Critical thinking begins by questioning your understanding of what you just read, saw or heard. Often the task requires going through the information multiple times to answer outstanding questions about the content's purpose or wording. It also may involve finding fundamental factors, such as the author's identity, the argument made, the intended audience and in which places the information is based in fact or opinion. Questioning should bring about clarity.
Evaluating information requires a judging standard. In this way, employing critical thinking often involves applying criteria to information to determine its validity. One common method is to look at the logical grounding of an argument and whether it holds under scrutiny or dissolves into a fallacy of logic. Another method is to analyze the credibility of sources that serve as a factual basis for an argument.
Several factors apply to analyzing information critically. Because information is often in the form of an argument or appeal, it may be analyzed in terms of the way in which it appeals, whether through emotions, through logic or by building on the author's credibility. A critical thinker also analyzes the information for inherent biases the author may hold and looks for places where biases may be inferred through the content.
Most people possess biases and particular means of reasoning as a result of cultural upbringing, environment and experiences. Critical thinking requires that you recognize these tendencies in yourself and take them into account when analyzing information and the way you process that information. With certain topics, biases may lead you to have strong emotional reactions, which are also important to acknowledge because they influence your comprehension of and reaction to the information.
Technology is evolving at such a pace that, from a young age, people must either passively absorb or respond to and evaluate the information presented to them. Critical thinking encourages you to separate your logic from your emotions so that you may make more reasoned decisions and judgments.