The Art of Critical Reading Answer Key Chapter 7

Critical thinking is a want to seek, patience to incertitude, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and gear up in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture. —Francis Bacon, philosopher

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Past the finish of this department, you lot volition exist able to:

• Define disquisitional thinking
• Describe the role that logic plays in critical thinking
• Describe how both disquisitional and creative thinking skills can be used to problem-solve
• Depict how critical thinking skills tin can be used to evaluate information
• Employ the CRAAP test to evaluate sources of information
• Place strategies for developing yourself as a critical thinker

Critical Thinking

Every bit a higher student, you are tasked with engaging and expanding your thinking skills. Ane of the near important of these skills is critical thinking because it relates to near all tasks, situations, topics, careers, environments, challenges, and opportunities. It is a "domain-general" thinking skill, not one that is specific to a particular subject area.

What Is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking is clear, reasonable, reflective thinking focused on deciding what to believe or do. Information technology means asking probing questions like "How practise we know?" or "Is this true in every example or but in this instance?" It involves beingness skeptical and challenging assumptions rather than simply memorizing facts or blindly accepting what you hear or read.

Imagine, for case, that you're reading a history textbook. You wonder who wrote it and why, considering yous detect certain biases in the writing. Y'all find that the writer has a limited scope of inquiry focused simply on a particular group inside a population. In this example, your critical thinking reveals that in that location are "other sides to the story."

Who are critical thinkers, and what characteristics do they have in mutual? Critical thinkers are unremarkably curious and reflective people. They like to explore and probe new areas and seek knowledge, clarification, and new solutions. They enquire pertinent questions, evaluate statements and arguments, and they distinguish between facts and opinion. They are also willing to examine their ain behavior, possessing a manner of humility that allows them to admit lack of knowledge or agreement when needed. They are open up to changing their mind. Mayhap most of all, they actively bask learning, and seeking new knowledge is a lifelong pursuit. This may well be you lot!

No matter where y'all are on the road to being a disquisitional thinker, you can always more than fully develop and finely tune your skills. Doing then will help yous develop more balanced arguments, limited yourself conspicuously, read critically, and glean important information efficiently. Critical thinking skills will aid you in whatever profession or any circumstance of life, from science to art to business to pedagogy. With critical thinking, you get a clearer thinker and problem solver.

Critical Thinking IS	Critical Thinking is Non
Skepticism	Memorizing
Examining assumptions	Group thinking
Challenging reasoning	Blind acceptance of authority
Uncovering biases

The post-obit video, from Lawrence Banal, presents the major concepts and benefits of critical thinking.

Disquisitional Thinking and Logic

Critical thinking is fundamentally a procedure of questioning information and information. You may question the information you read in a textbook, or y'all may question what a politician or a professor or a classmate says. You can also question a commonly-held conventionalities or a new thought. With critical thinking, annihilation and everything is subject to question and examination for the purpose of logically constructing reasoned perspectives.

What Is Logic?

The word logic comes from the Ancient Greek logike, referring to the science or art of reasoning. Using logic, a person evaluates arguments and reasoning and strives to distinguish betwixt good and bad reasoning, or betwixt truth and falsehood. Using logic, yous tin can evaluate the ideas and claims of others, make good decisions, and grade sound beliefs nearly the world.^[1]

Questions of Logic in Critical Thinking

Let's use a simple example of applying logic to a critical-thinking state of affairs. In this hypothetical scenario, a human being has a PhD in political science, and he works as a professor at a local college. His wife works at the higher, too. They have three immature children in the local school arrangement, and their family is well known in the community. The human being is now running for political office. Are his credentials and experience sufficient for entering public office? Will he be effective in the political office? Some voters might believe that his personal life and electric current job, on the surface, propose he volition do well in the position, and they will vote for him. In truth, the characteristics described don't guarantee that the man will do a good chore. The information is somewhat irrelevant. What else might you lot desire to know? How about whether the human being had already held a political role and done a good job? In this case, we want to think critically about how much information is adequate in club to make a decision based on logic instead ofassumptions.

The following questions, presented in Effigy 1, below, are ones yous may apply to formulating a logical, reasoned perspective in the above scenario or whatever other situation:

1. What's happening? Gather the basic information and begin to recall of questions.
2. Why is it important? Enquire yourself why it's significant and whether or non you agree.
3. What don't I see? Is in that location anything important missing?
4. How exercise I know? Inquire yourself where the information came from and how it was constructed.
5. Who is saying it? What's the position of the speaker and what is influencing them?
6. What else? What if? What other ideas be and are at that place other possibilities?

