Critical thinking and the communication piece

Now that you have identified a good demonstration of your communication skills, we are going to take a look at the elements of critical thinking in it. Specifically, we’re looking at the ways in which critical thinking skills are connected to communication skills.

Let’s start by taking a close look at critical thinking. What IS critical thinking? It’s a term used frequently in classrooms and assignments, but you may not be very clear on what makes for an effective demonstration of critical thinking.

In searching for elements of critical thinking in your communication piece, consider the following:

• How do you use data in your piece? Effective critical thinking means…
• Identifying and applying useful data and information
• Demonstrate logic to interpret data
• Define and explain important terms and complicated concepts (this might be related to the data or sources you use)
• Adapting knowledge (or data) to specific scenarios and issues

• How else do you support your thesis? Effective critical thinking means…
• Describing experiences and opinions
• Developing examples to support thesis and claims
• Articulating relationships

• How do you deal with opposing points of view? Effective critical thinking means…
• Recognizing and discuss inferences and faulty logic
• Developing a plan to generate and construct a solution to a problem
• Combining multiple viewpoints and strategies in problem solving
• Identify and address opposing points of view