Writing Analytically, 6th Edition - Rosenwasser, David & Stephen, Jill [37]
2. THE JUDGMENT REFLEX
In its most primitive form—most automatic and least thoughtful—judging is like an on/off switch. When the switch gets thrown in one direction or the other—good/ bad, right/wrong, positive/negative—the resulting judgment predetermines and overdirects any subsequent thinking we might do. Rather than thinking about what X is or how X operates, we lock ourselves prematurely into proving that we were right to think that X should be banned or supported.
It would be impossible to overstate the mind-numbing effect that the judgment reflex has on thinking. The psychologist Carl Rogers has written at length on the problem of the judgment reflex. He claims that our habitual tendency as humans— virtually a programmed response—is to evaluate everything and to do so very quickly.
Walking out of a movie, for example, most people will immediately voice their approval or disapproval, usually in either/or terms: I liked it or didn’t like it; it was right/wrong, good/bad, interesting/boring. The other people in the conversation will then offer their own evaluation plus their judgment of the others’ judgments: I think it was a good movie and you are wrong to think it was bad. And so on. Like the knee jerking in response to the physician’s hammer, such reflex judgments are made without conscious thought (the source of the pejorative term “knee-jerk thinking”).
This is not to say that all judging should be avoided. Obviously, we all need to make decisions: whether we should or shouldn’t vote for a particular candidate, for instance. Analytical thinking does need to arrive at a point of view—which is a form of judgment—but analytical conclusions are usually not phrased in terms of like/ dislike or good/bad. They disclose what a person has come to understand about X rather than how he or she rules on the worth of X.
Three Cures for the Judgment Reflex
Neither agree nor disagree with another person’s position until you can repeat that position in a way the other person would accept as fair and accurate. Carl Rogers recommends this strategy to negotiators in industry and government.
Try eliminating the word “should” from your vocabulary for a while. Judgments often take the form of should statements.
Try eliminating evaluative adjectives—those that offer judgments with no data. “Jagged” is a descriptive, concrete adjective. It offers something we can experience. “Beautiful” is an evaluative adjective. It offers only judgment. Sometimes the concrete-abstract divide is complicated. Consider for example the word “green,” a literal color with figurative associations (envious, innocent, ecological, etc.).
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Try This 2.10: Distinguishing Evaluative from Nonevaluative Words
The dividing line between judgmental and nonjudgmental words is often more difficult to discern in practice than you might assume. Categorize each of the terms in the following list as judgmental or nonjudgmental, and be prepared to explain your reasoning: monstrous, delicate, authoritative, strong, muscular, automatic, vibrant, tedious, pungent, unrealistic, flexible, tart, pleasing, clever, slow.
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Try This 2.11: Experiment with Adjectives and Adverbs
Write a paragraph of description—on anything that comes to mind—without using any evaluative adjectives or adverbs. Alternatively, analyze and categorize the adjectives and adverbs in a piece of your own recent writing.
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3. GENERALIZING
Vagueness and generality are major blocks to learning because, like the other habits of mind discussed so far, they allow you to dismiss virtually everything you’ve read and heard except the general idea you’ve arrived at: What it all boils down to is … What this adds up to is … The gist of her speech