From Critical Thinking to Argument

From Critical Thinking to Argument is a very brief but thorough guide to critical thinking and argument. With only fifteen readings, this affordable guide can stand alone or complement an anthology. Comprising a condensed version of the text portion of the widely adopted Current Issues and Enduring Questions, it draws on the authors’ dual expertise in effective persuasive writing and comprehensive rhetorical strategies to help students move from critical thinking to argumentative and researched writing. This versatile text features treatment of classic and modern approaches including Aristotelian, Toulmin, and Rogerian argument, as well as a new chapter on analyzing pop culture texts.　Like other volumes in the Bedford/St Martin’s popular series of Portable Anthologies and Portable Guides, From Critical Thinking to Argument offers the series’ trademark combination of high quality and great value for teachers of writing and their cost-conscious students.

Sylvan Barnet, professor of English and former director of writing at Tufts University, is the most prolific and consistently successful college English textbook author in the country. His several texts on writing and his numerous anthologies for introductory composition and literature courses have remained leaders in their field through many editions.

Hugo Bedau, professor of philosophy at Tufts University, has 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 has written or edited a number of books on these topics. He is the author of Thinking and Writing about Philosophy, Second Edition (Bedford/St. Martin’s).

Preface      

Part One     

From Critical Thinking to Argument and Research

1 Critical Thinking 

Thinking about Drivers’ Licenses and Photographic Identification 

Analyzing and Evaluating Multiple Perspectives

Critical Thinking at Work: From Jottings to a Short Essay

*A Student’s Essay, Developed from a Cluster

*Idea Prompt: Mapping Pros and Cons

*Play Ball: Why Home-Schoolers Should Be Allowed to Play on Public School Teams

*The Essay Analyzed

Writing as a Way of Thinking

Getting Ideas

Idea Prompt:  Understanding Classical Topics

A Checklist for Critical Thinking

A Short Essay Illustrating Critical Thinking

Harlan Coben, The Undercover Parent

Letter of Response by Carol Weston

A Checklist for Evaluating Letters of Response

Examining Assumptions

A Checklist for Examining Assumptions

* Jena McGregor, Military Women in Combat: Why Making It Official Matters

Five Exercises in Critical Thinking

2 Critical Reading: Getting Started

Active Reading

*Summarizing and Paraphrasing Contrasted with Patchwriting

*Paraphrase, Patchwriting, and Plagiarism

*A Checklist for a Paraphrase

Last Words (Almost) about Summarizing

Susan Jacoby, A First Amendment Junkie

Summarizing Jacoby, Paragraph by Paragraph

A Checklist for Getting Started

*Zachary M. Shemtab and J David Lat, "Executions Should Be Televised"

*Gwen Wilde (student essay), Why the Pledge of Allegiance Should Be Revised

3 Critical Reading: Getting Deeper into Arguments 

Persuasion, Argument, Dispute 

*Idea Prompt: Establishing Trustworthiness and Credibility

Reason versus Rationalization

Some Procedures in Argument

Definition 

Idea Prompt:  Ways to Give Definitions

A Checklist for Evaluation Statistical Evidence 

Nonrational Appeals 

Does All Writing Contain Arguments? 

A Checklist for Analyzing an Argument

An Example: An Argument and a Look at the Writer’s Strategies 

George F. Will, Being Green at Ben and Jerry’s 

George F. Will’s Strategies

4 Visual Rhetoric: Images as Arguments

Some Uses of Images 

Appeals to the Eye (And Thus to the Emotions)

Are Some Images not Fit to be Shown? 

Politics and Pictures

Exercises: Thinking about Images

Reading Advertisements 

A Checklist for Analyzing Images (Especially Advertisements) 

Writing about a Political Cartoon

A Checklist for Analyzing Political Cartoons

Idea Prompt:  Analysis of a Political Cartoon

Jackson Smith (student essay), Pledging Nothing?

