This entry introduces the most basic training for critical thinking.
Note that this entry doesn’t explain critical thinking itself. If you get lost along the way, see the link below.
Let’s begin.
toc
- What the Training Involves
- Key Points of the Training
- Examples and Sample Answers
- If You Want to Keep Learning
What the Training Involves
In this training, you read a debate topic or essay prompt and write out “the question” and “the form of the claim.”
Let’s look at an example.
Read Smartphone Junkies, which discusses the harmful effects of smartphones on people’s thinking and health. Give concrete examples of the harm smartphones actually do to people’s lives, and then, drawing on the author’s views, describe your own thoughts on how we can enjoy the convenience of smartphones without suffering their harmful effects.
You don’t need to answer this prompt, that is, give your own thoughts. Write out the question (the interrogative sentence being asked) and the form of the claim (the form a statement must take to answer the question) for this essay prompt. In other words, fill in the table below.
| Question | Form of the claim |
|---|---|
| XXX | XXX |
All you need is the prompt itself. No other information is required. In the example above, you don’t need to read Smartphone Junkies. It’s a made-up book anyway.
As a hint, here’s a table showing how questions correspond to forms of claims.
Try writing your answer in the box below.
| Question | Form of the claim |
|---|---|
| How can we enjoy the convenience of smartphones without suffering their harmful effects? | We can do so by doing X. |
Since the question asks “how,” only a statement meaning “do it this way” can be a claim.
In other words, an essay on this prompt automatically gets zero points unless it includes a statement like “By doing such and such, we can enjoy the convenience of smartphones without suffering their harmful effects (I believe).” Writing without a proper claim on the question can no longer be called an essay. If you plan to write essays or papers, keep this in mind.
What This Training Develops
This training develops the following two abilities:
- Expressing the question simply and clearly
- Making the claim clear right away
In the end, critical thinking is about answering questions. So this training, which clarifies how questions and answers relate, builds the core abilities of critical thinking.
Key Points of the Training
Next, let me explain the key points of the training.
The only thing to pay attention to in this training is how you write the question. As long as you write the question well, the form of the claim is determined automatically. There’s nothing in particular to do there.
There are three key points for writing the question:
- Write it as a single interrogative sentence
- End it with a question mark (?)
- If possible, put the question word (what, who, when, etc.) first
Let me explain each in turn.
Writing the Question 1: Write It as a Single Interrogative Sentence
First, write the question as a single interrogative sentence. This makes it clear what, in the end, you need to answer.
Debate topics and essay prompts are almost never written as a straightforward question. As in the example above, they’re usually phrased in a slightly hard-to-follow way.
Real situations where you use critical thinking are just like this. The question gets buried among various background explanations and assumptions. That’s exactly why questions become vague or drift.
So dig out the question. Strip away the unnecessary assumptions and write the question crisply in one sentence.
When you do, make it as short as possible. That builds your ability to express the question simply.
As a rule of thumb, if the question you wrote runs past about 20 words, suspect that it contains noise. Even a complex question rarely needs more than that.
Trying to make the meaning of every word precise tends to make the question long. In that case, one option is to add clarifications afterward with a note or asterisk. Long sentences are hard to follow in themselves, so the shorter the question, the better.
Writing the Question 2: Use a Question Mark (?)
Next, end the interrogative sentence with a question mark (?). This makes it clear that it’s the question.
In English, this probably goes without saying. Still, when you pull a question out of a prompt like “describe your thoughts on how…,” it’s easy to leave it as a phrase or a statement. Always rewrite it as a sentence ending in ”?”. The question mark is the most direct way to express what you want to think about.
Use a question mark to make what you want to think about clear
Writing the Question 3: If Possible, Put the Question Word First
Finally, wherever possible, put the question word first. This also helps make the question clear.
Let me explain with the earlier example.
Read Smartphone Junkies, which discusses the harmful effects of smartphones on people’s thinking and health. Give concrete examples of the harm smartphones actually do to people’s lives, and then, drawing on the author’s views, describe your own thoughts on how we can enjoy the convenience of smartphones without suffering their harmful effects.
If you simply lift the question from this prompt, you might write “In order for us to enjoy the convenience of smartphones without suffering their harmful effects, what should we do?” That works as the question, but the sample answer reads “How can we enjoy the convenience of smartphones without suffering their harmful effects?” The question word is simplified and placed first.
Although this isn’t possible in every case, put the question word first as much as you can. The question word determines the form of the claim. The sooner the question word is clear, the clearer the form of the claim becomes.
