Want to strengthen your critical thinking skills? Write!

My profession of qualitative research, like many others, demands critical thinking. The ability to internalize data and apply it to a client’s business objectives is a foundational skill for qualitative researchers.

Is there a more fundamental skill than critical thinking? I can’t think of one. It’s tops on my list of three essential cognitive skills:

• Critical thinking

• Decision making

• Problem solving

These skills are key building blocks of success, and I plan to write more about them in upcoming posts.

If we’re going to talk about critical thinking, it’s worthwhile to define the term. I see critical thinking as encompassing three sub-skills:

Data gathering – pulling together and summarizing everything you know about a specific situation or topic.

Data assessment – evaluating information quality. This is the point at which critical thinking often breaks down. I do a lot of research in health and nutrition. Much of the data supporting nutrition claims is of dismal quality. That it’s the basis for recommendations about what we should eat may be why we are in the midst of an epidemic of chronic disease. The ability to vet information is crucial to forming valid conclusions.

Inference – understanding the potential implications of the data. What does it mean, and what, therefore, might you do?

Unless your name is Albert Einstein, you’re probably not as good at critical thinking as you could be. So, how do you get better at this crucial skill?

Write! Writing isn’t easy, which is why many of us avoid it. As historian David McCullough used to say, “Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.” So, when you write something out, you’re giving yourself no option but to think it through.

Writing offers some irreplaceable benefits:

It compels disciplined thinking. When you put something on paper and then read it back, if your thinking isn’t clear and logical, that will be immediately apparent.

It helps you break your analysis into manageable parts. Because we write in sentences and paragraphs, writing naturally leads you to organize your thinking.

It requires you to assess your evidence. When you match each claim you make with the data that supports it, you can see if your premise is adequately supported.

It leads you to think about implications. When you get to that concluding sentence or paragraph, it’s natural to summarize what it all means and maybe even come up with solutions and recommendations.

So, to strengthen your critical thinking, write! Write something every day. If you’re thinking about current events – or a decision you have to make – that’s the time to pick up your pen. It will help you think things through and come to better decisions.

After all, that’s one reason I write this monthly newsletter. It helps me hone my own thinking about topics that are important to me.