From Critical Thinking to Argument

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Authors

Sylvan Barnet

Sylvan Barnet was a professor of English and former director of writing at Tufts University. His several texts on writing and his numerous anthologies for introductory composition and literature courses have remained leaders in their field through many editions. His titles, with Hugo Bedau, include Current Issues and Enduring Questions; Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing; and From Critical Thinking to Argument.

Hugo Bedau

Hugo Bedau was a professor of philosophy at Tufts University and served as chair of the philosophy department and chair of the university’s committee on College Writing. An internationally respected expert on the death penalty, and on moral, legal, and political philosophy, he wrote or edited a number of books on these topics. He co-authored, with Sylvan Barnet, of Current Issues and Enduring Questions; Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing; and From Critical Thinking to Argument.

John O'Hara

John Fitzgerald O’Hara is an associate professor of Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing at Stockton University, where he is the coordinator of the first-year critical thinking program, and former Director of the Master of Arts in American Studies Program. He regularly teaches writing, critical thinking, and courses in American literature and history and is a nationally-recognized expert on the 1960s. He is the co-author of Current Issues and Enduring Questions; Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing; and From Critical Thinking to Argument.

*= new to this edition

Preface

PART ONE From Critical Thinking to Argument and Research
1 Critical Thinking
Thinking about Thinking
Thinking as a Citizen
Obstacles to Critical Thinking
An Essay on Types of Thinking (and Rethinking)
*Adam Grant, A Preacher, a Prosecutor, a Politician, and a Scientist
Thinking through an Issue
Evaluating a Proposal
Survey, Analyze, and Evaluate the Issue
VISUAL GUIDE: EVALUATING A PROPOSAL
Anticipating Counterarguments
Critical Thinking at Work: From a Cluster to a Short Essay
Alexa Cabrera, Stirred and Strained: Pastafarians Should Be Allowed to Practice in Prison (student essay)
Generating Ideas: Writing as a Way of Thinking
Confronting Unfamiliar Issues
Using Clustering to Discover Ideas
Approaching an Issue (or an Assignment)
Prompting Yourself: Classical Topics and Invention
An Essay for Generating Ideas
*Asao B. Inoue, Do Grades Help Students Learn in Classrooms?
THINKING CRITICALLY: Generating Ideas
Generating Ideas from Multiple Perspectives
A Checklist for Critical Thinking
A Short Essay Calling for Critical Thinking
*Anand Jayprakash Vaidya, The Inclusion Problem in Critical Thinking: The Case of Indian Philosophy

2 Critical Reading: Getting Started
Framing Arguments
Active Reading
Previewing
A Checklist for Previewing and Skimming
A Short Essay for Previewing Practice
Thinking Critically: Previewing
Charles R. Lawrence III, On Racist Speech
Reading With a Careful Eye: Underlining, Highlighting, Annotating
Reading Fast and Slow
Summarizing and Paraphrasing
A Checklist for a Paraphrase
Patchwriting and Plagiarism
Strategies for Summarizing
Critical Summary
A Short Essay for Summarizing Practice
VISUAL GUIDE: WRITING A CRITICAL SUMMARY
Susan Jacoby, A First Amendment Junkie
A Checklist for a Summary
Essays for Analysis
Gwen Wilde, Why the Pledge of Allegiance Should Be Revised (student essay)
*Sohrab Ahmari, Porn Isn’t Free Speech — on the Web or Anywhere

*3 Understanding Rhetorical Appeals
Argument and Persuasion
Persuasive Appeals
THINKING CRITICALLY: Identifying Ethos
VISUAL GUIDE: EVALUATING PERSUASIVE APPEALS
Seeing the Appeals in Real-World Events
Unethical Uses of Rhetorical Appeals
Are Such Appeals Always Unethical?
Nonrational Appeals: Satire, Irony, Sarcasm
Does All Communication Contain Arguments?
Arguments for Analysis
Afrika Afeni Mills, A Letter to White Teachers of My Children
Dodai Stewart, The Case for a National One-Week Vacation

*4      Identifying Procedures of Argument
The Power and Perils of Reason
Rationalization
Confirmation Bias
Types of Reasoning
Induction
Deduction
Premises and Syllogisms
Testing Truth and Validity
A Checklist for Evaluating a Syllogism
Thinking Critically: Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
Some Procedures in Argument
Definitions
Thinking Critically: Analyzing Definitions
Evidence
THINKING CRITICALLY: Authoritative Testimony
A Checklist For Evaluating Statistical Evidence
Assumptions
A Checklist for Examining Assumptions
An Essay for Examining Assumptions
A Checklist For Examining Assumptions
An Example Argument and a Look at the Writer’s Strategies
John Tierney, The Reign of Recycling

