Page 162 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

Summary

This book has concentrated on the analytical structure format, primarily as a way
of learning about reasoning, but also with an eye to its practical application as a tool
for helping you plan the creation and presentation of arguments and explanations.
Yet it would be wrong to think that the format is, of itself, something essential to
reasoning. It is not. This format—along with the idea of analytical questions—is
one way of representing the thought processes that we must go through to be smart
thinkers. It enables us to see that the key elements of smart thinking are:
• being thoughtful in considering issues in depth and with breadth, and without
'missing' any element of reasoning
• being critical in the way we assess information, not taking things for granted
or making easy assumptions, either about the truth of claims or their inter-
relationships with other claims
• being smart in the way we relate the texts of reasoning to the contexts in
which they are produced, presented, and then used
• being aware that 'knowledge' and 'reasoning' represent two perspectives on
the same fundamental concept: that we explain and argue about the world in
terms of the links between objects and ideas. No one idea or object can be
understood except in relation to others.
Smart thinking is not just a method or skill. It is also an attitude. Practising and
using the skills, with a clear awareness of what you are doing and a willingness to
reflect on and learn about the process of reasoning, will give you the right approach
to being a smart thinker, effective in your reasoning and able to achieve your goals
through arguments and explanations. Good luck!

149