Critical Thinking and Its Key Characteristics with Examples

Critical thinking is any involvement in an academic debate which will require to the person to accept conclusions of other writers without evaluating the argument and evidence that is provided. Critical thinking is an art which is of using reason to analyse ideas and digging deeper to get to your true potential. This is not about thinking more or harder but it’s about thinking better. Being a critical thinker means you’re making some reasonable judgment that are logical and well thought out. This is a way of thinking where you don’t simply accept all of the arguments made and conclusions that are being showed but having an attitude where you are questioning arguments and the conclusions.

A strong critical thinker shows characteristics which is interest with wide range of matters. It’s important to become and remain well-informed and alertness to opportunities to use critical thinking. There are many key characteristics in critical thinking. The characteristics that are important are the skepticism and trust, reasoning and argument.

Reasoning and critical analysis is a characteristic in critical thinking. In reasoning we tend to challenge our assumptions and we can do critical analysis of other people’s reasoning. In reasoning you will have to construct and present your ideas in the best way.

Reasoning starts within you with is having reasons for what we believe in and knowing what they are. In reasoning it’s important to critically evaluate our own beliefs and actions. It’s important to be able to show other people’s reasons for what their beliefs and actions are. An example of this could be that a person is asked to evaluating their reasons which may sound easy but at times is not. This is because when the person is asked why you believe that there reason is true it might become obvious to the person that they may not had really thought through there reason. It is important to test our beliefs and reasons as it’ll help you identify whether your reasoning is true.

Challenging our assumption is an important key in reasoning. People can make quick assumptions which can be to make the easiest jump to a likely conclusion that they may think is correct. This means our reasons and testing them properly can help to show assumptions.

Reasoning is when we know what our reasons are. Critical reasoning considers other people’s reasoning. This characteristic requires skills of grasping overall argument but the sills in analysing and evaluating it in detail. Critical analysis of other people’s reason can be analysing how they select, associate and order reasons to construct they draw. This can also involve evaluating if the reasons are well found based on the good evidence provided and identifying any flaws in their reasoning.

Constriction and presenting reasons can involve analysing evidence and drawing conclusions from the evidence provided. The evidence might have been shown to support the conclusion. For example they may consider that it is a cold day and the person who may disagree might ask why you believe this. We tend to use this on basis of reasoning like this example everyday which can either be for academic or professional purposes. We usually will need to present our reasoning using a structure which can be used in reports, essays and with recommendation forms. Structure and selecting reasons to support a conclusion is a skill that is required. Another skills that are required are to use logical order when presenting reasoning and to use language effectively which is to present the line of reasoning.

Presenting your argument is another key characteristic in critical thinking. Critical thinking often is referred as the argument. This characteristic in everyday language which can be due to poor communication, aggression and difficult feelings. Argument means presenting reasons to support your position or the point of view and other people may accept those reasons. If a person agrees with your reason this means they are influenced to your point of view.

The characteristic argument can be thought as the message being carried which can be done by media, speech and writing. Critical thinking helps you to notice the obvious and the hidden message more properly to understand the process which is by the argument structure. To identify a argument there are a set of questions that will be useful to keep in mind as this will help you to identify the most relevant information you need. When an author is presenting his argument they will present a particular point of view as they believe in what they are saying. In this they use the characteristic reasoning to present the argument in the most effective way.

Skepticism and trust is one of the key characteristics of critical thinking. This means a person who brings a slight element of doubt to a situation but this does not mean that you should go through life never believing in anything you hear or see. This helps you to make a better and much more of a knowledgeable about if something is true or effective. This characteristic in critical thinking gives you all the tools you need to use this so you can analyse what is in front of you. An example for this characteristic could be that if a person wants to function in the world they have to accept that some things may seem as they are and there is no point in having a doubt on it. 

This characteristic could be due to past experiences of a person or it could be that a person’s personality is just to be doubtful. However this could be about some certain set of methods which are directed at searching evidence in a certain way.

There are many ways a critical thinker can improve their critical thinking skills. It’s important to be always looking for ways to improve your skills as these a very valuable skills needed in everyday life as with these your able to understand the logical connections between ideas. You are also able to identify, construct your arguments in your work.

A way of improving your critical skill can be identifying your purpose. This means every time you come across a decision you need to make and you see the purpose that is with it. You will set yourself a goal after identifying it. The examples for this could be if you a planning to expand a business into a new market and your purpose can be to choose one of the best growth opportunities that come across to you.

Another way to improve your skill is not to assume that your right. Although this can be hard as you may think that you are right but assuming you’re correct can put you in the wrong route when it comes to thinking critically. This can be because if you don’t take other people perspectives and there point of view in consideration and compare them to yours. This indicates that you don’t do much thinking and would be good if you take into account other people viewpoints and compare them together to get a better understanding which will improve your critical thinking skills.

If you want to be a good critical thinker it always best to break everything down and be able to see the bigger picture and is a great quality. Most problems can be too be too big to solve them at once so this method of breaking it down is an effective way. Breaking down a problem into smaller parts is effective and easier because you will be able to evaluate them separately which will lead at a solution to your problem.

Questioning your assumptions is always an effectual way on improving your critical thinking skills. As humans we tend to make assumption on almost everything which is because it is how our brain processes certain parts of information. If an assumption turns out to be wrong or not completely true then the whole basis needs to be rebuilt entirely. To correct your assumption you may ask yourself some question.

Doing your research can be a helpful in improving your critical thinking skills as on a daily basis we get information thrown at us. If you decide to do some digging on the information it can be a very powerful tool. It can be useful if you have a decision to make, a problem to solve or a perspective to evaluate. The more information you have the better you’re likely to think through things through properly. You will be able to come up with a reasonable answer question that you had. This is a very effective way to improve as a critical thinker.