Figure i

Problem-Solving with Disquisitional Thinking

For near people, a typical day is filled with critical thinking and problem-solving challenges. In fact, critical thinking and problem-solving go hand-in-hand. They both refer to using noesis, facts, and data to solve problems effectively. But with trouble-solving, yous are specifically identifying, selecting, and defending your solution. Beneath are some examples of using critical thinking to problem-solve:

• Your roommate was upset and said some unkind words to you, which put a crimp in the relationship. You try to see through the angry behaviors to determine how you might best support the roommate and help bring the relationship back to a comfortable spot.

• Your campus club has been languishing due to lack of participation and funds. The new guild president, though, is a marketing major and has identified some strategies to interest students in joining and supporting the club. Implementation is forthcoming.

• Your final art class project challenges you to conceptualize form in new ways. On the last day of grade when students present their projects, y'all describe the techniques you lot used to fulfill the assignment. You explicate why and how you selected that approach.

• Your math teacher sees that the class is non quite grasping a concept. She uses clever questioning to dispel anxiety and guide yous to new understanding of the concept.

• You accept a job interview for a position that you experience you are but partially qualified for, although you really want the job and you are excited well-nigh the prospects. You analyze how you will explain your skills and experiences in a fashion to show that you are a good friction match for the prospective employer.
• You are doing well in college, and most of your college and living expenses are covered. But there are some gaps between what y'all want and what you feel you tin can afford. You analyze your income, savings, and budget to better calculate what you will need to stay in college and maintain your desired level of spending.

Problem-Solving Activeness Checklist

Trouble-solving can be an efficient and rewarding procedure, especially if yous are organized and mindful of critical steps and strategies. Remember to assume the attributes of a good disquisitional thinker: if you lot are curious, reflective, noesis-seeking, open up to change, probing, organized, and ethical, your challenge or problem volition be less of a hurdle, and you lot'll exist in a proficient position to find intelligent solutions. The steps outlined in this checklist will aid you adhere to these qualities in your arroyo to any problem:

	STRATEGIES	ACTION CHECKLIST[2]
i	Define the problem	Identify the trouble Provide as many supporting details as possible Provide examples Organize the information logically
2	Identify available solutions	Utilise logic to place your most important goals Place implications and consequences Identify facts Compare and dissimilarity possible solutions
three	Select your solution	Utilise gathered facts and relevant evidence Support and defend solutions considered valid Defend your solution

Critical and Artistic Thinking

Disquisitional and creative thinking (described in more than detail in Affiliate six: Theories of Learning) complement each other when it comes to problem-solving. The post-obit words, by Dr. Andrew Robert Baker, are excerpted from his "Thinking Critically and Creatively" essay. Dr. Baker illuminates some of the many means that college students will be exposed to critical and creative thinking and how it can enrich their learning experiences.

THINKING CRITICALLY AND CREATIVELY

Critical thinking skills are possibly the most primal skills involved in making judgments and solving problems. You utilize them every solar day, and y'all can go along improving them.

The power to retrieve critically about a affair—to clarify a question, state of affairs, or problem down to its most basic parts—is what helps united states of america evaluate the accuracy and truthfulness of statements, claims, and data nosotros read and hear. Information technology is the sharp pocketknife that, when honed, separates fact from fiction, honesty from lies, and the accurate from the misleading. We all employ this skill to 1 degree or another almost every day. For instance, nosotros utilize critical thinking every day equally we consider the latest consumer products and why one particular product is the all-time among its peers. Is it a quality production because a celebrity endorses it? Because a lot of other people may have used information technology? Because it is made by i visitor versus another? Or maybe because it is made in i country or another? These are questions representative of disquisitional thinking.

The academic setting demands more of us in terms of critical thinking than everyday life. It demands that nosotros evaluate data and analyze myriad issues. Information technology is the environment where our disquisitional thinking skills tin can be the difference between success and failure. In this environs we must consider information in an analytical, critical manner. Nosotros must ask questions—What is the source of this information? Is this source an expert ane and what makes information technology and then? Are there multiple perspectives to consider on an result? Do multiple sources concord or disagree on an event? Does quality enquiry substantiate information or opinion? Do I have whatsoever personal biases that may affect my consideration of this information?

It is only through purposeful, frequent, intentional questioning such equally this that we tin acuminate our critical thinking skills and improve as students, learners and researchers.

