Critical Thinking 101

I'm going to break it down based on each statement about critical thinking;

1.Critical thinking is careful and deliberate determination of whether to accept, reject, or suspend judgment.
Moore and Parker, 1994.
This statement is very relevant to how we've been thinking (or at least I have) for this class, especially about hypertext #2. My topic is on legal immigrant gardeners and their struggle to survive, as well as examining the effects of illegal immigrants on this ability. I find it funny because there are some cases where gardeners are very successful human beings, running their own businesses and becoming mini business tycoons, so in that regard i need to "suspend" judgment.

2."The purpose of critical thinking is, therefore, to achieve understanding, evaluate view points, and solve problems. Since all three areas involve the asking of questions, we can say that critical thinking is the questioning or inquiry we engage in when we seek to understand, evaluate, or resolve."
Maiorana, Victor P. Critical Thinking Across the Curriculum: Building the Analytical Classroom. 1992.
This one is DEFINITELY what this class is based on, asking random questions. Alot of "Why" and "How" questions are asked in this class, and so i believe that this pretty much nails it on the spot on how critical thinking is done here. I personally have asked some pretty generalized questions in this class, and begun to examine things that i had previously assumed as normal or average, and not out of the ordinary.

3.Critical thinking is "a process which stresses an attitude of suspended judgment, incorporates logical inquiry and problem solving, and leads to an evaluative decision or action."
NCTE Committee on Critical Thinking and the Language Arts.
Finally, this quote is more of an application of the two quotes above, and really sheds light on how we solve problems in this class. I think critical thinking in this class is really a combination of all 3 quotes, because we're asking all of these questions and then suspending certain parts of our judgment to logically come to a conclusion about the topic or idea we're studying. Overall, this class' end of critical thinking is really a multi-faceted idea of how to explain and come up with solutions to problems that we haven't even necessarily discovered yet.

Differences in writing hypertext vs. writing a 5 paragraph essay;
For me, writing a hypertext is much more engaging and interesting than writing a standing 5 paragraph essay. Hypertext allows me to express my opinion whenever i feel it is necessary, and it also allows me to go in depth and allow my readers to jump and change their focus on certain parts of my writing. In regards to a 5 paragraph essay, a hypertext doesn't really have a thesis, it really has an idea... which i like much, much, better. Marc said it perfectly when he said that a thesis is like a hammer that you're bashing over your reader's head. I couldn't agree more. I feel like a hypertext is a better type of writing when it comes to developing an idea or expressing your opinion of that idea to a greater mass of people. While it is somewhat informal, because it is just as such, as readers you feel more connected to the writer, whereas in a 5 paragraph essay it feels like you're being lectured or told about the topic.