Critical Thinking

In school, they would say that critical thinking is asking questions. Questioning why, how, or what is, rather than simply accepting any suggested idea. I hold that thought and I wonder if that's all it is. For me, critical thinking is more than asking questions but it is also making sense of things. Generally, I think its sole purpose is to broaden our understanding and push our minds to its ultimate limit. Exercising our brain and creating our own philosophies in life is what separate us from other animals. As oxygen help with our body's blood flow, challenging our minds fuel our train of thought. That is what critical thinking does for us.
As for personal habits in regards to reading and thinking critically, I try to challenge myself by closing the book and interpreting what happened in my own words. Because I do dream a lot, I also have the tendency of rethinking what I read over and over again until I have a clear statement. Sometimes I do fail to interpret my readings in the writers' intentions but I'm glad enough to be able to have a say. Another area where I try to practice or challenge myself is in grammar and vocabulary. If there is a word that seems familiar and or entirely new, I try to use it in other sentences to make more sense of it.

I do actively read on my own but sometimes I still doubt myself and so I go online and research more of my readings' background or what others may say about it. Frankly, if it becomes too complicated, I go on sparknotes because it is the only trusted site I know. The second tool I use is the school's ebscohost, but that's when I definitely have no choice. I don't really read political journals or pay much attention to the media as I know I should be. It's embarrassing to admit but I'm not as productive in learning and involved in global or even local affairs. Sometimes I wonder why, but I did used to be more curious about the world or politics when I was too young to do anything. Now, I'm just tired of the political talk and just always surprised about global news. I mean the issues haven't changed but the people are the same as well. It's just the age that's changing. My views may be appalling or disappointing to read but I'm just trying to be honest. Of course, aside to my direct comments, I do hope to change my views of things. I want to get back into that more educated, curious side of me. Maybe I just became too tired because of personal problems too.

Academically, in taking this class I hope to learn how to write my papers in less time and give my them more appeal. I want to learn to analyze by knowing what questions to ask. I know it seems very immature but I believe starting from the beginning is key. I will do whatever it takes to get to that point. If writing these journals is part of the practice then I will do it. I want to be able to write the best paper without any grammatical error. Let's do this!