Sylvan Barnet, Hugo Bedau
From critical thinking to argument
A portable guide
Contents
Preface
v
PART ONE
FROM CRITICAL THINKING
TO ARGUMENT A N D 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
A Short Essay Illustrating Critical Thinking
15
16
ALAN DERSHOWITZ, Why Fear N a t i o n a l 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
ix
X
CONTENTS
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 A m e n d m e n t Junkie 37
A feminist argues against those feminists who seek to ban pornography.
Summarizing Jacoby, Paragraph by Paragraph 40
A CHECKLIST FOR GETTING STARTED
EXERCISE: LETTER TO THE EDITOR
43
44
3 Critical Reading: Getting Deeper into Arguments
Persuasion, Argument, Dispute
45
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
CONTENTS
4 Visual Rhetoric: Images as Arguments
Some Uses of Images
Appeals to the Eye
Xl
89
89
89
Are Some Images Not Fit to Be Shown?
94
EXERCISES: THINKING ABOUT IMAGES
Reading Advertisements
100
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 N o t h i n g ?
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
5 Writing an Analysis of an Argument
114
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 C H E C K L I S T F O R A N A L Y Z I N G A TEXT
121
An Argument, Its Elements, and a Student's Analysis of the Argument
122
NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, For E n v i r o n m e n t a l Balance,
Pick Up a Rifle 122
"Let's bring back hunting. "
BETSY S W I N T O N (STUDENT ESSAY), T r a c k i n g K r i s t o f
An Analysis of the Student's Analysis
131
128
xii
CONTENTS
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
Getting Ideas, 134
The Thesis, 142
A CHECKLIST FOR A THESIS STATEMENT,
Imagining an Audience, 143
134
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 D o n ' t S p a r e " S p a r e C h a n g e "
The Essay Analyzed
EXERCISE
173
173
7 Using Sources
175
W h y Use Sources?
Choosing a Topic
Finding Material
1 75
178
1 79
Interviewing Peers and Local Authorities
180
Finding Quality Information on the Web
1 82
Finding Articles Using Library Databases
Locating Books
1 85
1 84
170
CONTENTS
Evaluating Your Sources
1 85
A CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING PRINT SOURCES
Taking Notes
xiii
186
1 87
A CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING
ELECTRONIC SOURCES 188
A Note on Plagiarizing, Paraphrasing, and Using
Common Knowledge
190
A CHECKLIST FOR AVOIDING PLAGIARISM
Compiling an Annotated Bibliography
191
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
8 A Philosopher's View: The Toulmin Model
The Claim
256
255
253
XIV
CONTENTS
Grounds
Warrants
Backing
256
257
259
Modal Qualifiers
Rebuttals
259
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 2 6 5
MICHAEL S. DUKAKIS AND DANIEL J. B. MITCHELL,
Raise Wages, N o t Walls 265
Thinking with Toulmin's Method
267
9 A Logician's View: Deduction, Induction, Fallacies
Deduction
270
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 Relevance, 302
Fallacies of Presumption, 296
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
Rogerian Argument: An Introduction
311
311
CARL R. ROGERS, C o m m u n i c a t i o n : Its Blocking a n d 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
CONTENTS
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