Critical Thinking - Definitions

After reflecting on the relationship between critically thinking and writing for hypertexts, I believe that Diane Halpern best describes this connection when she states, “[critical thinking] is used to describe thinking that is purposeful, reasoned and goal directed - the kind of thinking involved in solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions when the thinker is using skills that are thoughtful and effective for the particular context and type of thinking task” (Halpern, “Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking”). In my personal hypertexts – primarily the final hypertext on low wage workers - problem solving and goal-directed writing is at the center of importance. In the spirit of hypertext writing and blogging in general, solving a problem - or at least presenting an issue and elaborating on why and how it needs to be addressed – is for the most part the primary purpose for the creation of such an online medium. In my low wage hypertext, I focused much of my attention on presenting the issue in a dramaticized way (without compromising the importance or seriousness of the issue by any means) so that readers would see the shocking ills in the industry that I chose to profile – a way of inspiring thought in not only myself while creating the hypertext, but also for those who happened to view my website.
A second definition that I connect with is one made by Victor Maiorana, who says, “The purpose of critical thinking is, therefore, to achieve understanding… 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, “Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum: Building the Analytical Classroom”). One reason for creating the hypertext (in my opinon) was to expand the knowledge that we had on certain issues – a point that goes along with “achieve understanding,” coined by Maiorana. I found that through doing much research and reading Schlosser, Ehrenreich, and Shipler’s novels, my understanding of the issues that I was studying was definitely increased. The last definition that I definitely agreed with was Kurland’s, saying that critical thinking is an effort to provide intellectual honesty, something else that I tried to achieve in my writing. In my hypertext, I wanted to portray the real life situations and struggles of the people working the low wage life, using factual evidence as well as emotion (Kurland says that critical thinking involves “relying on reason rather than emotion,” and I myself tried to follow that model). Thinking, as stated by Professor Bousquet, goes hand in hand with the writing that we delivered in all of our hypertexts – issues are addressed, analyzed, and solutions, for the most part, are suggested.