Visuals as Aids to Clarity: Maps, Graphs, Tables, and Pie Charts 

A Checklist for Charts and Graphs

A Note on Using Visuals in Your Own Paper 

A Note on Formatting Your Paper: Document Design

5 Writing an Analysis of an Argument

Analyzing an Argument

Idea Prompt:  Drawing Conclusions and Implying Proof 

A Checklist for Analyzing an Author’s Audience

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

Betsy Swinton (student essay), Tracking Kristof

An Analysis of the Student’s Analysis

*A Checklist for Writing an Analysis of an Argument

6 Developing an Argument of Your Own

Planning, Drafting, and Revising an Argument 

A Checklist for a Thesis Statement

A Checklist for Imagining an Audience

Idea Prompt:  Using Transitions in Argument

*A Last Word about Outlines

*A Checklist for Organizing an Argument

*Idea Prompt: Varying Tone

A Checklist for Attending to the Needs of the Audience 

Peer Review 

A Peer Review Checklist for a Draft of an Argument

A Student’s Essay, from Rough Notes to Final Version 

Emily Andrews, Why I Don’t Spare "Spare Change" 

The Essay Analyzed

Exercise

7 Using Sources

Why Use Sources? 

Choosing a Topic 

Finding Material 

Finding Quality Information on the Web

A Word about Wikipedia

Finding Articles Using Library Databases

Locating Books

Interviewing Peers and Local Authorities 

Evaluating Your Sources 

Taking Notes 

A Checklist for Evaluating Print Sources 

A Checklist for Evaluating Electronic Sources 

A Note on Plagiarizing, Paraphrasing, and Using Common Knowledge 

A Checklist for Avoiding Plagiarism 

Compiling an Annotated Bibliography 

Writing the Paper 

Quoting from Sources 

Incorporating Your Reading into Your Thinking: The Art and Science of Synthesis 

The Use and Abuse of Quotations

How to Quote

A Checklist for Using Quotations Rather than Summaries

Documentation

Idea Prompt:  Signal Phrases

A Note on Footnotes (and Endnotes)

MLA Format: Citations within the Text

MLA Format: The List of Works Cited

APA Format: Citations within the Text

APA Format: The List of References

A Checklist for Papers Using Sources

An Annotated Student Research Paper in MLA Format 

*Lesley Timmerman, An Argument for Corporate Responsibility

An Annotated Student Research Paper in APA Format 

Laura Deveau, The Role of Spirituality and Religion in Mental Health

Part Two

Further Views on Argument

8 A Philosopher’s View: The Toulmin Model

The Claim

Grounds 

Warrants 

Backing 

Modal Qualifiers 

Rebuttals

*Idea Prompt: Constructing a Toulmin Argument

Putting the Toulmin Method to Work: Responding to an Argument

*Responding to an Argument

*James E. McWilliams, The Locavore Myth: Why Buying from Nearby Farmers Won’t Save the

Planet

Thinking with Toulmin’s Method

A Checklist for Using the Toulmin Method

9 A Logician’s View: Deduction, Induction, Fallacies

Deduction

Induction 

Fallacies 

Fallacies of Ambiguity

Fallacies of Presumption

Fallacies of Relevance

A Checklist for Evaluating an Argument from a Logical Point of View

Exercise: Fallacies--Or Not?

Max Shulman, Love Is a Fallacy

10 A Psychologist’s View: Rogerian Argument

Rogerian Argument: An Introduction

Carl R. Rogers, Communication: Its Blocking and Its Facilitation

A Checklist for Analyzing Rogerian Argument

Edward O. Wilson, Letter to a Southern Baptist Minister

*11 A Rhetorician’s View: Cultural Analysis of Non-Traditional Texts

*How rhetoricians analyze arguments

*Production, Distribution, and Consumption: Performing a Rhetorical Analysis

*A Checklist for Rhetorical Analysis

*Michelle Dean, Here Comes the Hillbilly, Again

Index of Terms

*New to this edition