Critical thinking means analysing a text in context. It requires you to be objective. To stand away from yourself and your own immediate instincts and discriminate the material being reviewed. You need to apply previous knowledge and experience, but initially not in a personal way. Ask questions of the text. You exist but what you say may not be so. Unpick the language, uncover the hidden meaning, make connections with other texts. Make a judgement based on rules. Rules you have designed, or rules the context of the text defines. If the text break these rules question it. Find out why. Ensure judgements or conclusions are supported by evidence. Evidence found in the text or from researching its context and peers. Critical thinking requires you to be forensic. Investigate loose ends, leads and statements of fact. Verify, reveal and probe. Respond to the text. Create your own text add your acquired knowledge and inferences. Add to the lexicon. And repeat.

“Smile, it increases your face value.”

Dolly Parton as Truvy Jones.

Steel Magnolias, directed by Herbert Ross (1988; Louisiana, USA: Tristar Pictures, 1989)