From Critical Thinking to Argument A Portable Guide

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

• ISBN13: 9781319332129
• ISBN10: 1319332129
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2023-01-04
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

About This Book

From Critical Thinking to Argument: A Portable Guide

ISBN: 9781319332129

This book is a must-have for anyone looking to enhance their critical thinking and argumentation skills. From Critical Thinking to Argument is a portable guide that provides a comprehensive foundation for evaluating issues and writing strong academic arguments. Written by Sylvan Barnet, Hugo Bedau, and John O'Hara, this 7th edition has been updated to include the latest strategies for critical thinking, reading, and writing.

Who Uses It?

Primarily, this book is used by students and educators in introductory courses focused on critical thinking and argumentation. It is also a valuable resource for anyone interested in improving their critical thinking skills, including professionals looking to enhance their analytical abilities.

History and Editions

The 7th edition of From Critical Thinking to Argument has been a staple in educational resources for many years. This edition continues to build on the foundational principles of critical thinking and argumentation, incorporating user feedback and the latest research in the field. The book is designed to be flexible, with both bound and loose-leaf formats available, making it easy to adapt to different learning environments.

Author and Other Works

Sylvan Barnet is a renowned author in the field of critical thinking and argumentation. His engaging writing style and ability to explain complex concepts clearly have made him a favorite among students and educators alike. Hugo Bedau and John O'Hara contribute their expertise in philosophy and critical thinking, ensuring that the text remains current and relevant.

Key Features

• Comprehensive Coverage: The book covers core concepts in critical thinking and argumentation, including detailed explanations and examples.
• Interactive Tools: The text is complemented by Achieve, a single, easy-to-use platform that includes online quizzing tools, multimedia assets, and iClicker active classroom manager.
• Portable Guide: The paperback format makes it easy to carry and use anywhere, whether you're studying in class or working on assignments at home.
• Supplemental Materials: The new copy of the book includes any supplemental materials advertised, such as access cards, study guides, and lab manuals.

Detailed Information

ISBNs and Formats

• Paperback: ISBN-13: 9781319332129
• eBook: ISBN-13: 9781319485863
• Bound Text: ISBN-13: 9781319332129
• Loose-Leaf Text: Available in three-hole punched, unbound format (ISBN not specified)
• Achieve Package: Includes Achieve and Paperback (ISBN not specified)

Publication Details

• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's
• Publication Date: January 4, 2023
• Number of Pages: Not specified
• Language: English

Other Editions and Formats

• 6th Edition: Available through Macmillan Learning and other retailers
• eTextbook with Achieve: Includes complete e-book and online quizzing tools (ISBN not specified)
• Related ISBNs:
• 9781319485863 (eBook)
• 9781319332129 (Paperback)
• 9781319499143 (Bound Text)
• 9781319499150 (Package includes Achieve and Paperback)

This detailed information section provides a quick reference for all the available formats and sources for From Critical Thinking to Argument, making it easier to find and access the book in the preferred format.

Table of Contents

*= 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