Question

Option #1: Critical Analysis Essay

Directions:
Using the concepts learned through the readings and lecture pages, write a critical analysis essay that answers at least three of the following prompts or questions:

How might you employ critical thinking as a tool to further your career aspirations?

Describe the differences between inert information, assumptions, and inferences. Describe an assumption that you have made in the past that had important consequence.

Where do you see yourself using activated ignorance to think about issues? What steps could you take to move towards activated knowledge on this issue?

What is the difference between activated ignorance and activated knowledge? Where do you have difficulties “thinking for yourself”? Why does critical thinking demand high levels of intellectual autonomy?

Why are concepts, theories, and ideas central to good critical reasoning?

Requirements:

Cite all claims and ideas using scholarly sources. While it is acceptable to write in the first person, be sure to cite your sources to support your inferences. To understand how to construct your thoughts you can view these short clips on informal and formal writing.

Peter Elbow: On Writing

Writing for Life: Start 39:58 end 41:30

Writing Across the Curriculum: Forgetting formality:    Start 29:05 end 32:52

Writing Across the Curriculum Revising for Formality: Start 32:53 end 34:48

Include at least one or two scholarly sources that are not part of the required or recommended reading for this course. The CSU-Global Library is a good place to find these sources.

Your paper should be four to five pages in length and formatted according to the CSU-Global Guide to Writing & APA.

Papers should be double-spaced, 12-point font Times New Roman.

Include the following in your essay: a brief introduction, a conclusion, and a reference page formatted according to CSU-Global APA requirements.

You may wish to review the Template Paper for help formatting your essay according to the requirements

Answer 1

Critical thinking can be employed as a critical thinking tool for one’s career aspirations in many ways. Critical thinking is a soft skill that goes much beyond the ability to acquire and retain information. It tends to seek information in a more refined, focused and ambitious manner. It is the ability to look beyond what is provided on the surface through critical analysis, focus and logical reasoning. It tends to focus on the evidences rather than on emotions or sentiments. Critical thinking tends to help individuals evolve and thereby enhance their problem solving skills, making them a better cognitive thinker. This enables people to reach better academic achievement heights and helps them meet their various career goals. The better ability to reason helps a person engage better in imaginative thinking and improved decision making as well as enhanced performance on everyday tasks. Working on the critical thinking skills can therefore prove to be highly beneficial for a person who wants to aim at better career endeavours.

When it comes to distinguishing between inferences and assumptions, both need to be understood in depth. Inferences are drawn as conclusions upon visiting certain truths together. It is an intellectual act which can be accurate or inaccurate, logical or illogical, justified or unjustified. On the other hand, an assumption is something we take for granted or presuppose without any actual experience per se. Usually it is something we previously learned and do not question. It is part of our system of beliefs. We assume our beliefs to be true and use them to interpret the world about us.

Inert information is in fact information that is learned by people in bits and pieces that is retained through memorization. For instance, as children we were taught a catchy phrase that democracy is of the people, by the people and for the people. This is a phrase which when directly applied, makes us believe that we understand the concept in elaborate detail whereas it is not the truth. It may have various other facts which need to be understood in comprehensive detail before they are deeply embedded in our cognitive system. By activated ignorance, we mean taking into the mind, and actively using, information that is false, though we mistakenly think it to be true. The philosopher Rene Descartes came to confidently believe that animals have no actual feelings but are simply robotic machines. Based on this activated ignorance, he performed painful experiments on animals and interpreted their cries of pain as mere noises.