Rianna Johnson

Professor Hasson
English MO1C
29 June 2014
Critical Thinking Essay
Critical thinking is commonly defined as an analysis or evaluation of a topic, event, novel,
etc. Not only is the information of what is being analyzed important, but also the critical thinker.
When it comes to critical thinking, one of the basic ways is through investigation,
interpretation, and judgment. Investigation is to find all the evidence for the topic and then
analyze the information of what it means. Judgment is the critical thinkers own judgment after
interpreting the evidence and understanding all the information about the topic, forming an
opinion.
A critical thinker comes in two forms, an uncritical thinker or a critical thinker. An
uncritical thinker has the characteristics of being dishonest with themselves when it comes to
information they do not know, they make quick judgments about a topic, not open minded about
another persons opinion and like to stick to their own views, and they are also impatient. Critical
thinkers on the other hand are the complete opposite of an uncritical thinker. They are open
minded towards other views, patient, accepts the information they do not know, their judgments
are based on evidence rather than their first impressions.
An uncritical thinker example was a guy who was not interested about the topic and
rushed through the interview. His arguments were not strong enough to argue with and his
information was mainly based off of bias information of opinion and mass media. He also
seemed open towards the opposing side, but did not agree or make comments about it. An
example of a good critical thinker was a girl was able to make a valid argument about pit bulls
being good pet by saying that the way the owner/trainer raises the dog would determine the dogs
future behavior. She had also been honest with the information she knew, however some points
came from herself.