5 Visual Rhetoric: Thinking about Images as Arguments
Uses of Visual Images
Seeing versus Looking
Reading Advertisements
A Checklist for Analyzing Images
Detecting Emotional Appeals in Visual Culture
Reading Photographs
Do Photographs Always Tell the Truth?
A Checklist for Inspecting Digital Photographs
Are Some Images Not Fit to Be Shown?
A Checklist for Publishing Controversial Images
Accommodating, Resisting, and Negotiating the Meaning of Images
Writing about Political Cartoons and Memes
THINKING CRITICALLY: Analyzing Memes and Political Cartoons
An Example: A Student’s Essay Analyzing Images
Ryan Kwon, The American Pipe Dream? (student essay)
Visuals as Aids to Clarity: Maps, Graphs, and Pie Charts
A Checklist for Charts And Graphs
Using Visuals in Your Own Paper

6 Writing an Analysis of an Argument
Analyzing an Argument
Examining the Author’s Thesis
Examining the Author’s Purpose
Examining the Author’s Methods
Examining the Author’s Persona
Examining the Author’s Audience
A Checklist for Analyzing an Author’s Intended Audience
Organizing Your Analysis
VISUAL GUIDE: ORGANIZING YOUR ANALYSIS
Summary versus Analysis
A Checklist for Analyzing a Text
An Argument, Its Elements, and a Student’s Analysis of the Argument
Nicholas D. Kristof, For Environmental Balance, Pick Up a Rifle
THINKING CRITICALLY: Examining Language to Analyze an Author’s Argument
The Essay Analyzed
Theresa Carcaldi, For Sound Argument, Drop the Jokes: How Kristof Falls Short in Convincing His Audience (student essay)
An Analysis of the Student’s Analysis
A Checklist for Writing an Analysis of an Argument

7 Developing an Argument of Your Own
Planning an Argument
Getting Ideas: Argument as an Instrument of Inquiry
Brainstorming Strategies
Revision as Invention
The Thesis or Main Point
Raising the Stakes of Your Thesis
A Checklist For A Thesis Statement
THINKING CRITICALLY: “Walking the Tightrope”
Imagining an Audience
Addressing Opposition and Establishing Common Ground
A Checklist for Imagining an Audience
Drafting and Revising an Argument
The Title
The Opening Paragraphs
Organizing the Body of the Essay
VISUAL GUIDE: ORGANIZING YOUR ARGUMENT
Checking Transitions
THINKING CRITICALLY: Using Transitions in Argument
The Ending
Uses of an Outline
A Checklist for Organizing an Argument
Tone and the Writer’s Persona
THINKING CRITICALLY: Eliminating We, One, and I
A Checklist for Establishing Tone and Persona
Avoiding Sexist Language
Peer Review
A Checklist for Peer Review
A Student’s Essay, from Rough Notes to Final Version
Emily Andrews, Why I Don’t Spare “Spare Change” (student essay)

8 Using Sources
Why Use Sources?
Entering a Discourse
Understanding Information Literacy
Choosing a Topic
A Checklist for Approaching a Topic
Finding Sources
VISUAL GUIDE: FINDING DISCOURSE ON YOUR TOPIC
Finding Quality Information Online
Finding Articles Using Library Databases
THINKING CRITICALLY: Using Search Terms
Locating Books
Evaluating Sources
Scholarly, Popular, and Trade Sources
Evaluating Online Sources
A Checklist for Identifying Reliable Websites
A Checklist for Identifying Fake News
Considering How Current Sources Are
A Checklist for Evaluating Sources
Performing Your Own Primary Research
Interviewing Peers and Local Authorities
Conducting Observations
Conducting Surveys
Research in Archives and Special Collections
Synthesizing Sources
Taking Notes
A Note on Plagiarizing
A Checklist for Avoiding Plagiarism
Compiling an Annotated Bibliography
Quoting from Sources
VISUAL GUIDE: INTEGRATING QUOTATIONS
Thinking Critically: Using Signal Phrases
Documentation
A Note on Footnotes (and Endnotes)
MLA Format: Citations within the Text
MLA Format: The List of Works Cited
An Annotated Student Research Paper in MLA Format
Lesley Timmerman, An Argument for Corporate Responsibility (student essay)
APA Format: Citations within the Text
APA Format: The List of References
An Annotated Student Research Paper in APA Format
Hannah Smith Brooks, Does Ability Determine Expertise? (student essay)