While critical thinking analyzes data and roots out the true nature and facets of issues, it is creative thinking that drives progress forwards when it comes to solving these issues. Infrequent creative thinkers are people that invent new solutions to existing problems that do non rely on past or current solutions. They are the ones who invent solution C when everyone else is still arguing between A and B. Artistic thinking skills involve using strategies to clear the listen so that our thoughts and ideas tin transcend the current limitations of a problem and allow usa to see beyond barriers that foreclose new solutions from being found.

Brainstorming is the simplest example of intentional artistic thinking that most people have tried at least once. With the quick generation of many ideas at once, we can block-out our brain'due south natural tendency to limit our solution-generating abilities then we can access and combine many possible solutions/thoughts and invent new ones. It is sort of like sprinting through a race'south finish line only to find there is new track on the other side and we can go along going, if we choose. As with critical thinking, higher education both demands artistic thinking from u.s. and is the perfect identify to practice and develop the skill. Everything from give-and-take problems in a math class, to opinion or persuasive speeches and papers, call upon our creative thinking skills to generate new solutions and perspectives in response to our professor's demands. Creative thinking skills inquire questions such as—What if? Why non? What else is out in that location? Can I combine perspectives/solutions? What is something no ane else has brought-upward? What is existence forgotten/ignored? What about ______? It is the opening of doors and options that follows problem-identification.

Consider an assignment that required you to compare 2 different authors on the topic of education and select and defend ane as ameliorate. At present add together to this scenario that your professor clearly prefers i author over the other. While critical thinking can get yous every bit far every bit identifying the similarities and differences between these authors and evaluating their merits, it is creative thinking that you must utilise if you lot wish to claiming your professor's opinion and invent new perspectives on the authors that take non previously been considered.

And so, what tin we practice to develop our disquisitional and creative thinking skills? Although many students may dislike it, group work is an excellent way to develop our thinking skills. Many times I have heard from students their disdain for working in groups based on scheduling, varied levels of delivery to the grouping or project, and personality conflicts likewise, of grade. True—it's non ever easy, but that is why information technology is then effective. When nosotros work collaboratively on a project or problem we bring many brains to bear on a subject. These different brains volition naturally develop varied ways of solving or explaining bug and examining information. To the observant individual we see that this places us in a constant state of back and forth disquisitional/creative thinking modes.

For example, in group work we are simultaneously analyzing information and generating solutions on our own, while challenging other's analyses/ideas and responding to challenges to our own analyses/ideas. This is part of why students tend to avoid grouping work—it challenges usa as thinkers and forces us to analyze others while defending ourselves, which is not something nosotros are used to or comfy with as most of our educational experiences involve solo piece of work. Your professors know this—that's why nosotros assign information technology—to help you abound as students, learners, and thinkers!

—Dr. Andrew Robert Bakery, Foundations of Academic Success: Words of Wisdom

Evaluating Information with Critical Thinking

Evaluating information can exist one of the well-nigh complex tasks you lot will be faced with in college. Only if you utilize the following four strategies, you volition be well on your way to success:

1. Read for understanding
2. Examine arguments
3. Clarify thinking
4. Cultivate "habits of heed"

Read for Agreement

When you read, take notes or mark the text to track your thinking about what you lot are reading. Equally you lot make connections and ask questions in response to what you read,  you lot monitor your comprehension and enhance your long-term understanding of the fabric. You will want to mark important arguments and key facts. Indicate where you lot agree and disagree or have further questions. Yous don't necessarily need to read every word, simply make certain you empathise the concepts or the intentions behind what is written. See the chapter on Agile Reading Strategies for additional tips.

Examine Arguments

When you examine arguments or claims that an writer, speaker, or other source is making, your goal is to place and examine the hard facts. You tin use the spectrum of authority strategy for this purpose. The spectrum of authority strategy assists you in identifying the "hot" end of an argument—feelings, beliefs, cultural influences, and societal influences—and the "cold" end of an statement—scientific influences. The nearly compelling arguments balance elements from both ends of the spectrum. The following video explains this strategy in further detail:

Clarify Thinking

When you utilise critical thinking to evaluate information, you need to clarify your thinking to yourself and likely to others. Doing this well is mainly a process of request and answering probing questions, such equally the logic questions discussed earlier. Design your questions to fit your needs, only be sure to cover adequate ground. What is the purpose? What question are nosotros trying to answer? What bespeak of view is existence expressed? What assumptions are nosotros or others making? What are the facts and information we know, and how do we know them? What are the concepts we're working with? What are the conclusions, and practice they make sense? What are the implications?

