English

Building a Knowledge Base

Critical Thinking and the Art of Questioning

Critical Thinking

What is critical thinking?

 The ability to examine anything you or someone else has done, said, or written to discover how sound or useful it is.

Critical thinking depends on the art of questioning

 Art of questioning = finding, asking, and pursuing the questions that enable you to examine what you or someone else has done, said or written.

Why is questioning important?

Questioning affects the following abilities: Thinking, Discussing, Reading, and Writing.

Thinking

 Underlies everything we do.

 Begins with questioning what we think, read, observe, or hear.

Discussing

 Allows us to refine our thoughts

Reading

 Fuels our thinking and discussions

 Go beyond the surface to understand and question what the text says

Writing

 Writing requires us to express our ideas completely and precisely

What do I really think?

“What do I really think?” is a serious and challenging question.

 Frequently, we know what we are supposed to think because other people tell us what the “right” opinions are.

 However, we must get beyond what “everybody thinks,” to consider what we really think.

Reading Critically

What is critical reading?

 It is active and involved interaction with a text, not just reading to find out what it says, but reading to respond to it by asking questions and answering questions.

How does critical reading work?

What distinguishes critical reading from reading to get the gist?

 Reading between the lines

 Following complex lines of thought

 Understanding what is implied but not stated explicitly

 Noting how the parts add up to construct the big picture

What questions guide critical reading?

Critical thinking is interacting with the text, so you need to be able to focus your attention on it.

Preview the text

 Read Rhetorically  What is the text about?

 What do I already know about the topic? What opinions do I have about it?

 Who wrote this text?

 Who is the audience for this text?

 What special features does the text contain that might aid comprehension?

 What is the text about?

Reading the text

 Make annotations marking what you observe to be interesting revealing or even strange as it relates to the author’s purpose and your overall purpose

 Observe how the author has organized the text

 Respond to the text

What could I write about?

 What is the central idea raised in the reading?

 Do your observations and experiences confirm, illustrate, or contradict what the text says?

 Did the reading present any new ideas that had not occurred to you before? Did the reading raise new questions you had not considered? Did it question some assumption or belief you had about the topic?

 How do other sources compare to this reading?

 What can you take away from this reading?