Melissa Ehinger
Critical Thinking
February 13, 2012
Abstract
A good critical thinker needs to understand language. It is important to know how others use words to convey information. It is also vital to know how to utilize language to support your own ideas and defend them when needed. Looking into the operations of a research lab will demonstrate the importance of language in the workplace and the informative role it plays through documentation and communication with others. My plans to improve my own language skills are outlined
Language
Language is one essence of knowledge. Through language, information gets passed, gathered, communicated, analyzed, and recorded. On any job, when more than one person is involved, the parties must communicate with one another to share information, give direction or share feelings to achieve a common goal. Language both written and oral is the means by which this is done. Whereas there are other forms of communication among the species, human language is uniquely our own; no other species has one (Jones, Martin and Pilbeam, (Eds), Cambridge Encyclopedia of Human Evolution, Cambridge University Press, New York, p. 128, 1999).
Language is defined as “a system of communication that involves a set of arbitrary symbols, whether spoken, written, or nonverbal, as in the case of sign language” (Boss, J, Think: Critical Thinking for Everyday Life, 2nd edition, page 63, McGraw-Hill 2012, New York). While language has many functions, in science, language serves primarily an informative one. The scientific community is looked upon to answer the questions that society asks. Science is dependent on language to report its findings in the name of public interest. Language facilitates putting ideas into words, allowing those ideas to be explored by the community. Through language, scientific findings are documented and shared with the rest of the world.
As an example
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