Prejudicial language uses words that favor a specific outcome. Once you develop a prejudice, you begin to use words that describe your prejudice and these words can influence how you relate to a question. For instance, if you think critically about the benefits and drawbacks concerning going out drinking with your friends and decide that it is unhealthy, the language you use to describe the activity will change. You may start using emotional phrases like "drinking and driving," "peer pressure" or "getting wasted." Each of these terms has negative connotations, describing how drinking can lead to other dangers, how people can influence you or describing how your evening could go very wrong.
Non-prejudicial language uses words that do not favor any outcome. Non-prejudicial language should remain neutral, clear and provide an unbiased approach to the situation you are facing. As an example, if you were thinking critically about going drinking with your friends in a non-prejudicial way, you may use simple cognitive words like "drinking." These phrases do not support either a positive or negative view of spending the evening drinking with your friends.
When you use prejudicial language during the critical thinking process, you are committing a logical fallacy and hindering your critical thinking process. Prejudicial language represents the establishment of a position before you think critically about the situation. Essentially, by using emotional wording and establishing your position before you begin thinking critically, you are sabotaging your critical thinking process. By establishing your position before you think critically about a situation, you are preventing yourself from actually doing any critical thinking.
You can use non-prejudicial critical thinking to approach subjects in an unbiased and unemotional way. Your language will not favor either conclusion and you can evaluate each potential decision and outcome individually. The use of non-prejudicial language in critical thinking removes any bias that you had before considering your position. This becomes the important first step of your critical thinking process. Remember that prior bias restricts your critical thinking process, even in situations where you believe that a prior bias is justified, such as socially drinking. You can overcome this by realizing that if the critical thought process that established your previous bias is sound, you will reach the same conclusion again.