Students enroll in a critical thinking course because it is a requirement for graduation. Few, if

Chapter 1 Thinking Critically

Students enroll in a critical thinking course because it is a requirement for graduation. Few, if any, would take the course if it were not required. And yet, the skills taught in critical thinking courses are foundational for success in college. The aim of this chapter is to convince students that the material learned in a critical thinking course is important and useful so that they will be more likely to devote the necessary time and energy to learn the skills.We hope that those of you who used our first edition find that the exposition and exercises are more effective in getting students to see the importance of these skills for themselves. We have included exercises in order to discourage instructors from skipping this chapter. However, these exercises do not involve the practicing of skills in the same degree as those in the remainder of the book. Instead, we are introducing students to the distinctions between reasons and other forms of persuasion in ways we hope are unintimidating and inviting. Some exercises are best thought of as discussion starters, aimed to get students thinking about the usefulness of the course.

Challenges

Our experience is that students generally act as if they have never been given a justification for any part of their curriculum, and they tend to be very interested in hearing that we view the course as important for their development, not as a hoop for them to jump through. Thus, most students welcome having any kind of real discussion about the reason for this logical reasoning requirement and it goes some way to overcoming the message we often inadvertently give students that general requirements are courses “to get out of the way.” We do not test students on anything from this chapter. Initially we did, but we felt that it defeated the purpose. We don’t want students to memorize Bloom’s taxonomy or the “four ways” the text can improve their way in life. Instead, we think it important and sufficient that students just be exposed to the view that the course is valuable because it provides some of the foundation for much of what they will need to be able to do in life.For those instructors planning to teach Chapter 12, you may consider collecting students’ answers to Exercise 1.2 to later compare with their answers to Exercises 12.3. This could serve as a pre/post-test to show them their progress after learning critical thinking skills since both exercises ask students to construct arguments in response to the campaign for a smoke-free campus example.This chapter is unrepresentative of the remainder of the book. Because the skills are introduced in an informal way, students do not get an immediate sense of what coursework will be expected of them. We always use this occasion to remind students that the material begins simply and gets challenging very quickly.

Answers

Exercise 1.1 Student answers will vary.(Critical Thinking A User's Manual 2e Debra Jackson, Paul Newberry) (Solution Manual all Chapters) 1 / 4

Chapter 1 Thinking Critically 2 Copyright © Cengage Learning Company. All rights reserved.

Exercise 1.2 Student answers will vary.

Exercise 1.3 Comprehension. Analysis. Student answers will vary.

Exercise 1.4 Evaluation. Student answers will vary..

Exercise 1.5

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Exercise 1.6 Creation. Student answers will vary.

Exercise 1.7 Student answers will vary.

Exercise 1.8 Student answers will vary.Exercise 1.9 Student answers will vary. Examples are below.

• This advertisement is trying to convince viewers to purchase Zinn’s Cosmetic Surgery

services. It implies that the viewer’s physical appearance is inadequate or defective and it appeals to the viewer’s vanity or insecurity by equating self-worth with physical appearance.

• In this passage, a political candidate is trying to convince voters to re-elect him or her, but

does not offer any reasons to do so. The candidate flatters voters by referring to them as “wonderful people” and attacks the other candidate by calling her “an ultraconservative fascist” with a “radical agenda.”

• In this passage, a defense attorney is trying to convince the jury to acquit his or her client.

Whether the client would ever steal money from a church is relevant to the verdict, but the attorney doesn’t give any evidence that this is true. Instead, the attorney appeals to the emotions of the jurors by trying to make them feel sorry for the client.

• This advertisement is trying to convince voters to re-elect Governor Thomas primarily by

referencing the approval of environmental organizations (e.g. “Green Nevada”) and the energy industry (e.g. the Oil Producers’ Council), but also by referencing his/her bipartisan strategy for updating standards for new oil exploration. 2 / 4

Chapter 1 Thinking Critically 3 Copyright © Cengage Learning Company. All rights reserved.

• This advertisement is trying to convince you to donate money to charity by making you feel

sympathy for children living in extreme poverty. It also implies that if you do not donate 20 cents per day, you are greedy and selfish.

Exercise 1.10 Student answers will vary.

Exercise 1.11 Student answers will vary.

Exercise 1.12 Student answers will vary. Examples are below.

• This passage is likely spoken by a parent who is trying to convince his/her young adult child

to pursue lucrative employment.

• The speaker of this passage is trying to convince you to pursue a career that you find

meaningful, rather than focus on wages/salary.

• This passage is likely spoken by an athletics coach who is emphasizing winning as the only

goal for the players.

• This passage is likely spoken by a parent who wants his/her young adult child to attend law

school. It is an ultimatum.

• This passage praises ignorance as the key to happiness.

Chapter Review Questions

• Critical thinking refers to thinking that uses reason to decide what to do and what to

believe.

• The four foundational skills of critical thinking are argument recognition, argument analysis,

argument evaluation, and argument construction.

• Critical thinking skills are useful in the classroom, in the workplace, in civic life, and in living

an examined life.

One Step Further

• Student answers will vary.
• Student answers will vary.
• Student answers will vary.
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Chapter 2 Recognizing Arguments

The purpose of this chapter is to teach students how to distinguish argumentative discourse from other kinds of discourse by using a step-by-step decision procedure. The chapter also demonstrates to the student how skills-based instruction works: they must learn concepts, not merely to repeat back on tests, but in order to be able to use them. Thus, they begin learning in this chapter that acquiring thinking skills requires deliberate practice that leads to mastery.The simplicity of the first half of the chapter greatly contrasts with the difficulty-level of the second half of the chapter. Even at the end of the course, many students have difficulty distinguishing arguments from passages that are non-arguments. Hence, the skills learned in this chapter are reinforced in the “Putting It All Together” exercises at the end of every chapter.Instructors who have been using the first edition of the User’s Manual will notice that not only does the analysis of passages now begin in Chapter 2 rather than in Chapter 3, we no longer ask students to identify the parts of an explanation (explanans and explanandum), and we have changed the name of the format to Critical Précis.

Challenges

Some students do not recognize sentences reporting experiences or beliefs as claims (for example, Exercise 2.3 #9 and #19), but easily see that placing the phrase “it is true that” in front of the sentence reveals that they are claims. Some students want to count all claims with “and” as multiple claims (for example, Exercise 2.9, #11), and many forget to look out for repeated claims (for example, Exercise 2.9, #20). The most challenging skill in this chapter is understanding that reasons can have different purposes in arguments and explanations. In the second edition we have downplayed the identification of arguments (since it does not serve a useful purpose in the remainder of the text) but the distinction between reasons in arguments and non-arguments is still vital. Part of the reason that students have difficulty distinguishing a reason’s purpose is that the phrase “tell why” is commonly used with regard to both. Directing their direct attention to the purpose of the passage helps—does the passage provide evidence to prove something, or does it explain something that the author believes the reader already accepts as true?The biggest problem in this chapter is that much of the content of this chapter can appear so much like common sense that students can get a false sense of easy mastery. In response, we continually ask students to explain how they arrive at their answers and make sure they are following the correct procedure.

Answers

Exercise 2.1 It is true that was pilot error the cause of the plane crash? It is true that brush your teeth after meals. It is true that thank you for your consideration.

Exercise 2.2

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