Cultivate "Habits of Mind"

"Habits of mind" are the personal commitments, values, and standards you lot have virtually the principle of good thinking. Consider your intellectual commitments, values, and standards. Exercise you approach problems with an open mind, a respect for truth, and an inquiring attitude? Some good habits to take when thinking critically are existence receptive to having your opinions changed, having respect for others, beingness contained and not accepting something is true until you've had the fourth dimension to examine the available testify, being fair-minded, having respect for a reason, having an inquiring mind, not making assumptions, and always, especially, questioning your own conclusions—in other words, developing an intellectual work ethic. Try to work these qualities into your daily life.

CRAAP Test

In 2010, a textbook being used in fourth form classrooms in Virginia became big news for all the wrong reasons. The book, Our Virginia by Joy Masoff, had caught the attention of a parent who was helping her child practise her homework, according to an article in The Washington Post. Carol Sheriff was a historian for the Higher of William and Mary and as she worked with her daughter, she began to notice some glaring historical errors, not the least of which was a passage which described how thousands of African Americans fought for the South during the Civil War.

Further investigation into the volume revealed that, although the author had written textbooks on a multifariousness of subjects, she was not a trained historian. The inquiry she had done to write Our Virginia, and in particular the information she included about Black Confederate soldiers, was washed through the Net and included sources created by groups like the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an organization which promotes views of history that de-emphasize the role of slavery in the Civil War.

How did a book with errors like these come up to be used as function of the curriculum and who was at fault? Was it Masoff for using untrustworthy sources for her research? Was information technology the editors who allowed the book to be published with these errors intact? Was information technology the school board for approving the volume without more than closely reviewing its accuracy?

There are a number of bug at play in the case of Our Virginia, simply in that location'southward no question that evaluating sources is an important part of the enquiry process and doesn't just employ to Net sources. Using inaccurate, irrelevant, or poorly researched sources can bear upon the quality of your own work. Existence able to empathise and apply the concepts that follow is crucial to becoming a more savvy user and creator of information.

When you begin evaluating sources, what should y'all consider? The CRAAP test is a series of common evaluative elements you tin use to evaluate the Currency,Relevance,Authority,Accuracy, andPurpose of your sources. The CRAAP test was developed past librarians at California Land University at Chico and it gives yous a good, overall set of elements to look for when evaluating a resource. Let's consider what each of these evaluative elements means.

Currency

I of the most important and interesting steps to take every bit you begin researching a subject is selecting the resources that will help y'all build your thesis and back up your assertions. Sure topics require you to pay special attention to how current your resource is—considering they are fourth dimension sensitive, because they take evolved so much over the years, or considering new research comes out on the topic so frequently. When evaluating the currency of an commodity, consider the post-obit:

• When was the item written, and how oft does the publication it is in come up out?
• Is there evidence of newly added or updated information in the detail?
• If the data is dated, is it however suitable for your topic?
• How frequently does information change virtually your topic?

Relevance

Understanding what resources are nigh applicative to your field of study and why they are applicable can help you focus and refine your thesis. Many topics are broad and searching for information on them produces a wide range of resources. Narrowing your topic and focusing on resources specific to your needs can help reduce the piles of data and help you lot focus in on what is truly important to read and reference. When determining relevance consider the post-obit:

• Does the item contain information relevant to your statement or thesis?
• Read the commodity'southward introduction, thesis, and conclusion.
• Scan main headings and place article keywords.
• For book resources, get-go with the index or table of contents—how wide a telescopic does the item take? Will you utilise part or all of this resource?
• Does the information presented support or refute your ideas?
• If the information refutes your ideas, how will this alter your statement?
• Does the textile provide you with current information?
• What is the cloth's intended audience?

Authority

Agreement more virtually your data's source helps yous determine when, how, and where to utilize that data. Is your author an expert on the subject? Do they accept some personal stake in the argument they are making? What is the author or information producer's background? When determining the potency of your source, consider the following:

• What are the author'southward credentials?
• What is the author'due south level of education, experience, and/or occupation?
• What qualifies the author to write nigh this topic?
• What affiliations does the author have? Could these affiliations affect their position?
• What organization or trunk published the information? Is it authoritative? Does it accept an explicit position or bias?

