Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing

Preface
 
PART ONE: CRITICAL THINKING AND READING 
 
1           Critical Thinking 
Thinking through an Issue 
Analyzing and Evaluating from Multiple Perspectives 
             Survey, Analyze, and Evaluate the Issue 
Visual Guide: Evaluating a Proposal 
             Obstacles to Critical Thinking 
             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 (annotated 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
NINA FEDOROFF, The Genetically Engineered Salmon Is a Boon for Consumers and Sustainability 
Thinking Critically: Generating Ideas with Topics 
             Thinking Critically about the Issue 
A Checklist for Critical Thinking 
A Short Essay Calling for Critical Thinking 
LYNN STUART PARRAMORE, Fitbits for Bosses (annotated)
Examining Assumptions 
A Checklist for Examining Assumptions 
*HELEN BENEDICT, The Military Has a Man Problem
Assignments for Critical Thinking 
 
2           Critical Reading: Getting Started 
Active Reading 
             Previewing 
             A Short Essay for Previewing Practice 
Thinking Critically: Previewing
SANJAY GUPTA, Why I Changed My Mind on Weed 
             Reading with a Careful Eye: Underlining, Highlighting, Annotating 
             Reading: Fast and Slow 
             Defining Terms and Concepts 
Summarizing and Paraphrasing 
A Checklist for a Paraphrase
Patchwriting and Plagiarism 
Strategies for Summarizing 
             Critical Summary 
Visual Guide: Writing a Critical Summary 
             A Short Essay for Summarizing Practice 
SUSAN JACOBY, A First Amendment Junkie  (annotated)
A Checklist for a Summary
Essays for Analysis
GWEN WILDE, Why the Pledge of Allegiance Should Be Revised (annotated student essay)
ZACHARY SHEMTOB and DAVID LAT, Executions Should Be Televised
A Casebook for Critical Reading: Should Some Kinds of Speech Be Censored? 
*SUZANNE NOSSEL, The Pro-Free Speech Way to Fight Fake News  
CHARLES R. LAWRENCE III, On Racist Speech 
Assignments for Critical Reading 
 
3           Critical Reading: Getting Deeper into Arguments 
Persuasion, Argument, and Rhetorical Appeals 
Visual Guide: Evaluating Persuasive Appeals 
Thinking Critically: Identifying Ethos 
Reason, Rationalization, and Confirmation Bias 
Types of Reasoning  
             Induction 
             Deduction 
             Premises and Syllogisms 
Some Procedures in Argument 
             Definitions 
             Assumptions 
             Evidence: Experimentation, Examples, Authoritative Testimony, and Numerical Data 
Thinking Critically: Authoritative Testimony 
A Checklist for Evaluating Statistical Evidence 
Nonrational Appeals 
             Satire, Irony, Sarcasm 
             Emotional Appeals 
Thinking Critically: 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 
*JOHN TIERNEY, The Reign of Recycling (annotated) 
Arguments for Analysis 
*KWAME ANTHONY APPIAH, Go Ahead, Speak for Yourself 
*NAUSICAA RENNER, How Do You Explain The “Obvious?” 
ANNA LISA RAYA, It’s Hard Enough Being Me (student essay) 
RONALD TAKAKI, The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority  
JAMES Q. WILSON, Just Take Away Their Guns 
*BERNIE SANDERS, We Must Make Public Colleges and Universities Tuition Free  
Assignments for Critical Reading 
 
4           Visual Rhetoric: Thinking about Images as Arguments 
Uses of Visual Images 
             Types of Emotional Appeals 
Seeing versus Looking: Reading Advertisements 
A Checklist for Analyzing Images
Levels of Images 
Visual Guide: Analyzing Images  
Documenting Reality: Reading Photographs 
             A Word on “Alternative Facts” 
Accommodating, Resisting, and Negotiating the Meaning of Images 
Are Some Images Not Fit to Be Shown?: Politics and Pictures  
An Argument on Publishing Images 
Writing about Political Cartoons  
Thinking Critically: Analysis of a Political Cartoon 
A Checklist for Analyzing Political Cartoons 
An Example: A Student’s Essay Analyzing Images 
*RYAN KWON, The American Pipe Dream? (annotated student essay) 
Visuals as Aids to Clarity: Maps, Graphs, and Pie Charts 
             A Word on Misleading or Manipulative Visual Data 
A Checklist for Charts and Graphs 
Using Visuals in Your Own Paper
Additional Images for Analysis 
DOROTHEA LANGE, Migrant Mother 
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, World War II Recruitment Poster 
NORA EPHRON, The Boston Photographs 
Assignments in Visual Rhetoric 
 
Part Two CRITICAL WRITING
 
5           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 (annotated student essay)          
An Analysis of the Student’s Analysis        
A Checklist for Writing an Analysis of an Argument                 
Arguments for Analysis  
JEFF JACOBY, Bring Back Flogging  
*MATTHEW WALTHER, Sorry, Nerds: Video Games Are Not a Sport  
JUSTIN CRONIN, Confessions of a Liberal Gun Owner  
*CARL SAFINA, Never Mind Theory  
Assignment for Writing an Analysis of an Argument  
 
