"The purpose of critical thinking is, therefore, to achieve understanding, evaluate view points, and solve problems. Since all three areas involve the asking of questions, we can say that critical thinking is the questioning or inquiry we engage in when we seek to understand, evaluate, or resolve."
Maiorana, Victor P. Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum: Building the Analytical Classroom. 1992.
When first developing the basic ideas and concepts for each website we asked questions regarding who would be reading our website, what information would be most beneficial, what our unique contribution would be to our specific area of interest, and in what way would we want to convey our purposes. By asking these questions and using critical thinking to answer them we were able to better communicate our goals and narrow our direction.
Critical thinking is "the art of thinking about your thinking while you are thinking in order to make your thinking better: more clear, more accurate, or more defensible."
Paul, Binker, Adamson, and Martin (1989)
This definition is the closet to what comes to my mind when trying to define critical thinking. The idea of constantly analyzing our work, in this case hypertexts, we can eliminate the excess information to make our point more clear and accurate and polish the way we relay our information. By continuously seeking improvements we are never settling or stopping progress.
Critical thinking is "the examination and testing of suggested solutions to see whether they will work."
Lindzey, Hall, and Thompson, 1978.
This definition of critical thinking is true when it comes to creating a hypertext because as a creator referencing other websites is very important and beneficial. By evaluating which techniques and methods most effectively convey an author’s purpose, and recognizing the different possibilities in terms of layout, voice, design, etc. it makes it easy to find direction, set goals, and formulate new ideas for your own hypertext.
Critical thinking is the development of cohesive and logical reasoning patterns. Stahl and Stahl, 1991.
Emphasis on cohesion and logical reasoning is important when creating a hypertext because the readers must understand how the information relates and how to navigate through the site without assistance. In order to engage readers and most affectively reach the goal of the individual website, we must be logical in our thinking and consistently keep each page or separate thought relative to the central focus.
