Things I learnt from Critical Reading and Thinking Class

Identify a minimum of 2 things you learnt from our class this semester that you can apply in your daily life. Explain and/or describe what these 2 things are and why they are important to you. (You can write about more than 2 things if you wish).

 Through this Critical Reading and Thinking class, I learnt the way to decide whether information that received can be accept or believe or not.

First of all, if we received information from reading material, we should always check the source of the data to determine if the information is reliable or not. For example, we can check the author of the article or check the credibility of the website to determine if the article is reliable or not. Secondly, we should carefully read the material and determine if the article is trying to persuade the reader in some direction or not. If the article is not neutral, think about what is the motive of the article. Always ask our self, will the author get benefit if the reader follow the direction of the article? Or if the author just want to tell us what he or she experience? Thirdly, article that is bias might accidentally make fallacy. Try to identify the fallacy will help us to evaluate the credibility of the message the author trying to tell us.

Also, through out the class, I learnt how to apply active listening, how to think carefully and evaluate the message told by the speaker.

When listen to a speaker, I learnt to identify the main argument being presented by presenter. When the presenter is speaking, I will form a mind-map in my head, interpret what the presenter trying to say and analyze what is appropriate and what is contradict in their argument. I also learnt how to deliver the message to audience efficiently. We as a presenter should structure and arrange our point before deliver the message, this can help the audience understand the main idea of presenter easily. The way we present our idea is also critical for audience to receive our idea. Presenter should speak with emotion and suitable loudness so that audience can listen to the presenter clearly. Visual aids play a main role in the presentation too. Visual aids helps the presenter to highlight the points of their speech, the audience will receive the information more efficiently with the help of visual aids. However, slideshows that full of text will make the audience feel tired when they read the slides, on the other hand, slideshows that lack of information will make the audience feel lost when listen to the presenter because they have no visual support to help them understand and identify the idea deliver by presenter.

Furthermore, this class help me to train my judgement about the information that I receive from reading material or presenter. It is not right to 100% accept the information we received, we should interpret the information and think carefully if the information is true or not. Whenever an argument is delivered, there must be a reason behind that argument. We should try to think how and why this argument was made, from what situation or source of information made the speaker to come out with the argument or statement. This not only help us to identify the credibility of the speaker, but also help us to understand the thought of the author or speaker. This class also remind me to always being open-minded, try not to let my judgement or statement affect by my personal emotion or bias. After this class, I will remind myself to be rational before come out with a statement or argument.