In a reflective and analytical essay, establish your own definition of critical thinking in order to then identify, explain, and evaluate examples of critical thinking in the writing of an author you choose AND in one or more samples of your own writing. Correlate these examples of critical thinking with your personal processes of reading, writing, and learning—all as they relate back to your original definition of critical thinking.
The author’s work you discuss needs to be from a written text (e.g., an article, essay, book chapter, blog, etc.), and it can't be something from our required course readings which include Helen Sword, “Voice and Echo”, Helen Sword “Smart Sentencing” and Lawrence Weinstein “Grammar for a Full Life”. You may choose any genre of writing, and virtually any source, so long as it involves written language that demonstrates critical thinking. For samples of your own writing, you can choose anything from previous courses or other examples of your writing (personal essays, blogs, journals, etc.).
Writing Guide
• Begin by considering some of the prominent definitions of critical thinking. After recognizing any important differences or discrepancies in those definitions, offer a working definition of critical thinking as you think it should be defined.
• Continue in the body paragraphs of your paper by identifying written examples of critical thinking. These examples should be drawn from the work of another and from your own writing. One way to structure these body paragraphs is to compare and contrast examples of critical thinking in your own writing with examples from your selected author.
• Conclude by considering any or all of the following questions: What do students stand to gain from actively practicing critical thinking in their lives? What prevents critical thinking from taking place? What can be done to facilitate it? On the flip side, are there limits to critical thinking as others have defined it? Are there potential downsides to the promotion of critical thinking in schools? In other words, are there valid arguments against critical thinking?
Sample Solution