Accuracy

Determining where information comes from, if prove supports the data, and if the information has been reviewed or refereed can assist you decide how and whether to use a source. When determining the accuracy of a source, consider the post-obit:

• Is the source well-documented? Does it include footnotes, citations, or a bibliography?
• Is information in the source presented every bit fact, opinion, or propaganda? Are biases clear?
• Tin can y'all verify information from the references cited in the source?
• Is the data written clearly and free of typographical and grammatical mistakes? Does the source expect to exist edited before publication? A clean, well-presented newspaper does not always point accuracy, but usually at least means more eyes have been on the information.

Purpose

Knowing why information was created is a fundamental to evaluation. Understanding the reason or purpose of the data, if the data has clear intentions, or if the information is fact, opinion, or propaganda volition help yous decide how and why to utilize information:

• Is the author's purpose to inform, sell, persuade, or entertain?
• Does the source have an obvious bias or prejudice?
• Is the article presented from multiple points of view?
• Does the writer omit of import facts or data that might disprove their argument?
• Is the author's linguistic communication informal, joking, emotional, or impassioned?
• Is the data clearly supported past evidence?

When you feel overwhelmed past the information you are finding, the CRAAP test can assist you determine which information is the well-nigh useful to your research topic. How yous respond to what you observe out using the CRAAP test will depend on your topic. Maybe you want to apply two overtly biased resources to inform an overview of typical arguments in a particular field. Perhaps your topic is historical and currency means the past hundred years rather than the by one or two years. Use the CRAAP examination, be knowledgeable about your topic, and yous volition be on your manner to evaluating information efficiently and well!

Watch this brief video for a summary of using the CRAPP test when evaluating your sources.

Developing Yourself As a Disquisitional Thinker

Critical thinking is a key skill for college students, just it should besides exist a lifelong pursuit. Below are additional strategies to develop yourself as a critical thinker in college and in everyday life:

• Reflect and do: E'er reflect on what you've learned. Is information technology true all the time? How did you make it at your conclusions?
• Use wasted time: It's certainly important to brand time for relaxing, but if you notice you are indulging in too much of a good thing, think near using your fourth dimension more constructively. Decide when you do your best thinking and try to larn something new during that function of the day.
• Redefine the fashion you see things: Information technology can be very uninteresting to always think the same way. Challenge yourself to see familiar things in new means. Put yourself in someone else'southward shoes and consider things from a different bending or perspective.  If yous're trying to solve a problem, listing all your concerns: what you need in gild to solve it, who can help, what some possible barriers might be, etc. It'southward often possible to reframe a problem as an opportunity. Try to find a solution where there seems to be none.
• Clarify the influences on your thinking and in your life: Why do you think or feel the way you do? Analyze your influences. Think about who in your life influences you. Do you feel or react a sure fashion because of social convention, or because you lot believe it is what is expected of y'all? Try to break out of any molds that may exist constricting you lot.
• Express yourself: Disquisitional thinking also involves being able to limited yourself conspicuously. Most important in expressing yourself clearly is stating one point at a time. You might be inclined to argue every thought, only yous might have greater touch on if you lot focus just on your main arguments. This will help others to follow your thinking conspicuously. For more than abstract ideas, assume that your audience may not understand. Provide examples, analogies, or metaphors where you can.
• Enhance your wellness: It'southward easier to think critically when you lot have care of your mental and concrete health. Try taking activity breaks throughout the day to reach 30 to 60 minutes of physical action each day. Scheduling concrete activeness into your twenty-four hour period can help lower stress and increase mental alertness. Besides, do your most difficult work when you have the most energy. Think well-nigh the time of solar day you are most effective and have the most energy. Program to do your most difficult work during these times. And be sure to reach out for help if you feel you need assistance with your mental or concrete health (run into Maintaining Your Mental and Physical Wellness for more than information).

Action: REFLECT ON Disquisitional THINKING

Objective

• Utilise critical thinking strategies to your life

Directions:

• Call back nigh someone you consider to exist a critical thinker (friend, professor, historical figure, etc). What qualities does he/she take?
• Review some of the critical thinking strategies discussed on this page. Selection one strategy that makes sense to you lot. How can you use this critical thinking technique to your academic work?
• Habits of listen are attitudes and beliefs that influence how you lot approach the world (i.east., inquiring attitude, open listen, respect for truth, etc). What is one habit of mind you would like to actively develop over the next twelvemonth? How will you develop a daily practise to cultivate this habit?
• Write your responses in journal form, and submit according to your instructor's guidelines.

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Source: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/austincc-learningframeworks/chapter/chapter-7-critical-thinking-and-evaluating-information/

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