First off I like to say greetings and salutations to all those that read this blog, even though I am not expecting many to read it. My first blog entry I like to take the time and explain to you all what critical thinking means to me. In general I define critical thinking as actually taking and dividing a problem or situation apart to figure out the finer details to come up with a more thoughtful solution.
Now when I am reading my way of thinking critically is changed slightly depending on the situation, those situations being if I am being forced to read for an assignment or if I am reading for my own leisure. When I am assigned reading I normally ask the questions that are asked of me over and over again in my head while reading the assigned chapter or book. When I am reading on my own leisure I tend to question or think about what is going on in the story after I read the entire chapter or book, in other words I don’t question anything until I am done reading for the moment.
I suppose you can say that I don’t apply the way I think critically when I am assigned reading to events that happen in my life. I normally end up thinking critically in the way that I do when I am reading things on my own leisure, listen first and then ask questions later. I figure it is best to have the whole situation explained in all of its entirety rather than having to interrupt the explanation only to make a fool of one’s self with a question that would have been answered later all because you didn’t let the explanation finish.
I can honestly say that I don’t really care for politics unless I am involved or my rights are involved in which case I would just look for and listen to all the possible situations before I would come up with a solution that may benefit me in the process. I understand the whole, “your vote matters”, but, when you are in a situation where you have people who have lived several times over your own lifespan making the final decision you tend to look towards the people who have this much more experience to make the big choice. I understand that not everyone who has the power or has been voted in always makes the right choice but, then again they wouldn’t be where they are if the majority of the people didn’t support and agree with their choices or opinions.
When looking at looking at media as in entertainment I tend to dive deeply into discussions of things that I like so, I imagine that I would apply the way I think critically when I read for fun to the forms of media that I enjoy. I would think of media like a commentary, the work has been done and now you are just criticizing, complementing, and or just making fun of yourself on the faults that occurred during the entire process.
My academic work I would treat the same as my professional endeavors since they both share some of the same effects on the other, meaning if I do crummy in one it will probably have me being crummy in the other as well. If I don’t do well academically how would I expect to do any better in my professional endeavors? I suppose the effects of how one does academically compared to how well they are doing in their professional endeavors varies depending on what they are aiming for in final outcome in their life. In the long run I would treat my academic and professional endeavors as an assignment that I must pass so, I would be constantly asking myself questions on every turn I make.
I would hope that this Online English Course that I am currently taking would help me improve upon my analysis skills. I imagine that the course would help me become more aware and awake for the simple fact that it would help me to improve upon my responses for my opinions and arguments that I may have in the future. I don’t imagine that this class would really affect how I would view the world as a whole since this is an English class not philosophy or sociology course. I would think that the class would help me express my opinions and arguments in a more sensible correct way in the end.
