ENGLISH 9

Quarter 4 - Module 3:
Value Judgment, Critical Thinking and Call to Action

A value judgment is an evaluative statement of how good or bad you think an

idea or action is. A value judgment is often prescriptive, i.e. a normative view might be
expressed that reveals certain attitudes or behaviors toward the world. A value
judgment is a subjective statement of opinion in contrast to an objective fact or theory
that can be tested by looking at the available evidence. It is also a claim that a particular
human action or object has some degree of importance, worth, or desirability.
Example: Ice cream tastes great!
It is morally wrong to hurt animals for fun.

For reasons that will become clear below, a value judgment is a claim about
something's moral, practical, or aesthetic worth. Value judgments do not simply
describe the world; they prescribe certain attitudes or behaviors toward the world.
When you say things like the statements below, you are usually making a certain
kind of value judgment. We often say that value judgments are normative, which
means they evaluate things with respect to certain standards or norms.

That's good. That's shameful. That's ok. That's a

bummer.
That's bad. That's sick. That shouldn't That's
be. obligatory.
That's That's not That's That's
wonderful. fair. despicable. admirable.

One way to get a quick handle on the nature of value judgments is to see
that any statement of fact can easily be converted into a value judgment by
introducing a value term. In the table below, the statements on the left are labeled
descriptive. The corresponding value judgments on the right are labeled
prescriptive.

Descriptive
China has conducted a land
reclamation project in the South
China Sea.
Jeremy is a student.
Jose is so in love with Brittany.
Picasso was a 20th century
Prescriptive
China shouldn’t have conducted a
land reclamation project in the South
China Sea.
Jeremy is an excellent student.
It’s wonderful that Jose is so in love
with Brittany.
Picasso was one of the greatest
 painter. painters of the 20th century.
Those pants are tight on you. Those pants are way too tight on you.
It's hard to find a job You haven't tried hard enough to find a
job.

In order for you to come up with a sound judgment/reaction on issues around us,
learning to think critically is a must and is a lifelong journey which will benefit you
in the classroom and beyond.

Critical thinking, according to The Foundation for Critical Thinking, is the

intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying,
analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or
generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication,
as a guide to belief and action.”

Critical thinking is the opposite of regular, everyday thinking. Moment to moment,

most thinking happens automatically. When you think critically, you deliberately
employ any of the above intellectual tools to reach more accurate conclusions. We
can run into problems when we let our automatic mental processes govern
important decisions.

Without critical thinking, it’s easy for people to manipulate us and for all sorts of
catastrophes to result. Even day to day, it’s easy to get caught in pointless
arguments or say thoughtless things just because you failed to stop and think
deliberately.

The Value of Critical Thinking

 It allows you to continue to develop intellectually after you graduate.

Progress shouldn’t stop after graduation–you should keep learning as much as
you can. When you encounter new information, knowing how to think critically will
help you evaluate and use it.

 It helps you make hard decisions. Equally important in the decision-making

process is the ability to think critically. Critical thinking allows you compare the
pros and cons of your available options, showing that you have more options than
you might imagine.

 People can’t manipulate you. Just look at ads for the latest fad diet or “miracle”
drug–these rely on ignorance and false hope to get people to buy something that
is at best useless and at worst harmful. When you evaluate information critically
(especially information meant to sell something), you can avoid falling prey to
unethical companies and people.

 It makes you more employable (and better paid). The best employees not
only know how to solve existing problems–they also know how to come up with
solutions to problems no one ever imagined. To get a great job after graduating,
you need to be one of those employees, and critical thinking is the key ingredient
to solving difficult, novel problems.

Ways to Think More Critically

1. Ask Basic Questions. Sometimes an explanation becomes so complex that

the original question gets lost. To avoid this, continually go back to the basic
questions you asked when you set out to solve the problem.

Here are a few key basic questions you can ask when approaching any problem:

 What do you already know?

 How do you know that?
 What are you trying to prove, disprove, demonstrated, critique, etc.?
 What are you overlooking?

Some of the most breathtaking solutions to problems are astounding not because
of their complexity, but because of their elegant simplicity. Seek the simple
solution first.

2. Question Basic Assumptions. Things can be a reality if you just question

your assumptions and critically evaluate your beliefs about what’s prudent,
appropriate, or possible.

3. Be Aware of Your Mental Processes. Human thought is amazing, but the

speed and automation with which it happens can be a disadvantage when we’re
trying to think critically. Our brains naturally use heuristics (mental shortcuts) to
explain what’s happening around us.

A critical thinker is aware of their cognitive biases and personal prejudices and
how they influence seemingly “objective” decisions and solutions. All of us have
biases in our thinking. Becoming aware of them is what makes critical thinking
possible.
4. Evaluate the Existing Evidence. When you’re trying to solve a problem, it’s
always helpful to look at other work that has been done in the same area. There’s
no reason to start solving a problem from scratch when someone has already laid
the groundwork.

It’s important, however, to evaluate this information critically, or else you can
easily reach the wrong conclusion. Ask the following questions of any evidence
you encounter:

 Who gathered this evidence?

 How did they gather it?
 Why?

Take, for example, a study showing the health benefits of a sugary cereal. On
paper, the study sounds pretty convincing. That is, until you learn that a sugary
cereal company funded it.

You can’t automatically assume that this invalidates the study’s results, but you
should certainly question them when a conflict of interests is so apparent.

5. Understand That No One Thinks Critically 100% of the Time. You can’t
think critically all the time, and that’s okay. Critical thinking is a tool that you
should deploy when you need to make important decisions or solve difficult
problems, but you don’t need to think critically about everything.

