What is Critical Thinking?

According to The Critical Thinking Community critical thinking is that mode of thinking
about any subject, content, or problem in which thinker improves the quality of his or her
thinking by skillfully analyzing, assessing, and reconstructing it.

Critical thinking means making reasoned judgments that are logical and well thought out.
It is a way of thinking in which you dont simply accept all arguments and conclusions
you are exposed to but rather have an attitude involving questioning such arguments and
conclusions.

Benefits of Critical Thinking

A well-cultivated critical thinker:

Raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely.

Gather and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it

effectively comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against
relevant criteria and standard.

Thinks open-mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and

assessing, as need be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences.

Communicates effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex

problems.

Ten (10) Key terms under Critical Thinking

Ambiguous: A sentence having two or more possible meaning.

Analyze: To break up a whole into its parts, to examine in detail so as to

determine the nature of, to look more deeply into an issue or situation.

Clarify: To make easier to understand, to free from confusion or ambiguity, to

remove obscurities.

Insight: The ability to see and clearly and deeply understand the inner nature of
things.

Knowledge: The act of having a clear and justifiable grasp of what is so or of how
to do something.

Logic: Correct reasoning or the study of correct reasoning and its foundations.

Opinion: A belief; typically one open to dispute.

Precision: The quality of being accurate, definite, and exact.

Problem: A question, matter, situation, or person that is perplexing or difficult to

figure out, handle, or resolve.

Reasoning: The mental processes of those who reason; especially the drawing of
conclusions or inferences from observations, facts, or hypotheses; the evidence or
arguments used in this procedure.

Reference
Paul, R. (1995). Critical Thinking: How to Prepare Student for a Rapidly Changing
World. Dillon Beach, CA: Foundation for critical thinking, Appendix B, pp. 521552

Reflection
Academic writing is very essential to me as a student starting college life. For my
academic class I had two lecturer in which was inspiring to me and give me a better
understanding of English language and the style of writing. At first I was wondering why
I was doing academic writing and at the same time doing college English at school so it
felt like a waste of time until I get to have a rap section with my first academic writing
lecturer, she help me and the other students in my class understand the importance of
critical thinking a topic she started teaching us. Firstly, I would just like to explain what I
believe critical thinking is; critical thinking to me is how fast, rational and logic and
individual thinks to a certain situation or problem. This topic help me in all my courses at
school, how to think while approaching a question in class so I do believe critical
thinking will benefits me through my school years and not only my school years but my
all my life. So in a summary critical thinking is a topic student must pay close attention to
in their academic writing class. In all this saying I would not know about this topic so
thanks to my lecturers.

MY ACADEMIC WRITING
PORTFOLIO
Critical Thinking

To: Miss Walker

From: Shakeel Senior
Group: B