Wendy Lewis only

Let’s continue our discussion on intellectual standards. There are nine intellectual standards in critical thinking. Situations in life often require us to use their critical thinking skills. We have to ask questions and make sense of the information presented in the situation. As we are trying to move forward through the situation, it can be beneficial to apply these nine intellectual standards. It gives you a something to you rely on, especially in very stressful situations. Sometimes our emotions can run away with us and we can forget a lot of our processes and ways of dealing with certain things. If we have a set of standards that we know by heart, which we already agree with and have used successfully it can really help you when you're in a stressful situation. You have a set of standards at the ready whether it is questions you ask yourself, reminders, pointers or whatever you decide. Your set list will be something you’re comfortable with so that in any situation in life you know you can just refer to it without having to think about it or debate the way in which you are approaching a situation or problem. When we get into stress we tend to revert back to a lot of old habits, patterns and reactive ways of dealing with things. So it's good to have stuff like this ready. It lets you more easily relate to your standards and your way of thinking. It lets you approach the current situation in a more balanced and coherent way.

First, a couple of related areas to consider are clarity and accuracy. Through clarity, you're converting unclear statements and thoughts to clear ones. You want to be able to the re-read through your points in your argument to make sure it adds up and everything makes sense. It does help to put something aside for a while and come back to it later. It can also help to read something into a recorder and play it back. Often our minds, when reading something, will fill in the blank spaces and fill in missing words and concepts. It is just the way our brain processes written information so sometimes it helps to read something out loud and record it. It also helps to consider the level of your reader or audience. It may be something that is very clear to you but you need to make sure it's very clear to the audience that you'll be speaking to. You have to know what that level is. You need to know whether or not they will need more clarification of certain concepts and ideas or even a glossary. If you have a mixed group you can provide handouts or an appendix that has different concepts explained and glossaries of terms. Then you can go through your presentation or argument for others as you normally would.

For accuracy, does all the supporting information validate the statement and thought? You want to make sure that your points, arguments and everything you’ve included in your writing or speech is that it relates back to the main plot of the piece. We can off very easily go off on tangents and start to use examples and illustrations that make sense to us in the moment. But looking back you can see that it doesn't really relate well enough to the topic. There may be a better way. for example, if you're speaking to a group of people who are more scientific and you start using baseball analogies, that may not work as well as if you'd use something a little more general or even if you could find some kind of scientific illustration. Try simple things like that as well as making sure the facts and points you're using are all cited and up to date. Sometimes there is information and facts that are accurate but they were accurate 10 years ago. There may have been a lot of new studies around your topic so you need to make sure you are using the most up-to-date information. there is nothing worse than your reader getting upset with you right off the bat because they already know there is more current research and your whole argument doesn't make any sense to them because it outdated.

Let’s discuss precision and relevance. Precision is having specific details that may need to be included. You want to be very precise about what you are conveying. Sometimes concept endpoints need to have a lot more detail in them. Precision is about adding those details to really drive the point home. It’s also being very descriptive and painting the whole scene. You’re taking a concept and you're painting a picture for someone. You want to give them all the details that you can so that they can really understand what you're trying to say. So less is not always more, especially in this kind of thinking, analysis and exploration of topics, especially from an academic standpoint. You want to be sure you're covering all angles and you're really building a strong argument. That happens when you have a lot of details. Details themselves help the reader to feel like you've done your homework and you really know your topic. Sometimes when we really know a topic we do tend to gloss over things and make assumptions that our reader will understand where we are going. This may cause us to present something out of context. It’s not always a bad thing to repeat yourself a little bit and be sure you're being really accurate and precise about what you're presenting.

Through relevance we ask “How does the information relate or impact the thought/statement?” you need to make sure that you're staying on topic staying on target. Make sure that everything you are including and using as part of your argument is relevant to the main thesis of what you're trying to convey. The easiest way for an opponent or someone else to tear down your argument is to start attacking things you’re discussing that are even relevant. That just brings both of you off-topic and into a whole new realm that has nothing to do with what you've been saying. You want to be sure you're staying on target and everything is relevant. Make sure you stay focused so that your reader or your audience can stay focused and on target. A lot of times they're learning a lot of new stuff and it is much easier for them to follow if you're staying on target. They see the thesis itself as the container for what you’re saying. Everything that you say is being held up to that container for comparison and they’re making connections themselves. So this is a very important element to have and you want to make sure you're very careful about checking that everything you're including is relevant to your main thesis.

