Guide to Critical Thinking

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Summary and Resources
• Surround yourself with people who will push you to higher levels of thinking and social 
action.
• Read slowly and repeatedly. Having to read a text more than once does not mean you are 
a poor reader. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said that to read well, a human must 
become a cow. What does that mean? It means we need to ruminate, to chew and chew 
until we can swallow the meal. The process continues until we swallow and the food 
stays down, becoming nourishment to our minds.
• Take notes and practice writing skills when you get some free time. Try to learn a new 
grammar or usage rule every week. For example, do you know exactly when you should 
use a semicolon? If not, look it up right now. It is a really simple rule.
• Teach what you are learning to others. One of the best ways to determine if you have 
knowledge of something is if you can explain it and teach it to someone else.
• Recognize that this will take years of practice and will probably be slow going at first. 
Remember that small positive changes will add up to a whole new way of thinking and 
approaching life over time.
Finally, always remember that we are privileged to have the opportunity to pursue education. 
There are billions of people that will never have the opportunity to go to school or to provide 
that opportunity to their loved ones. Reformatting our perspective from one of frustration 
to one of gratitude can do a lot to change the way we approach education and learning. As 
you move forward this week, think about the following questions and how you might make 
changes in your own life that will lead to positive intellectual change.
• What is my view of education, and what experiences led me to that view?
• What are my greatest strengths as a student?
• What are my greatest weaknesses as a student?
• How do I waste my time, and what might I do to utilize that time more effectively?
• What is something I can do today that will help me become a better student and thinker?
• What am I learning, and how has what I have learned changed who I am?