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Chapter 3 : A Process of Critical Thinking
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However, the very wording of an assignment or examination question may alert you to a skill that your instructor expects you to use, as the first sample assignment in each set illustrates in the chart below.
A Process of Critical Thinking
Critical thinking, like critical reading, draws on a cluster of intellectual strategies and skills.
These three activities — analysis, synthesis, and evaluation — are the core of critical thinking.
They are not new to you, but applying them rigorously in college-level reading and writing may be.
When you approach college reading and writing tasks, instructors will expect you (and you should expect yourself) to think, read, write, and think some more.
Getting Started
You use critical thinking every day to explore problems step by step and reach solutions.
You can follow the same steps to examine many types of issues, helping you analyze a situation or dilemma, creatively synthesize to develop alternatives, and evaluate a possible course of action.
Suppose you don’t have enough money both to pay your tuition and to buy the car you need.
First, you might pin down the causes of your financial problem.
Next, you might examine your options to find the best solution, as shown in the graphic below.
Applying Critical Thinking to Academic Problems
As you grapple with academic problems and papers, you’ll be expected to use your critical thinking skills — analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating — as you read and write. You may simply dive in, using each skill as needed.