Critical Thinking in Writing

Writing is as much of a science as it is an art. The task of writing a coherent and comprehensible piece of work involves taking into account a lot of intricacies that go unnoticed by the reader's eyes. That does not, however, undermine their importance.

A very important aspect in writing is critical thinking. Unless one is able to critically look at every aspect of what he intends to write about, there are minimal chances of him being successful in coming up with something that makes sense. Let us see some pointers on how to apply critical thinking to make the final product understandable and impressive.

Before getting into how critical thinking can be applied in writing, a brief understanding of what it actually is should be known. Put in layman's terms, critical thinking can be said to be the practice of examining every aspect of every topic carefully, analyzing it logically, weighing its pros and cons, and then forming an inference about it.

These steps become very important, especially when you are given the responsibility of coming up with a written piece about a particular topic. There's no way you can present a report, paper, research, or any other form of written document if you haven't completed the sequential steps.

Your piece then becomes vulnerable to being examined by people who have, in fact, critically examined every aspect and can tear through your work with little effort.

There's nothing more unfortunate than someone who has no idea of the purpose of what he is writing. What are you writing about? What is the reason that you are writing about that particular topic? Now that you have chosen the topic, what aspect are you going to focus on within the topic?

And within the aspect that you're focusing on, what stand are you taking on what issue? Or what issue are you going to study and analyze and reach a conclusion about? Once you answer all these questions, you know exactly what you're doing. So, the first step of being clear in your head and organizing your thoughts is underway.

Writing can sometimes become quite a dangerous tool. This is because through our writing, we are giving people an insight into what our thoughts and perceptions about certain issues are. These perceptions are going to remain with them for a long time.

There are chances of colored judgments getting in the way of our logical thinking and reasoning abilities. This could lead to the point of writing the piece being totally lost. Hence, it becomes important to have proper control over what we write about what.

Once our thoughts are organized and given their own separate compartments, there's little room for overlapping of thoughts, and confusion. This is a very important step because an unorganized mind becomes very evident in someone's writing. This could not only mar the impression that the reader has about the writer, but could also lead to him being confused.

One other important step that you must not ignore is being logical. You need to develop your critical thinking skills by enforcing a strict sense of logic to everything that you study.

Being logical helps you to not only critically analyze a particular subject in detail, also to have an open mind which will prevent you from coming to conclusions before you have examined every aspect thoroughly. Plus, it also leaves little room for doubt and clouded judgments.

The last, but certainly not the least important step of all is to give your piece of writing a solid and dependable base. By using references and citations in your work you give it more credibility, which is what you want for it.

It also reinforces that you are a learner who has taken assistance from other learners and experts and formed a structured and detailed study of a particular topic. This gives it an added and much-needed advantage.

All it takes to incorporate critical thinking in writing is a sense of knowing what needs to be done, applying basic logic, and coming up with a piece of writing that is ready to undergo scrutiny. It is only when a person has truly analyzed and written that he will have the utmost confidence in his work and be willing to undergo any kind of examination.