A Checklist for Reasoning/Thinking
Critically
1) All reasoning has a PURPOSE.
• State your purpose
clearly.
• Distinguish your
purpose from related purposes.
• Check periodically
to be sure you are still on target.
• Choose significant
and realistic purposes.
2) All reasoning is an attempt to FIGURE something out, to
settle some QUESTION, solve some PROBLEM.
• State the question
at issue clearly and precisely.
• Express the question
in several ways to clarify its meaning and scope.
• Break the question
into sub-questions.
• Distinguish
questions that have definitive answers from those that are a matter of opinion
and from those that require consideration of multiple viewpoints.
3) All reasoning is based on ASSUMPTIONS.
•
Clearly identify your assumptions and determine whether they are justifiable.
•
Consider how your assumptions are shaping your point of view.
4) All reasoning is done from some POINT OF VIEW.
•
Identify your point of view.
•
Seek other points of view and identify their strengths as well as weaknesses.
• Strive to be fair-minded in evaluating
all points of view.
5) All reasoning is based on DATA, INFORMATION and EVIDENCE.
•
Restrict your claims to those supported by the data you have.
•
Search for information that opposes your position as well as information that
supports it.
•
Make sure that all information used is clear, accurate, and relevant to the
question at issue.
•
Make sure you have gathered sufficient information.
6) All reasoning is expressed through, and shaped by, CONCEPTS
and IDEAS.
•
Identify key concepts and explain them clearly.
•
Consider alternative concepts or alternative definitions of concepts.
•
Make sure you are using concepts with care and precision.
7) All reasoning contains INFERENCES or INTERPRETATIONS by
which we draw CONCLUSIONS and give meaning to data.
•
Infer only what the evidence implies.
•
Check inferences for their consistency with each other.
•
Identify assumptions that lead to inferences.
8) All reasoning leads somewhere or has IMPLICATIONS and
CONSEQUENCES.
•
Trace the implications and consequences that follow from your reasoning.
•
Search for negative as well as positive implications.
• Consider all possible consequences.