Critical Thinking: Discussion Question

How does critical thinking affect you as a reader and writer? How can thinking critically improve your writing?

I think critical thinking can affect an individual both as a reader and a writer. As a reader, thinking critically can allow you to get more information from what you read. Instead of just reading what is actually put in front of you and “in one ear and out the other”, using critical thinking while you read can allow you to appreciate the reading on different levels. Utilizing critical thinking, you can now digest what the purpose the author had to write that specific selection: was their purpose to persuade you or to inform you and why do they want to do that? You can also analyze the message: was the author using a lot of emotion to stir up feelings inside of me or do they not seem so enthused and there are required to write this for work?

Critical thinking can also benefit you as the writer and not the reader. Knowing that you utilize critical thinking when you read about something, you should plan that other people that read what you have written will use critical thinking. The readers will be analyzing what you wrote and why you wrote what you did. Knowing this, you can plan ahead to make your writing as effective as possible.