definition, classification, mechanism, evidence, comparison or qualification.
When writing, lead with the decision and the controlling concept. Select facts because they activate an element of the concept, not because they appeared in the scenario. Explain the mechanism that connects those facts to the outcome, identify the people and groups affected and finish with a responsible party, action and review trigger.
Before submission, change one assumption and decide whether the recommendation should survive.
Integrate argument with causal claim
- 1Define argument and state the problem boundary.
- 1Connect the material evidence to validity through an explicit mechanism.
- 1Use causal claim to test a credible alternative or later-stage consequence.
- 1State the qualified humanities conclusion and its review condition.
Key terms
- Argument
- A conclusion together with one or more premises offered as reasons for accepting it.
- Premise
- A statement presented as support for another statement.
- Deductive support
- Support intended to make the conclusion unavoidable if the premises are true.
- Validity
- The property of a deductive form in which true premises cannot occur with a false conclusion.
- Intermediate conclusion
- A claim supported by earlier premises that also functions as a premise for a later conclusion.
- Linked support
- Support in which premises must be combined before they provide the intended reason.
- Sample
- The observed cases used to support a conclusion about a wider population.
- Representativeness
- The extent to which a sample preserves the features relevant to the population inference.
- Causal claim
- A claim that changing one factor produces or helps produce a change in another.
- Confounder
- A factor associated with both the proposed cause and outcome that can create a misleading relationship.
ATS2946 FAQ
Where should argument reconstruction begin?
Begin with argument, which means A conclusion together with one or more premises offered as reasons for accepting it. Select the facts that activate this definition, explain their mechanism and keep the conclusion inside the first chapter's stated boundary.
Why is a fallacy label not yet an evaluation?
Keep deductive support analytically separate from the opening concept. It means that Support intended to make the conclusion unavoidable if the premises are true. Show what new relationship it reveals, which alternative it excludes and what evidence could reverse that judgement.
What deserves practice before the analytical exercise?
Use the official row for In-Class Participation Activity and the remaining weights as a planning map. Practise the reasoning operations those tasks signal, but confirm current scope, timing, format and submission instructions in the subject LMS.
When is a normative conclusion adequately supported?
Build the answer from a precise definition, a material fact and an explicit mechanism. Compare a credible alternative under the same criteria, then qualify the conclusion with the course-specific uncertainty that could change the result.
How should mediated digital evidence be checked?
Locate the first unsupported link rather than rewriting everything. Decide whether the problem is classification, evidence, mechanism, comparison or qualification, repair that step and test the revised answer against a changed case fact.
Why does the course finish with causal claim?
Causal claim means that A claim that changing one factor produces or helps produce a change in another. Use it to reconnect the final chapter to earlier course concepts, showing what it adds and why the conclusion should remain conditional rather than universal.
How to prepare for the assessments
Use spaced retrieval for definitions, interleave chapters through changed cases, keep an error ledger for unsupported mechanisms, and finish each session by rewriting one recommendation after changing a key assumption.
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