A Method for Reading, Writing, and Thinking Critically

Page 21.  The general argument made by Kathleen McCormick in her work A Method for Reading, Writing, and Thinking Critically is that connections can be found very easily when using critical thinking skills.  More specifically, McCormick suggests that critical skills are not always about a definite right side or a definite wrong side, but rather there are more than two sides to every idea.  She writes, “the image of ‘two sides’ debilitates our thinking, not because it makes us look tolerant but because it so oversimplifies” (p. 22).  In this passage, McCormick is suggesting that we might find far more than just two different points-of-view when looking at a specific subject if we use our critical skills.  In conclusion, it is McCormick’s belief that if you continually work on your critical skills daily, they will become easier to use in your everyday life.

            In my view, McCormick is right because the more you use something, the easier it becomes to access it and use it successfully.  For example, learning how to write when you were little was quite hard, but the more you used that skill and became used to that task, it gradually became easier and easier.  Although McCormick might object that you have to think about your critical skills before actually using them, I maintain that everyone using their critical skills everyday whether it be in reading, writing, or just thinking without even knowing or realizing it at the time.  Therefore, I conclude that everyone can become a master at using their own critical skills in different ways by exercising them daily and focusing on specific aspects of them.