The Power of Thinking: A Comparison of 'Becoming Master Student' and 'The Truth About Stories'

THINKING
Topic chosen from the book “BECOMING MASTER STUDENT” is ‘thinking’’
Introduction
Throughout the semester, learning has shaped my understanding of concepts and to some degree given me a new
perspective of the world. Focusing on one topic and giving out my views as well as other scholars views will help
me reflect and bring out the transformation acquired and my general college experience. I can define thinking can
be defined as the process through which thoughts are produced Thoughts within every person, according to Gerald F
Smith, play a great role in influencing what we believe in and how people behave. Thoughts are the innermost
structures that influence the external image of human beings ("Supplemental Material for Rational Thinking and
Cognitive Sophistication: Development, Cognitive Abilities, and Thinking Dispositions", 2013).
Thesis statement
In this paper I intend to relate my personal experience as a student in college to the content provided in the two
books I. e ‘Becoming master student and The truth about stories ’ Thinking as a topic in the book Becoming master
student will be discussed and a comparison made on how The truth about stories presents the same topic. I will also
pick some few other sources related to the same topic
COMPARISON BETWEEN THE TWO BOOKS ON THE TOPIC THINKING
Although the authors of the books use different dimension in explaining the aspect of thinking, both of them try to
explain what thinking is, the power of thinking and how it influences people. In The truth about stories, Thomas
kings uses both native and biblical stories to explain thinking whereas the authors of Becoming masters student use
direct explanation in handling the topic

Similarities between the two books
In both Becoming a master student and the truth about stories, human beings are viewed to be rational thinkers in
that among all species, man is the most intelligent of all and can make reasonable decisions after a critical thinking.
Thinking according to the two books influence our perceptions, behaviours and understanding of the world
(GRUNWALDKADOW, 2017). In The truth about stories, Kings insists on how peoples thoughts can be
manipulated making them to behave in a certain way and have certain attitudes. For instance, Kings says writes that
if an advertiser has got a persuading power, he or she will win the power of the customers and the same applies to
the political world where one has to win by persuading the citizens to subscribe into his or her ideas and gets voted
in as a political leader. The same thing is echoed in the Becoming a master student whereby the author explains how
the creation stories in Bible influences the thinking of the believers on how the earth was created.
Responsible thinking .By this, the authors of the two books bring out the importance of right and rational thinking.
In order to achieve an informed decision making, one is required to have the right mind set (thoughts). I can also
state from my own experience that responsibility in thinking will also determine the kind of the relationship that
exist among different people .For instance from my college experience, I found myself having a good relationship
and friendship with those that I had a positive attitude towards them and on the other hand, I had adverse
relationship with my fellow students to whom I had developed a negative attitude (Hassan & Michaelidou, 2013).
Differences between the two books.
Becoming a master student uses a literal and direct explanation in discussing the aspect of thinking while in The
truth about stories uses biblical stories and native narratives in its discussion about thinking
In Becoming master student, the author brings out the issue of prejudice in relation to wrong thinking while the
other book does not touch on this. According to becoming master student, wrong information leads to wrong
attitude, prejudice which eventually becomes stereotype.

Other sources on thinking
A book by Stack.L called ‘stop the stinking thinking’ and a journal by García Figueroa, H. A. And Arrieta Carrascal,
A
.
Similarities between the sources the two books and its relevance to the topic
All these sources present humans as highly socialized species who are able to make informed decisions through
thinking .All these sources emphasize on the power of thinking in that if one has negative thinking, then defiantly he
or she will end up making wrong decision(Facione & Facione, 2013).
Like the two books, these extra sources also agree to the fact stereotype is brought by wrong information which
cause negative thinking hence stereotype. In addition to this, Stack in his book clearly explains how wrong thoughts
may affect somebody’s personality in terms of jealousy and inferiority complex (Stack, 2013).According to the
book, this is brought by negative thinking whereby one wants to compare himself or herself with others and judge
his or her success with others’ therefore ending up being developing inferiority complex and jealousy.
The two sources also like the two books that were previously analyzed emphasizes on the importance on
responsible thinking and behavior .According to these sources, people should make sure that they think and act
rightly so as to avoid negative behavior that may adversely affect those people around them .From my experience
it’s very evident that when one is surrounded by negative thinkers, he or she tends to subscribe to the negative
thinking either knowingly or unknowingly for instance in college ,I was about to develop negative attitude towards
some of my tutors because I used to hear from other students how these teachers are(Adhiya, 2015) .
Relevance of the two sources to the topic-thinking
The other two sources i.e. the book and journal are meant to back up the information on the other two books on the
topic of thinking. There are similarities that cut across the four sources that were analyzed above. They echo the
message on how right and wrong thinking influences human behavior in terms of their actions, behavior and even
the relationship amongst people (van Huyssteen, 2017).