Critical Thinking-Bonnie Given

1.) “Critical thinking is deciding rationally what to or what not to believe."
Norris, Stephen P. "Synthesis of Research on Critical Thinking. Educational Leadership, v 42 n 8 May 1985. 40-45.
In hypertext, I had to analyze my research and decide, with as much subjectivity as possible, what material to believe and what not to believe. Obviously, individuals are going to have different opinions on ideas of controversial topics. Through my research and, of course, writing process I had to weed out which ideas were most useful for the presentation of my topics. While I was writing, I had to critically evaluate my research and make it clear to my readers what I agreed with and what I didn’t. Also, I had to find a way to add my own ideas on the subject and connect with the research from other writers.

2.) "The purpose of critical thinking is, therefore, to achieve understanding, evaluate view points, and solve problems.”
Maiorana, Victor P. Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum: Building the Analytical Classroom. 1992.
While writing my hypertexts, the first step I had to make was to make sure that my writing presented a clear understanding of the material at hand. With out this understanding, my writing would have been dull and difficult to follow. Next, I had to critically review the various opinions on my topics and decide which I was going to accept and which I was going to ignore. Although I tried to present various view points through my writing, there were some that I showed more favoritism and appreciation for. Finally, in my hypertexts (especially the third research hypertext), I had to find solutions to the problems my topics presented. I successfully did this by using my own original ideas, as well as ideas posed by other writers.

3.) "Critical thinking includes the ability to respond to material by distinguishing between facts and opinions or personal feelings, judgments and inferences, inductive and deductive arguments, and the objective and subjective.”
MCC General Education Initiatives
It was very important when I was writing to form distinctions of material that was fact and material that arose from personal opinions. Some of the topics that I wrote about were highly controversial and I had to make sure to make note of this in my writing. Also, I had to make sure through my writing that I noted what material was based off of pure facts and what had opinions and judgments mixed in. In order for my writing to come off as un-biased, this step in evaluating what information to use was very important.