According to Bassham et al. (1), critical thinking involves a list of cognitive skills and intelligence to enable a person do analysis and evaluation of arguments and truth claims to come up with valid reasons about things to believe. Standards enhance critical thinking of an individual. Saying things clearly will help build an argument. Similarly, is being precise that is the accuracy of exactly what is said. Another way to improve critical thinking is having consistency. A person tends to have a similar pattern in doing things and making choices or decisions. For example, seeking relevance through arguments constitutes thinking that is free of bias. There are benefits attributed to knowledgeable and smart thinking. Some of them include, the ability to analyze and respect arguments of others, also intelligently proofing the arguments using evidence (Bassham et al 7). However, a hindrance makes critical thinking difficult as Bassham et al (10) asserts. For instance, having a false misconception about certain beliefs, having generalized ideas about certain people and ideas, being in denial, and not thinking ahead. All these will affect critical thinking because they alter thinking thus affecting the outcome.
Bassham et al (29) define arguments as claims backed with evidence with the aim of assisting another declaration. Arguments contain certain statements that support each other are known as the premises. They also include a conclusion. In another words, the statement proves. Hints help in identifying the premises, which include, because, given that, since, and for. Conclusions have clues like, judging from, and as shown by. Looking for premises and conclusions is a way to know if statements are arguments or not. Reports are mistaken to be arguments, but they are not. This is because they inform about events and are not answerable as to why they happen. Unsupported statements are beliefs of a speaker without supporting reasons. Therefore, they are not arguments. The conditional statement should differ from arguments. They give a condition of what happens in case the outcome is true, but do not give reasons why. Lastly, illustrations just give examples of a statement. They do not support a statement hence they are not arguments. In conclusion, only statements that have evidence to support others are considered arguments.
Work Cited
Gregory Bassham, et al. Critical Thinking: A Student's Introduction. McGraw-Hill, 2011.