6       Developing an Argument of Your Own  
Planning an Argument      
             Getting Ideas: Argument as an Instrument of Inquiry                
             Three Brainstorming Strategies: Freewriting, Listing, and Diagramming 
             Revision as Invention 
             Asking Questions with Stasis Theory             
             Considering Evidence       
             The Thesis or Main Point                 
A Checklist for a Thesis Statement  
Thinking Critically: Walking the Tightrope    
             Imagining an Audience     
             The Audience as Collaborator 
             Addressing Opposition and Establishing Common Ground 
A Checklist for Imagining an Audience          
Drafting and Revising Argument    
             The Title              
             The Opening Paragraphs                 
             Organizing the Body of the Essay   
Visual Guide: Organizing Your Argument  
             The Ending         
Thinking Critically: Using Transitions in Argument  
             Uses of an Outline            
A Checklist for Organizing an Argument       
             Tone and the Writer’s Persona       
             We, One, or I?                    
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 Change (annotated student essay)
Assignment for an Argument of Your Own  
 
7           Using Sources  
Why Use Sources?  
             Entering a Discourse        
             Understanding Information Literacy             
Choosing 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 
             Why Finding Reliable Internet Sources Is So Challenging          
             A Word on “Fake News” 
A Checklist for Identifying Fake News
             Native Advertising and Branded Content                     
             Considering How Current Sources Are         
A Checklist for Evaluating Sources     
Performing Your Own Primary Research     
             Interviewing Peers and Local Authorities
Visual Guide: Conducting Interviews          
             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  
APA Format: Citations within the Text  
APA Format: The List of References  
A Checklist for Critical Papers Using Sources                 
An Annotated Student Research Paper in MLA Format  
LESLEY TIMMERMAN, An Argument for Corporate Responsibility (annotated student essay)  
An Annotated Student Research Paper in APA Format  
*HANNAH SMITH BROOKS, Does Ability Determine Expertise? (annotated student essay)   
 
Part Three FURTHER VIEWS ON ARGUMENT
 
8         A Philosopher’s View: 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  
JAMES E. McWILLIAMS, The Locavore Myth: Why Buying from Nearby Farmers Won’t Save the Planet   
Thinking with Toulmin’s Method  
 A Checklist Using the Toulmin Method    
 
9         A Logician’s View: Deduction, Induction, Fallacies  
Using Formal Logic for Critical Thinking        
Visual Guide: Deduction and Induction         
Deduction
Examples of Deduction  
Induction  
             Observation and Inference  
             Probability  
             Mill’s Methods  
Fallacies  
             Fallacies of Ambiguity  
             Fallacies of Presumption  
             Fallacies of Irrelevance  
             Additional Fallacies           
A Checklist for Evaluating an Argument from a Logical Point of View
Thinking Critically: Identifying Fallacies 
MAX SHULMAN, Love Is a Fallacy   
 
10        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  
EDWARD O. WILSON, Letter to a Southern Baptist Minister 
 
11        A Literary Critic’s View: Arguing about Literature
Interpreting  
Judging (or Evaluating)   
Theorizing  
A Checklist for Arguing about Literature       
Examples: Two Students Interpret Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall”   
ROBERT FROST, Mending Wall  
JONATHAN DEUTSCH, The Deluded Speaker in Frost’s “Mending Wall” (student essay)   
FELICIA ALONSO, The Debate in Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” (student essay)  
Reading a Poem and a Story  
*RICHARD BLANCO, One Today  
KATE CHOPIN, The Story of an Hour
Thinking about the Effects of Literature  
PLATO, “The Greater Part of the Stories Current Today We Shall Have to Reject”   
 
12      A Debater’s View: Individual Oral Presentations and Debate           
Oral Presentations  
             Methods of Delivery  
             Audience 
A Checklist for an Oral Presentation  
             Delivery  
             Content  
Formal Debates  
             Standard Debate Format  
A Checklist for Preparing for a Debate             
 
Part Four  CASEBOOKS  

13       A College Education: What Is Its Purpose?
*ANDREW DELBANCO, 3 Reasons College Still Matters  
*CARLO ROTELLA, No, It Doesn’t Matter What You Majored In  
*EDWARD CONARD, We Don’t Need More Humanities Majors  
*CHRISTIAN MADSBJERG AND MIKKEL B. RASMUSSEN, We Need More Humanities Majors  
*CAROLINE HARPER, HBCUs, Black Women, and STEM Success   
 
14       What Is the Ideal Society?        
*THOMAS MORE, From Utopia  
*NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI, From The Prince  
*THOMAS JEFFERSON, The Declaration of Independence  
*ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions  
*MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., I Have a Dream  
*W. H. AUDEN, The Unknown Citizen  
*EMMA LAZARUS, The New Colossus  
*WALT WHITMAN, One Song, America, Before I Go  
*URSULA K. LE GUIN, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas  

Index of Authors, Titles, and Terms