According to Alec Fisher (2010), some of the fundamental critical thinking skills are:

• Identifying the elements in a reasoned case, especially reasons and conclusions
• Identifying and evaluating assumptions
• Clarifying and interpreting expressions and ideas
• Judging the acceptability (especially the credibility) of claims
• Evaluating arguments of different kinds
• Analysing, evaluating, and producing explanations
• Analysing, evaluating, and making decisions
• Drawing inferences
• Producing arguments

Fisher goes on to point out that while this is a good place to start, there are other thinking skills a critical thinker might wish to develop.