A METHOD FOR READING, WRITING, AND THINKING CRITICALLY

The general point made by Kathleen McCormick in her work A Method For Reading, Writing, And Thinking Critically is that there are two parts to read, write, and think more critically: historical analysis and cultural analysis. More specifically, McCormick argues that to see more than two sides of the story you have to use historical and cultural analysis. She/he writes; “Historical and cultural analysis enables us to replace the image of conflict as a two-sided tug of war with an image of a prism with many facets that are at once interconnected and distinct and that also change with the angle of the light and the angle of the viewer.”(pg 22) in this passage, McCormick is suggesting that to see more than two sides of the conflict we should see the complexity of the issue and not simplify it into black and white. In conclusion, it is McCormick’s belief that in conflicts we should use historical and cultural analysis to view where the origins of the conflict came from and to avoid simplistic right/wrong arguments.

In my view, McCormick is right because we can be really good critical thinkers if we use cultural and historical analysis because the conflict will be more clear. For example, we need to critically think about why dress was so different for women 100 years ago. Through historical analysis we recognize specific ways in which the past was different from the present. Although McCormick might object critical thinking is the capacity to explore the relationship of one perspective to other perspectives and to connect them, I maintain that to critically think we need to use critical and historical analysis to look at it from different points of view. Therefore, I conclude that by discovering differences and connections across time(historical analysis) and recognizing conflicts and continuities within the same time period(cultural analysis), I will be a better critical thinker.