I recently had a discussion with my supervisor at work. For those unaware I’m currently working as a Humanities Peer Tutor for Aboriginal Programs and Services at the University of British Columbia. The questions asked of me was something along the lines of “Do you have any thoughts going forward on the role of Humanities tutor?” And I did, we had quite a long meeting and I believe I ran over the time my supervisor had alloted for a meeting with me which is usually the case when I have meetings or interviews or something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Good or bad, what ultimately came out of it was that my background in History is entirely inadequate in addressing the vast amount of disiplines that falls under the Humanities tree. This was expected, but it creates a misleading situation in which students might come to me and ask “Do you know something about the philosophical discourses between Locke and [Jean-Jacque] Rousseau?” My only available answer would be ‘I know of them, but I cannot speak to what your class would be looking for in the philosophical intricacies’ which I’m sure is not what my tutee was looking for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That being said, I’ve also assisted other students pushing their grades into a range they’re proud to recieve. Not by giving the answers they were looking for, but helping them create their own answers. Which is the fundamental nature of Humanities. It’s not about what you know, it’s about why you know that. Simply knowing something because it is your assigned material is entirely inadequate to understanding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This brings me to the title of this post; “Critical Hit” A term I’m most familiar with in gaming, such as Dungeons and Dragons, RPGs, Action Games… Just about anything with hitting there is often this idea of a critical hit. How does this relate to suceeding in Humanities. Well in academics in general things come down to critical thinking and critical reflexivity. Critical in this sense is used as an analytical concept in which someone is challenged to provide analysis and argumentation of ‘why.’ A critical hit is often understood as an attack or action that has profound results due to precise or accurate execution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We return to Critical Thinking and Reflexivity in which if we apply the understanding of an action with profound results due to precise or accurate execution brings together the understanding that it is a result of an event rather than the actions itself. It is often understood in terms of an active action rather than a completed result. Critical Thinking is an ongoing process of internal discussion and dialogue that addresses the importance of information or importance of arguments. Critical thinking should be understood as the output of your opinion based on evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In classes that adopt the framework of Humanities studies will often emphasize the concept of critical thinking but honestly rarely explain what that is. It is something that is attempted to be taught intuitively but rarely directly. People are left with people knowing internally or intuitively but fail to communicate it correctly which results in frustration and low grades. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Translating your thoughts onto a page is the challenge. I am not here to provide the end all be all guide, structure, or what have you. Those struggling to formulate their ideas correctly, there is a bounty of literature already avaliable. If there’s anything I try to tell anyone that is needed in academic papers, is the concept of Claim, Evidence, Analysis. Essay structure and paragraph structure can be boiled down to make a claim, provide the evidence for that claim and analyze the implications for that claim. More often than not it can follow a simple format of three scentences with each dedicated to each Claim, Evidence and Analysis but it should not be interpreted as a rigid structure. That being said, these things cannot exist without the other. So if you ever provide a citation, make sure it is bookended with a claim and analysis else you’re just dead dropping critical information without the context, and likewise if you make a claim or analysis without evidence you’re basically writing purely your own opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I recently had a discussion with my supervisor at work. For those unaware I’m currently working as a Humanities Peer Tutor for Aboriginal Programs and Services at the University of British Columbia. The questions asked of me was something along the lines of “Do you have any thoughts going forward on the role of Humanities […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[57,11,12,56,24],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=133"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":138,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133\/revisions\/138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindofthelost.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}