My Critical Thinking Skills

I had the belief long ago that to think critically you had to be some brainy person or someone with a degree. Then I started college and professors would say, “I want you to think critically before writing your paper.” I must admit I had to look it up in the dictionary my first year in college. Though I finally came to understand in my own terms what it truly means to think critically. Critical thinking means to be an investigator, a gather of information, then to evaluate the weigh all evidence that will help you arrive at a logical and reasonable answer through analysis.

            As they say people have different learning styles I believe it’s important for a student or individual to be aware of this. How we learn is important so that we apply it when thinking critically. In order for me to evaluate any material I read I often underline words, dates, and names. I often make notes in the margins of books and write down any thoughts I may have at the time. Usually writing down my thoughts while evaluating any reading material helps greatly. As many times your first initial thoughts may be clearer to understanding the outcome. I say this because many times we over analyze a lot of the time and arrive completely at different place then what is being asked or what the information actually is.  

This is the problem when critical thinking becomes a flaw within my personal life. As I’m sure with most of us we are all emotions and less reasoning at times in our life. I am not great using my critical thinking skills with those close to me but rather with other aspects in my life. This is because I over analyze and possibly misconstrue things. But honestly how many of us haven’t done this. Some things do make sense like to think critically about how we feel about political parties, education and career options. As like many of us I put my skills to use when it comes to voting on propositions. To me they can be very confusing. I do not know if anyone has read those darn booklets all the way through but I have! Simple things, ideas and situations where I do not have to consider others into the process makes it less complicated. I am able to make a concise decision after considering all aspects and where my decisions are best. There are some things in life you can just do though I tend to believe we all use our critical thinking skills most of the time.

I do expect my critical thinking skills to get better over time. Possibly even with those select few in my personal life where emotions get the best of me. I have to honestly say that over the course of my time in college they have gotten better and enable me to evaluate many of my beliefs. At this time my critical thinking skills have grown however I tend to arrive at too many ideas. My belief is that English 103 will help my analysis skills by organizing my thoughts and ideas systematically that would allow me a better understanding of what I write, read and how I view it. As a person I stand for what I believe and unwavering. Though at times my beliefs have changed at times and I might have been wrong in making decisions. I suspect by the end of this term I may have reevaluate some other beliefs if the logic can justified of course. But change is good if its for the best so I will embrace what ever may come.