In English, you can tell the form of the claim just by looking at the first word of the sentence. That alone tells you right away whether it’s an open or closed question and what form the claim should take. Make the most of this by keeping the question word at the front.
Examples and Sample Answers
From here on, it’s all examples and sample answers. Write out “the question” and “the form of the claim” for each of the following essay prompts.
Read Evolution Is Universal, which discusses the evolution of language, morality, the economy, and more, and describe your thoughts on whether it’s legitimate for the government to prescribe the correct usage of the official language.
| Question | Form of the claim |
|---|---|
| Is it legitimate for the government to prescribe the correct usage of the official language? | It is / isn’t legitimate. |
As the harm caused by medical misinformation has grown serious in recent years, some argue that the government should restrict freedom of speech when it comes to medicine. Taking into account the background and significance of freedom of speech, describe your thoughts.
| Question | Form of the claim |
|---|---|
| Should the government restrict freedom of speech when it comes to medicine? | It should / shouldn’t restrict it. |
With the rapid development of communication technologies such as internet phone calls and video conferencing, it has become possible in some occupations to work without being physically close to one another. In light of this, how do you think the relationship between individuals and companies will change? Describe your thoughts.
| Question | Form of the claim |
|---|---|
| How will the relationship between individuals and companies change as communication technology develops? | The relationship between individuals and companies, which has been X, will become Y. |
Read The Age of Great Inequality, which discusses the widening and entrenchment of inequality, and explain the “reproduction of inequality” described in the text and the author’s views on it.
This one is harder than the previous ones (= the prompt is badly written). Think carefully before checking the answer.
| Question | Form of the claim |
|---|---|
| What kind of phenomenon is the “reproduction of inequality”? | The “reproduction of inequality” is a phenomenon in which XX. |
| What does the author think about the “reproduction of inequality”? | The author thinks XX about the “reproduction of inequality.” |
So that short prompt contains two questions.
From a Civil Service Exam
Next, let’s use a real civil service exam. The following are past essay prompts for Hokkaido Prefecture’s civil service exam in Japan (source: Hokkaido Personnel Commission, “Sample Questions (Category A)”; translated from the Japanese).
Japan’s population has entered a phase of decline, and Hokkaido, too, continues to see a rapid decrease. List the factors you think are behind this.
Also, describe the measures you think are necessary to address this population decline.
| Question | Form of the claim |
|---|---|
| What factors are behind Hokkaido’s rapid population decline? | The factors behind Hokkaido’s rapid population decline are XX. |
| What measures should be taken against Hokkaido’s population decline? | To stop Hokkaido’s population decline, XX should be done. |
Read straightforwardly, these two should be fine. A more mischievous reading, however, might yield these two as well:
| Question | Form of the claim |
|---|---|
| What factors are behind Japan’s rapid population decline? | The factors behind Japan’s rapid population decline are XX. |
| In light of its population decline, what should the Hokkaido government do? (accepting the decline itself) | In light of its population decline, the Hokkaido government should do XX. |
The interpretation of “measures” in the second part, in particular, seems open to debate.
Hokkaido aims to build a society that recognizes diversity and in which people support one another. To this end, it is working on promoting human rights awareness, raising awareness for multicultural coexistence, supporting the independence of people with disabilities, and creating communities where foreign residents can live comfortably.
Describe (1) the specific initiatives needed to build such a society and (2) the reasons for them.
| Question | Form of the claim |
|---|---|
| What initiatives are needed to build a society that recognizes diversity and in which people support one another? | To build a society that recognizes diversity and in which people support one another, XX (specific initiatives) should be undertaken. |
| Why is (the initiative from the previous answer) needed? | The reason (the initiative from the previous answer) is needed to build a society that recognizes diversity and in which people support one another is XX. |
The prompt itself seems to give away possible answers to the first question (promoting human rights awareness, etc.). Is it okay to write the same things? That’s a tricky one.
That’s all for the exercises.
The ability this training builds is the most important one for practicing critical thinking. Repeat this training until you can see the answer to any prompt right away. Search for “debate topics” or “essay prompts” and you’ll find any number of them. If you’re unsure whether your answers are right, check them with friends or colleagues.
That covers the critical thinking training.
If You Want to Keep Learning
Thank you very much for reading this far. If you’d like to keep learning critical thinking, continue to the entry below. It introduces another training.
Entries related to critical thinking are collected on the page below. Feel free to use them as a reference.