And even in important matters, you will experience lapses in your reasoning. What
matters is that you recognize these lapses and try to avoid them in the future.

Now that you have acquired various ways to improve your critical thinking skills,
composing a call to action or CTA in a persuasive speech will allow you to
promote an idea, cause, concept, or information towards a specific goal – and that
is going to move people to act.

What is call to action or CTA?

A well-constructed and delivered presentation changes minds and ignites action.

Yet, there’s a key part of a presentation that doesn’t get mentioned enough—the
call to action or CTA—and, a clear CTA creates a critical turning point in your
presentation (or any other form of persuasive communications too).
The call to action which comes right before the end of a persuasive speech is
where you clearly tell the audience a role they can play after they leave your talk.
The CTA gives audience members concrete tasks to tackle, and these tasks are
ones that must be completed in order to bring your ideas to fruition. And, it’s a key
part of what makes your speech persuasive.

An audience might be thoroughly gripped by your narrative and convinced to

believe what you do–but if they leave not knowing what they are supposed to do
with your ideas, your presentation will have been–essentially–fruitless.

Because CTAs are such an important part of a presentation, it’s essential to make
sure that the one you deliver lands with the people hearing it. The way to ensure
that you write a call to action that persuades is to keep in mind that one size does
NOT fit all—and you’ve got to tailor your CTAs.

People respond to different types of calls to action based on their temperaments,

daily activities, goals, and more. So, it’s important to get to know who is in your
audience before you decide how you’re going to deliver their post-talk “to-dos.”
Once you do, you can ensure your call actually gets a response.

Who’s in Your Audience, and What Makes them Tick?

There are four distinct skills your audience brings to help with your CTA:
Doers, Suppliers, Influencers, and Innovators. To get your audience to act, your
CTAs have to strike a chord and make sense with the skills they bring to the table.
Taking action will seem natural for them when they can respond with an action
that resonates with them. Audiences have a mix of all these skills, and you should
appeal to each of them in your presentations.

 Getting “Doers “to Do Something. Doers are the worker bees of an

organization. They are the ones that hear what needs to get done – and then do it.
Doers don’t shy away from physical tasks, and have the ability to round up the
troops to inspire action in others, as well. Doers make an organization run, day in
and day out.

If you’re speaking to doers, you’ll want to craft your CTA so that it includes action
words that clearly explain what the doers should do. You may want to ask them to
assemble, gather, attempt, or respond.
 Motivating Suppliers to Share. Suppliers are usually not as action-oriented
as doers. However, they have a lot of resources at their disposal – like money,
manpower, materials, etc. Because of the amount of resources they have,
suppliers have the means to help people move forward. They can get you what
you resource you don’t have yourself.

Suppliers in your audience may be execs who could give you staff–or, investors
who are trying to decide whether they want to put their money into a venture – or
not. To appeal to suppliers, you need to use different words than you did with the
doers, since they’re not the ones that are going to be hitting the ground running to
complete tasks. Instead, you’ll want to ask them to share their resources. You
may want to use words like acquire, fund, support, or provide. These can help to
appeal to the fact that they have something to give in order to make a change
happen.

 Influencing on Your Behalf. Influencers have the power to sway. They can
change the minds of individuals and groups – large or small. Influencers are the
people who mobilize others. They also evangelize ideas, and they know how to
get people to change their beliefs and behavior.

Many influencers are leaders and others look up to them and follow their advice.
Influencers can also be people in the spotlight, who people tend to be examples–
like celebrities or public figures. When you craft a call to action for an audience of
influencers, you want to appeal to their ability to appeal to other people. Great call
to action phrases for influencers includes empower, convert, or promote. Many
have social channels where they can share with others what you need for your
idea to become reality.

 Inviting others to Innovate. The last type of audience member is the

innovator. Innovators are people who can think outside of the box when they hear
an idea, then think of ways to modify that idea. Innovators have outstanding brains
in their heads. They can dream up strategies, clarify perspectives, and invent
products. These people can generate something new where nothing existed
before.

Anybody can be an innovator. But, often, innovators are founders of companies or

creators of new products. They can be engineers, artists, or entrepreneurs; they
handle fewer day-to-day tasks and more of the conceptual work.
To get support from an innovator, appeal to their ability to create things. The best
call to action phrases for innovators includes offers to invent, discover, pioneer, or
create. You want to spur an audience of innovators to leave ready to make
something new.
Appealing to what motivates various audience members is important to
inspire action. After you deliver your CTA, paint a picture of what is going to
happen for audience members once they complete the requested action.
Throwing out a CTA creates curiosity for listeners; they want that curiosity
satisfied by understanding what will happen after the action is over. This
satisfaction – and a picture of what the future could look like – will inspire people
to act.

Example:

 A bad (speaker-focused) call to action might be:

“We really need your help, or we may not be able to stop this project. Please help
us by calling your state representative and telling him or her that you oppose it.”

 A good (audience-focused) call to action might say:

“This new construction project will mean that our already crowded schools will get
even more crowded, that our already congested roads will get even more
congested, and that our already unreliable snow removal services will get even
more unreliable. I know that many of you oppose this project, but merely feeling
that way isn’t enough to change anything.

If you’ve ever been reluctant to get involved, this is the perfect moment to jump in.
When you get home, please email your state representative. And tomorrow
morning – before lunchtime – please call your representative to follow up. We
have a handout of the names and numbers of all of your local representatives in
the back of the room. You have the power to defeat this project – and I hope you
will do your part to stop it.”