For a long time, I tried to add critical thinking during revision, as if it were a layer you could place on top of an already written essay. That approach never worked. The strongest papers I produced came from asking harder questions before drafting: What assumptions am I making? What evidence would challenge my argument? Why might a reasonable person disagree? Those questions changed the direction of the essay from the beginning. I also noticed that reading opposing viewpoints made my analysis much sharper because it forced me to defend ideas with reasoning instead of confidence. Learning how to develop critical thinking in essays is less about sounding intellectual and more about training yourself to examine claims from multiple angles before committing to a conclusion.