From waking up to sleeping, we always have to think about doing something. Selecting which one’s food I should eat , choosing vehicles for traveling from one place to another place and tons of thoughts that come across our mind without being aware or unaware. Sometimes we are supposed to think rationally ,require analyzing and take time to come to a conclusion towards a matter or problem. And eureka! That sort of thing has a fancy name called critical thinking or the art of thinking. To think critically , you had better watch out for your own biases, assumptions when against information ,and balance standards when evaluating sources.You can go through with sources in a systematic and critical way by asking questions which involve currency, relevance, authority , accuracy and purpose.
A person who uses rational thinking eliminating all the non-essential information in order to look for the most helpful and authentic information. However, is there any chance to enhance this skill? Of course we have.
Here I write five remarkable daily exercises on how you can sharpen your critical thinking:
Increasing vocabulary
Here are the things that our brain is making quickly by limiting knowledge around us. Therefore, our decision-making could create biases, and wrong. To avoid this, we should extend our cognitive skills by reading , watching. We had better taste differently in it , say, reading science-fiction books you would read nobles , thrilling or detective. Always do something unique , learn unique things in a day so that your brain is familiar with those things.
Asking question
The more you ask questions to problems ,the more you can get deep into it and the more it’s clear to you . Suppose you are in a situation to make a decision so that you can ask yourself some critical question.
- What concepts are at work?
- What assumptions exist?
- Is my interpretation of the information logically sound?
Practising Logical fallacy
We have experienced it in our daily life such as you might have heard it from parents that “Shawon is a bright student in his class but he could not do well in the admission test let alone you could do that”. If someone cannot do something that you cannot do it’s totally wrong . That sort of fallacy is called “Ad Hominem”. Let’s see another example , you are asking your parents to buy a laptop for you but your parents drive the reference to your exam result that you did not pass . It’s called “Red herring”. There are a plethora of fallacies out there you just do need a little bit of searching on the internet.
Observing
You hear it right. Observation is a prominent part of critical thinking . By observing , we notice each and every detail from tiny and are also able to find out why something might be a problem. Being observant , you are able to gather information about situations and utilize that information to make better decisions and solve problems. Moreover, it makes it easier to see things from different perspectives and discover alternative solutions.
Writing
Writing method’s help us to organize our ideas or thoughts that cross your mind. For example, the thought runs to and fro in our mind as a result when we are going to deliver our thought we virtually forget . So we have to jot our thoughts down, as much as we built this habit inside us then we see you are now able to think and speak clearly.
As the days pass, the demand for critical thinking is increasing. From corporate life to real life critical thinking takes place. It is high time to step yourself further in this field.
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Writer
Tanvir Hosen Shawon
Intern, Content Writing Department
YSSE