ix Sylvan Barnet, Hugo Bedau From critical thinking to argument A portable guide Contents Preface v PART ONE FROM CRITICAL THINKING TO ARGUMENT AND RESEARCH 1 1 Critical Thinking 3 Thinking about Drivers' Licenses and Photographic Identification 4 Thinking about Another Issue Concerning Drivers' Licenses: Imagination, Analysis, Evaluation 10 Writing as a Way of Thinking 11 A CHECKLIST FOR CRITICAL THINKING 15 A Short Essay Illustrating Critical Thinking 16 ALAN DERSHOWITZ, Why Fear National ID Cards? 17 "A national ID card could actually enhance civil liberties by reducing the need for racial and ethnic stereotyping, " claims a prominent lawyer Examining Assumptions 20 A CHECKLIST FOR EXAMINING ASSUMPTIONS 21
X 2 Critical Reading: Getting Started 25 Active Reading 25 Previewing, 25 Skimming: Finding the Thesis, 26 Reading with a Pencil: Underlining, Highlighting, Annotating, 27 "This; Therefore, That," 28 First, Second, and Third Thoughts, 29 Summarizing and Paraphrasing 30 A Note about Paraphrase and Plagiarism 34 about Summarizing 35 Last Words (Almost) SUSAN JACOBY, A First Amendment Junkie 37 A feminist argues against those feminists who seek to ban pornography. Summarizing Jacoby, Paragraph by Paragraph 40 A CHECKLIST FOR GETTING STARTED 43 EXERCISE: LETTER TO THE EDITOR 44 3 Critical Reading: Getting Deeper into Arguments 45 Persuasion, Argument, Dispute 45 Reason versus Rationalization 47 Some Procedures in Argument 48 Definition, 48 Assumptions, 54 Premises and Syllogisms, 55 Deduction, 55 Sound Arguments, 57 Induction, 61 Evidence: Experimentation, Examples, Authoritative Testimony, Statistics, 62 A CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING STATISTICAL EVIDENCE 73 Nonrational Appeals 74 Satire, Irony, Sarcasm, Humor, 74 Emotional Appeals, 75 Does All Writing Contain Arguments? 78 A CHECKLIST FOR ANALYZING AN ARGUMENT 79 An Example: An Argument and a Look at the Writer's Strategies 80 GEORGE F. WILL, Being Green at Ben and Jerry's 81 Statistics and humor are among the tools this essayist uses in arguing on behalf of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. George F. Will's Strategies, 83
Xl 4 Visual Rhetoric: Images as Arguments 89 Some Uses of Images 89 Appeals to the Eye 89 Are Some Images Not Fit to Be Shown? 94 EXERCISES: THINKING ABOUT IMAGES 100 Reading Advertisements 100 A CHECKLIST FOR ANALYZING IMAGES (ESPECIALLY ADVERTISEMENTS) 104 Writing about a Political Cartoon 106 A CHECKLIST FOR ANALYZING POLITICAL CARTOONS 108 JACKSON SMITH (STUDENT ESSAY), Pledging Nothing? 109 Visuals as Aids to Clarity: Maps, Graphs, Tables, and Pie Charts 1 1 1 A CHECKLIST FOR CHARTS AND GRAPHS 113 A Note on Using Visuals in Your Own Paper 113 A Note on Formatting Your Paper: Document Design 114 5 Writing an Analysis of an Argument 116 Analyzing an Argument 116 Examining the Author's Thesis, 116 Examining the Author's Purpose, 117 Examining the Author's Methods, 118 Examining the Author's Persona, 119 Summary, 120 A CHECKLIST FOR ANALYZING A TEXT 121 An Argument, Its Elements, and a Student's Analysis of the Argument 122 NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, For Environmental Balance, Pick Up a Rifle 122 "Let's bring back hunting. " BETSY SWINTON (STUDENT ESSAY), Tracking Kristof 128 An Analysis of the Student's Analysis 131