PART TWO Further Views on Argument
9 A Philosopher’s View: The Toulmin Model
Understanding the Toulmin Model
VISUAL GUIDE: THE TOULMIN METHOD
Components of the Toulmin Model
The Claim
Grounds
Warrants
Backing
Modal Qualifiers
Rebuttals
THINKING CRITICALLY: Constructing a Toulmin Argument
Putting the Toulmin Method to Work: Responding to an Argument
*Jonathan Safran Foer, Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast
Thinking with the Toulmin Method
A Checklist for Using the Toulmin Method

10 A Logician’s View: Deduction, Induction, and Fallacies
Using Formal Logic for Critical Thinking
Deduction
Visual Guide: Deduction and Induction
Examples of Deduction
Induction
Observation and Inference
Probability
Mill’s Methods
Fallacies
VISUAL GUIDE: COMMON FALLACIES
Fallacies of Ambiguity
Fallacies of Presumption
Fallacies of Irrelevance
A Checklist for Evaluating an Argument with Logic
Additional Fallacies
THINKING CRITICALLy: Identifying Fallacies
Max Shulman, Love Is a Fallacy

11 A Psychologist’s View: Rogerian Argument
Rogerian Argument: An Introduction
VISUAL GUIDE: ROGERIAN ARGUMENT
A Checklist for Analyzing Rogerian Argument
Carl R. Rogers, Communication: Its Blocking and Its Facilitation
*Lewis Oakley, Is It Time to Retire the Word “Privileged”?

Appendix: Sentence Guides for Academic Writers
Index of Authors, Titles, and Terms

Product Updates

Fresh and timely new readings illustrate core argument concepts. More than a third of the total featured essays are new, as are topics such as diversity in critical thinking, teaching systemic racism in classrooms, and gender roles. Existing topics such as free speech have been carefully considered and updated to reflect our contemporary discourse and perspectives.

Activities that make critical thinking relevant to students’ lives. A new Consider This activity encourages students to think critically about their own decision-making and the ways argument concepts impact their lived experiences. Pointed questions and scenarios set the stage for every instructional chapter to give students metacognitive opportunities to recognize their critical thinking process and to evaluate the decisions that impact their beliefs and arguments.

Focused chapters on rhetorical analysis and logical argument. To support how instructors teach From Critical Thinking to Argument, we have separated “Critical Reading: Getting Deeper into Arguments” into two focused chapters — “Understanding Rhetorical Appeals” (Chapter 3) and “Identifying Procedures of Argument” (Chapter 4).

Authors

Sylvan Barnet

Sylvan Barnet was a professor of English and former director of writing at Tufts University. His several texts on writing and his numerous anthologies for introductory composition and literature courses have remained leaders in their field through many editions. His titles, with Hugo Bedau, include Current Issues and Enduring Questions; Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing; and From Critical Thinking to Argument.

Hugo Bedau

Hugo Bedau was a professor of philosophy at Tufts University and served as chair of the philosophy department and chair of the university’s committee on College Writing. An internationally respected expert on the death penalty, and on moral, legal, and political philosophy, he wrote or edited a number of books on these topics. He co-authored, with Sylvan Barnet, of Current Issues and Enduring Questions; Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing; and From Critical Thinking to Argument.

John O'Hara

John Fitzgerald O’Hara is an associate professor of Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing at Stockton University, where he is the coordinator of the first-year critical thinking program, and former Director of the Master of Arts in American Studies Program. He regularly teaches writing, critical thinking, and courses in American literature and history and is a nationally-recognized expert on the 1960s. He is the co-author of Current Issues and Enduring Questions; Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing; and From Critical Thinking to Argument.

*= new to this edition

Preface

Appendix: Sentence Guides for Academic Writers
Index of Authors, Titles, and Terms

Product Updates

Essential critical thinking and argument coverage in an affordable, streamlined format.

From Critical Thinking to Argument is a brief but thorough guide to argument at a great value. This versatile text gives students strategies for critical thinking, reading, and writing and makes argument concepts clear through its treatment of classic and modern approaches to argument, including Aristotelian, Toulmin, and Rogerian argument, as well as visual rhetoric. A new Consider This activity provides metacognitive opportunities and encourages students to think critically about their own decision-making and the ways argument concepts impact their lived experiences. With just twenty-one readings, this affordable guide can stand alone or complement an anthology. Paired with Achieve, an engaging and powerful digital platform (see Related Titles for more details).

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Related Titles

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing

Sylvan Barnet; Hugo Bedau; John O'Hara

Current Issues and Enduring Questions

Sylvan Barnet; Hugo Bedau; John O'Hara

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