Current Issues and Enduring Questions A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with Readings

by Barnet, Sylvan; Bedau, Hugo; O'Hara, John

• ISBN13: 9781319035471
• ISBN10: 1319035477
• Edition: 11th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2016-10-04
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

Learn the rigorous critical thinking skills you need toto make solid arguments and write persuasively as Current Issues and Enduring Questions presents the necessary tools for writing with logic and elegance.

Table of Contents

Three new debates and four new casebooks. Based on user feedback, these new topics are the top choices of instructors adopting Current Issues. The new themes take on some of today’s most controversial issues, including race and police brutality, the role of social media in shaping "real life," American exceptionalism, and whether technology has a place in the classroom.

Fresh and timely new readings cover dozens of topics of current interest:

• Jonathan Safran Foer examines how beliefs about food are often cultural or instinctual rather than rational in "Let Them Eat Dog: A Modest Proposal for Tossing Fido in the Oven."




• In "Fitbits for Bosses," Lynn Stuart Parramore warns against a recent trend toward workplace biosurveillance.




• Sanjay Gupta argues for the legalization of medical marijuana—a position he once opposed—in "Why I Changed My Mind on Weed."

A sharper focus on critical thinking in Part One shows students how effective reading, analysis, and writing begin with critical thinking. Enhancements from new co-author John O’Hara include the following:

• An expanded vocabulary for critical thinking;




• Instruction on writing critical summaries;

• Guidance on how to confront unfamiliar issues with a critical eye;




• New reading strategies;




• Additional techniques for generating essay topics;




• New "Thinking Critically" activities throughout the text to prompt students to apply critical thinking, reading, and writing concepts in the book via interactive exercises.

A new full-color design and a wider trim size makes the book easier to annotate, more student-friendly, engaging, and easier to navigate. Over fifty new visuals such as ads, cartoons, photographs, and Web pages provide both occasions for critical inquiry and a lively, up-to-date look.

Expanded discussion of developing thesis statements in Chapter 6 helps better illustrate the difference between taking a truly critical position versus choosing an easy side in an argument.

Updated coverage of visual rhetoric in Chapter 4 helps students see images as layered arguments. This chapter has been expanded to discuss how to analyze images rhetorically, including how to recognize and resist the meanings of images, how to identify visual emotional appeals, and how to detect the difference between passively seeing and really looking with a critical eye.

LaunchPad for Current Issues and Enduring Questions provides students with an interactive platform that brings together the resources students need to prepare for class. This LaunchPad includes:

• "Thinking Critically" activities that give students practice in constructing arguments, focusing on skills such as generating topics, drawing conclusions, varying tone, and establishing credibility




• Interactive exercises and tutorials for reading, writing, and research




• LearningCurve, adaptive, game-like practice that helps students focus on the topics where they need the most help, such as fallacies, claims, evidence, and other key elements of argument




• Reading comprehension quizzes