The Process of Critical Thinking

Overfamiliarity with an idea can lead you to accept the information as true without questioning it. Have you ever spilled salt and then had to throw a pinch of it over your left shoulder?

Are you afraid that whistling in the dark will cause bad things to happen?

Have you ever wondered where superstitious behaviors originated and why they are present today?

When you begin to ask why, you have started the critical-thinking process.

To extend that mode of thinking beyond the exploration of superstitions, critical thinking as part of scholarly work allows you to separate "truth" from existing opinions and biases.

In the following Assignment, you will examine the process of critical thinking by identifying your beliefs, your factual knowledge, and how you can separate the two.

To Prepare for this Assignment:

Review the reading in this week's Learning Resources.

The Assignment (1-page):

Write a short paragraph that would be considered an opinion. Write a second paragraph that would be considered a fact. Explain the differences between the two paragraphs.

Explain how a reader would know if one statement is opinion and the other factual. Provide support in the research literature for the factual statement.