Asking The Right Questions

Used in a variety of courses in various disciplines, Asking the Right Questions helps students bridge the gap between simply memorizing or blindly accepting information, and the greater challenge of critical analysis and synthesis. Specifically, this concise text teaches students to think critically by exploring the components of arguments--issues, conclusions, reasons, evidence, assumptions, language--and on how to spot fallacies and manipulations and obstacles to critical thinking in both written and visual communication. It teaches them to respond to alternative points of view and develop a solid foundation for making personal choices about what to accept and what to reject.

Features

• Critical Thinking as a Process - Emphasizes that critical thinking is not primarily an effort to demonstrate what is faulty about the thinking of others.Instead, it is a process for improving the beliefs and decisions we each must make.
• A step-by-step approach to learning—Introduces a particular critical thinking learning skill in each chapter, and adds to the list of accumulated skills with each subsequent chapter.
• Practice Passages-Opportunities for applying a critical thinking skill immediately to a short passage appear at the end of each chapter.
• Writing Instruction- Presents instruction how to turn critical analysis into effective, coherent prose.
• Images-Ten images appear for analysis and discussion.

New to this Edition

• New Chapter-The eleventh edition adds a new chapter about speed bumps on the road to critical thinking, e.g., wishful thinking and cognitive biases.
• Integration- Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow is integrated throughout the book.
• Evaluating Studies-Expanded treatment of how to evaluate research studies.
• Emphasis on Social Skill- There is a greater emphasis on the social skills necessary to use critical thinking effectively.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: The Benefit and Manner of Asking the Right Questions

Chapter 2: Speed Bumps Interfering with Your Critical Thinking

Chapter 3: What Are the Issue and the Conclusion?

Chapter 4: What Are the Reasons?

Chapter 5: What Words or Phrases Are Ambiguous?

Chapter 6: What Are the Value and Descriptive Assumptions?

Chapter 7: Are There Any Fallacies in the Reasoning?

Chapter 8: How Good Is the Evidence: Intuition, Personal Experience, Case Examples, Testimonials, and Appeals to Authority?

Chapter 9: How Good Is the Evidence: Personal Observation, Research Studies, and Analogies?

Chapter 10: Are There Rival Causes?

Chapter 11: Are the Statistics Deceptive?

Chapter 12 What Significant Information Is Omitted?

Chapter 13: What Reasonable Conclusions Are Possible?