Let’s consider depth and breadth. Depth is thinking below the surface of the issue or the situation. In this type of writing you want to be sure you are really diving in and getting to the heart of the matter. You almost want to go a little bit further than that and really think at a deep level about the topic. You don’t want to stay on the surface argument. If you’re doing Google searches in your research and you're seeing the same kind of thesis over and over again, you need to think a little more deeply about it. See what other kind of level you can go to with the topic. Sometimes it's really about narrowing the topic, making sure it's not too broad. That way you're really zoning in on something and going a little deeper on a certain aspect. The more general the thesis is, the more surface level the issue or thinking about that issue will be. So it’s always good to consider if you should narrow your topic a little bit and maybe choose an angle that hasn't been done so much. You need to have resources to use so picking the right thesis is kind of an art. You should keep in mind that you don't want to just jump for the broader, generalized view of an argument topic as a lot of people do.

One way to do this is with breath. Have you considered another point of view? If you're kind of stuck on the thesis and how to make it unique one of the best things do is look at the opposing viewpoints. Even if you don't agree with those viewpoints, it usually will trigger something in you on that idea. You don’t have to agree with the opposing view but sometimes just considering it helps you get into the topic little more deeply and gets the creative juices flowing. It can be very helpful to look into multiple views on a topic and finds that unique slant or angle to it.

Now let’s review logicalness and significance. Logicalness means, does all of this information fit together and does it make sense. We do tend to fill in the blanks when we’re reading but we can also fill in the blanks of times with our concepts and how they connect together. The more you know a topic, the harder this can be. You want to make sure that all the information you're including really fits and that it has context. This helps the reader understand each point, how they relate back to the thesis and if it’s logical and orderly. Depending on the type of research you do it would logically flow in a timeline beginning, middle and end or a past, present, future or a progression of events. Some research that allows that makes it little bit easier when you're presenting facts. You know which ones come first, second and third which makes presenting easier. For other types of research that don't have that. You need to see what the logical progression of the facts and points you are including make things to flow well. Is one built into another and does it seem logical, like they would fit together? You’re building a progression of points, facts and events in your argument.

Significance means, what is the most important concept or piece of information you can take away? This knows about what you want your audience to take away from the argument. Is there something you want them to do? It’s also about how you develop your closing. You want to take the most important relevant concept, points or facts from your argument and restate it toward the end. People tend to remember the first and the last thing that they hear or read. You need to know what the most important piece of information is. It’s best to repeat it toward the end so that people are left with that point and that's the point that they'll ponder the most. You can be repeating it if it logically fell in the beginning or the middle, just make sure to repeat it again in your closing. You want to tie up all the loose ends in the closing and make sure the most significant part of your argument is within that closing piece. Find what the most significant point is and be sure everything is significant and relates to it. Knowing the most important piece helps to structure the argument well and end on a high note.

Finally we want to consider fairness. This is wondering if your thinking is justified given the facts or evidence. Not just from a moral standpoint. There is a moral standpoint of representing a very heated topic and a very strong opinion. Am I justified in what I'm saying? Am I jeopardizing anyone's safety in what I'm doing? That gets into ethics. But there's also just fairness in presenting correct information and to present the other side if needed. Does this in any way harm another industry? Is it very accurate and have you fairly consider the other side? You want to make sure that the facts and evidence you are presenting as references have the authority behind them for the most part. Not every single reference for every single topic is going to have a strong academic background, but for the most part you want to know that you have good sources backing you up in your argument. A good way of judging fairness is by how great your sources are. It’s important that you at least have a few good, solid academic sources behind what you're saying. You want to be sure you've considered different areas of an issue and are being his unbiased as neutral as possible.