How To Become a Critical Thinker

[and]

Hello all, I just posted an article I wrote called: 9 Steps To Become a Critical Thinker. It covers how to become a critical thinker when presented with different issues, ideas and problems; to be able to see many sides of an issue.

Please me feedback,
Andre

[Matthew Shea]

The content is very good and certainly fits with what I've been taught about critical thinking, but the structure could use a little work. If you're going to use outline format, the sub-topics (1, 2, 3, etc in this case) need to be indented. I would suggest, however, that you switch to a more conventional heading-paragraph format, like Steve's blog postings. In other words, use the topics labeled with the Roman numerals as a heading and combine the rest into a supporting paragraph or two. Your writing will flow better that way.

I also found a few grammatical errors, such as "Look beyond obvious" (sec. viii-2, missing a "the") and "Many times you can’t get different results from the same experiment and some people some of the results and say that it’s a cause and effect relationship, but it is not." (sec. iv-2, confusing wording, specifically "some people some of the results"). That's not all, but I hope you get the drift.

Anyway, you're off to a great start, though. Your message is good and covers a topic that everyone should know more about. If you can polish it up a little, it will really shine.

[Cron]

The Abriged Edition of "How To Become A Critical Thinker"( 3 steps ):

1. Ask questions ( to others for an answer, to yourself for an answer )
2. Ask questions about the answers you get, ask questions about the questions
3. Repeat

[and]

Matthew, thanks for feedback. It's my wordpress template that's screwing up the listing... I'm working on either fixing the current CSS, or getting a new template.

[Liara Covert]

I like the topic and approach you take to your article on critical thinking. You leave readers with a lot of ideas to think about and that's great!

Its interesting that one dictionary defines "critical" as "inclined to find fault or to judge." When you're reviewing the article structure, you may wish to rethink the overall tone. Do you wish to be persuasive? Purely Instructive? Judgmental? or simply present information to consider? As it stands, it seems to vary from 'suggesting' to being 'more forceful.'

Sometimes you also speak directly to your reader ("you"), and in other places, its general. You may wish to either personalize or generalize. Consistency with this could make the article more powerful

Overall, its nice to see different points of view.

"To improve is to change."-Sir Winston Churchill

[and]

Thanks for all of the feedback.

[Andy]

When I began using cognitive therapy (coming up with rational statements to combat any irrational thoughts being held), I noticed that after a few weeks that way of thinking became a habit and as a nice side effect I found myself becoming unknowingly skilled at critical thinking. Quite a worthwhile way to develop critical thinking habits.

[Cron]

If you like cognitive therapy, you will like Albert Ellis's version of it called Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy(REBT). Ellis invented cognitive therapy and REBT is what it was before other people came on board and changed it slightly.

His best book is A GUIDE TO RATIONAL LIVING. It has gone through many revisions. Make sure you get the latest edition.

Albert Ellis Foundation

[smrtpants]

I preface this entry by stating up front that I haven't yet read your article; I look forward to doing so [at my earliest convenience, and not a moment sooner...teeheehee]. Nonetheless ['nonethemore' either, for that matter...]., I feel compelled to offer my 2¢

Also, I apologize if my comment is less pertinent than it seems to me to be at this very moment, ...let alone inapplicable [...perish the thought...].



I have only this to say then, that while it's all good to be a divergent/critical thinker, there is also a point at which an otherwise intellectually stimulating approach to problem solving etc., can become end-result-inefficient if the myriad-minded thinker has [more precisely, allows themselves to have and/or apply] an open-ended supply of considerations.


And I know this dilemma all too well, when enough never seems to be enough, often enabling my keen sense of procrastination to step right in like a dirty sock [that never seems to get pulled up...]

[and]

smrtpants, you make a good point. Critical thinking might lead to information overloading, information hoarding, overanalyzing, and indecision. There's ways to combat this also, such as putting in artificial time lines, etc.. In the future I'll cover these and related topics.