b"Chapter 4 Once you've done that, you can then venture on to the all-important question: how can I improve?I will point out to you that this is not an easy task. So below you can break down the basics of critical thinking, to hone your skills and become a better critical thinker.What is critical thinking?Even if you want to be a better critical thinker, it's hard to improve what you can'tdefine.Criticalthinkingistheanalysisofaproblemorsituationand related facts, data, or evidence. Ideally, critical thinking should be conducted objectively, that is, without being influenced by feelings, opinions, or biases. It focuses only on factual information.Critical thinking is a skill that allows you to make logical, informed decisions as well as you can. For example, a child who has not yet developed such skills may believe that the tooth fairy left money under his pillow based on stories, his parentstoldhim.Acriticalmind,however,canquicklyconcludethatthe existence of such a thing is unlikely, even if there are a few dollars under their pillow.Although there is no universal standard for the skills included in the critical thinking process, below you will find a basic critical thinking process.1.Identification: the first step in the critical thinking process is to identify the situation or problem and the factors that may influence it. Once you have a clear picture of the situation and the people, groups, or factors that can be influenced, you can then begin to dig deeper into a problem and its potential solutions.Forexample,anewsituation,question,orscenario,pausetotakea mental inventory of the state of affairs by asking yourself the following questions:Who does what ? What seems to be the reason for this? What are the end results and how might they change?2.Conduct research: when comparing arguments on an issue, independent research ability is essential. The arguments are persuasive. This means that the facts and figures presented in their favor could lack context or come from dubious sources.130Germain Decelles"