Critical Thinking: Questions to Test an Ideaʼs Strength

To get to the heart of the issue, ask these questions:

Explain it to me as if I were a five-year-old. Give me the ten second version.

To check if you understand someone:

So are you saying...? So what you mean is...

To find weak points in your, or anotherʼs argument, ask yourself these questions:
1. What do I/they want people to think or do? (or: What is the main question, and what
answer to that question has been suggested?)
2. What reasons are there to think/do that? (or: Why has that answer been suggested?)
3. What kind of support (evidence, reasons, examples) is appropriate for this argument?
4. Is there enough support to satisfy a reasonable person?
5. Do the reasons and examples support the main idea in a reasonable way?
6. Is the support from reliable sources? Are the methods for gathering the statistics
explained clearly, and are the statistics presented accurately?
7. Are there any words or phrases that have more than one meaning, or unclear
meanings? What has been done to try and clarify them?
8. Does this argument use emotions instead of reasons? Is every suggestion supported?
9. Which values would be important to a person who believes this? How would I
convince a person who has different values than mine?
10. Could this effect have other causes? Could this problem have other solutions?
11. Is there any important information missing? (Difficult to spot, but very effective.)
12. Is it possible to reach any other conclusions from the same evidence?
13. ***What would it take to convince me to change my mind?*** (a responsible
thinker always knows the answer to this question: those who canʼt answer it are in
danger of speaking out of prejudice, not careful thought.)

To make sure others properly understand or follow you, use status check questions:

Do you follow? Are you with me?

Got it? Do you know what I mean?

To test the strength of another persons argument, start with these questions:
1. Why should I agree with you? Can you explain what led you to believing that?
2. Where did you hear that? Can you show me the source of that fact/statistic?
3. How reliable is that (fact/source/statistic/expert)?
4. Are there any other explanations for it? (Suggest some other possible explanations.)
5. What would happen if everybody/the government/the school board/etc. followed your recommendation?
6. What evidence would I have to show you to change your mind?
7. You believe this because you think ____(value a) is important. What would you say to
someone who thinks ____(value b) is more important than ____(value a)?

To get someone to explain themselves more clearly, or clarify vague language, try:

You said ___. What exactly do you mean by that? When you say ____, do you mean ___ or ____?

Can you give an example? What kind of ____ are you talking about?

Rob Ouwehand, from “Asking the Right Questions: a guide to Critical Thinking” by M. Neil Browne and Stuart M Keeley