xii A CHECKLIST FOR WRITING AN ANALYSIS OF AN ARGUMENT 131 EXERCISE 132 6 Developing an Argument of Your Own 133 Planning, Drafting, and Revising an Argument 134 Getting Ideas, 134 The Thesis, 142 A CHECKLIST FOR A THESIS STATEMENT, 143 Imagining an Audience, 143 The Audience as Collaborator, 144 A CHECKLIST FOR IMAGINING AN AUDIENCE, 148 The Title, 148 The Opening Paragraphs, 150 Organizing and Revising the Body of the Essay, 152 The Ending, 156 Two Uses of an Outline, 157 Tone and the Writer's Persona, 159 We, One, or I? 162 Avoiding Sexist Language, 163 A CHECKLIST FOR ATTENDING TO THE NEEDS OF THE AUDIENCE 164 Peer Review 164 A Student's Essay, from Rough Notes to Final Version 165 A PEER REVIEW CHECKLIST FOR A DRAFT OF AN ARGUMENT 166 EMILY ANDREWS, Why I Don't Spare "Spare Change" 170 The Essay Analyzed 173 EXERCISE 173 7 Using Sources 175 Why Use Sources? 1 75 Choosing a Topic 178 Finding Material 1 79 Interviewing Peers and Local Authorities 180 Finding Quality Information on the Web 1 82 Finding Articles Using Library Databases 1 84 Locating Books 1 85
xiii Evaluating Your Sources 1 85 A CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING PRINT SOURCES 186 Taking Notes 1 87 A CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING ELECTRONIC SOURCES 188 A Note on Plagiarizing, Paraphrasing, and Using Common Knowledge 190 A CHECKLIST FOR AVOIDING PLAGIARISM 191 Compiling an Annotated Bibliography 193 Writing the Paper 194 Organizing Your Notes, 194 The First Draft, 195 Later Drafts, 195 A Few More Words about Organization, 196 Choosing a Tentative Title, 196 The Final Draft, 197 Quoting from Sources 197 The Use and Abuse of Quotations, 197 How to Quote, 198 A CHECKLIST FOR USING QUOTATIONS RATHER THAN SUMMARIES 200 Documentation 200 A Note on Footnotes (and Endnotes), 200 MLA Format: Citations within the Text, 201 MLA Format: The List of Works Cited, 207 APA Format: Citations within the Text, 218 APA Format: The List of References, 219 A CHECKLIST FOR PAPERS USING SOURCES 224 An Annotated Student Research Paper in MLA Format 225 THERESA WASHINGTON, Why Trials Should Not Be Televised 226 An Annotated Student Research Paper in APA Format 243 LAURA DEVEAU, The Role of Spirituality and Religion in Mental Health 244 PART TWO FURTHER VIEWS ON ARGUMENT 253 8 A Philosopher's View: The Toulmin Model 255 The Claim 256
XIV Grounds 256 Warrants 257 Backing 259 Modal Qualifiers 259 Rebuttals 261 A Model Analysis Using the Toulmin Method 261 A CHECKLIST FOR USING THE TOULMIN METHOD 264 Putting the Toulmin Method to Work: Responding to an Argument 265 MICHAEL S. DUKAKIS AND DANIEL J. B. MITCHELL, Raise Wages, Not Walls 265 Thinking with Toulmin's Method 267 9 A Logician's View: Deduction, Induction, Fallacies 270 Deduction 270 Induction 284 Observation and Inference, 284 Probability, 286 Mill's Methods, 289 Confirmation, Mechanism, and Theory, 291 Fallacies 292 Fallacies of Ambiguity, 293 Fallacies of Presumption, 296 Fallacies of Relevance, 302 A CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING AN ARGUMENT FROM A LOGICAL POINT OF VIEW 307 EXERCISE: FALLACIES OR NOT? 308 10 A Psychologist's View: Rogerian Argument 311 Rogerian Argument: An Introduction 311 CARL R. ROGERS, Communication: Its Blocking and Its Facilitation 314 A psychotherapist explains why we must see things from the other person 's point of view. A CHECKLIST FOR ANALYZING ROGERIAN ARGUMENT 320
XV JANE WILLY (STUDENT ESSAY), Is the College Use of American Indian Mascots Racist? 321 A student tries to offer a balanced view, one that considers the feelings of Indians (who themselves are not united on this issue) and of whites. Index of Terms 327