Some Terms for Describing Your Reflective Voice

Return to Main Page for Critical Thinking Wiki

Here is a supplementary list of terms you can consider for describing your reflective voice. Most of these "types" can be thought of as positive and negative. These terms are also useful for helping you coin new words that help with your description.

The Debater

The Debater always seems to find two sides to every question and usually wants participants to adopt strong views (at least for the sake of the discussion) and try to defend them.

The Fact Checker

The person who calls people on factual claims that seem false. This can be thought of as a useful trait since factual premises are important, but some Fact Checkers take things too far.

The Knitpicker

The Knitpicker is the participant who focuses on smaller issues, often ignoring the larger questions in a discussion. Attention to detail is useful, but the Knitpicker can be someone who takes this too far.

The Lurker

The Lurker is relatively quiet and avoids calling attention to himself or herself. The Lurker can be a good listener, but doesn't get much opportunity to express their thinking with others. The Lurker is often conflict averse, but often has a special group of friends with whom conflict is easier to enter.

The Mediator or Synthesizer

This a voice which involves a tendency to find common ground and trying to show that everyone in a discussion really agrees about a lot of things. Again, this is a useful characteristic. Some people think The Mediator can place too much emphasis on agreement, ignoring the real differences that separate people.

The Skeptic

Skeptics doubt the reliability and extent of human knowledge. As a trait in a reflective voice, The Skeptic can play a useful role in reminding us of our tendency to overestimate our knowledge. Like any trait, skeptic doubt can be taken too far or used in a way that makes progress in the discussion difficult.