In preparation for discussing the importance of critical thinking skills, please read Chapters 1 through 3 of Think Smarter: Critical Thinking to Improve Problem-Solving and Decision-Making Skills, as well as the following articles: "Critical Thinking and the Challenges of Internet," "Common Misconceptions of Critical Thinking," and "Making Decisions in an Uncertain World.

Critical thinking gets you involved in a dialogue with the ideas you read from others in this class. To be a critical thinker, you need to be able to summarize, analyze, hypothesize, and evaluate the new information that you encounter.

For this discussion

• Define, describe, and explain the principles of critical thinking.
• Search the Internet, media, or the Ashford University Library, and find an example of good, careful (critical) thinking, and explain why you think it exemplifies strong critical thinking skills. Post a link or reference information for that source, describe the content, and explain how it is a good example of critical thinking.
• Search the Internet, media, or the Ashford University Library and find an example that lacks good, careful (critical thinking). Post a link or reference information for that source, describe the content, and explain why you think it demonstrates poor critical thinking skills.

Your initial post should be at least 250 words in length. Support your claims with examples from required material(s) and/or other scholarly sources, and properly cite any references.