How to Write a Critical Thinking Essay on Consumer Behavior

Consumer behavior is an exciting subject to study and a necessity for business majors. In fact, business students wishing to understand the why’s and how’s of modern day marketing needs to learn the ins and outs of consumer behavior first hand. Understanding this need, professors encourage their students to learn beyond their teachings by assigning critical thinking essays.

If your instructor just told you to write one, you may think that this is a challenge you are not up for. Luckily, the following guide details a template for writing critical thinking essays which you can use for any subject, including consumer behavior.

Pre-Writing Stage

Before you even start, you have to pick a topic for your paper. If you have trouble choosing a topic, select one from our list of 20 topics on consumer behavior for a critical thinking essay or be inspired to come up with your own after reading our 13 facts on consumer behavior for a critical thinking essay. Next comes research; look up authoritative sources and carefully read through the best materials on the subject. Finally, outline the main points and analyze the argument presented.

The following are some important tips you should keep in mind throughout this stage:

• Reflect on what you have just read.
• Consider the authority of the source of information.
• Identify the conclusion of the argument.
• See how the argument is formed, step by step.
• Evaluate the merit of the evidence presented.
• Observe how the information is presented (table, text, maps, charts, etc.).
• Learn to recognize the difference among facts, opinions and opinions.
• Check if the facts are biased.
• Weigh the evidence and present your own argument.

Complete this step successfully and more than half your work will be done. Now, it is time to move on to actually writing the essay.

Introduction

Since it is the first paragraph of your essay, your introduction needs to help readers identify your chosen topic. Present the context of the topic and then move on to the thesis. The thesis is the central idea of your paper, so it needs to be clear, direct, and strongly worded. End this section in a way that provides your reader with overview of what they are about to read.

Main Body

Use the first few paragraphs to summarize your main ideas. Each of these ideas must support your thesis and be thoroughly elaborated on in the subsequent paragraphs. Basically, you should write out the idea and then present evidence supporting it. This evidence will work in favor of your point. In case you are wondering, three to five paragraphs are enough to support a thesis. Once you are done with this part, you need to tackle the other side’s arguments and objections. Address these in a separate paragraph while highlighting why these criticisms are not applicable.

Conclusion

This is the part where you tie all the strings of your different arguments into a clear statement. Describe the implications and importance of your findings and restate your thesis in a coherent manner to drive the point home. Include any unaddressed avenue as a potential direction for future research.

This template will help you draft a critical thinking essay on consumer behavior. Follow its steps and stick to its guidelines unless your instructor provides you with their own formatting requirements.