Arguing Using Critical Thinking
Jim Marteney, Los Angeles Valley College
Copyright Year: 2020
Publisher: Academic Senate for California Community Colleges
Language: English
Conditions of Use
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
CC BY-NC-SA
Reviews
The book does name, identify and define key terms of argument and the basis for effective argument. read more
The book does name, identify and define key terms of argument and the basis for effective argument.
This text has no grammatical errors and is unbiased in the definitions and the various contexts in which arguments occur.
Relevance and longevity do not really apply to the subject and context of this text. The book is very general and the time and place do not play a role.
The definitions and graphs/charts (only 2 or 3 have been added) are very basic, almost to the point of being counter productive. The Inductive and deductive chart has no value in the design or in the side notes accompanying the graph. No enough detail or design features were added to this one graph.
Consistency is not a feature to discuss because every chapter has a different main idea from types of arguments to resolving arguments to types of behavior commonly seen during arguments. There is no sequencing of material from beginning to end in term of moving from basic through intermediate and advanced level of thinking.
The book clearly defines the title of each section, but again, all taken together, no advancement in theory is developed throughout.
The chapters do not appear in any type of order. The book moves from arguing to argument and behaviors commonly found during arguments. The last chapters talk about reasoning skills such as inductive and deductive thinking.
The graphic and pictures do nothing to promote thinking or understanding and are therefore superfluous.
This critique here is not so much grammar but but point of view. The book really reads like a self help book or guide for a very basic reader. But the point of view shifts from 'you" as is what "you" should do to the the third person "they". This is very poor writing and leads to the next point which is its lack of value as a high school or college text. It is difficult to understand what student and in what circumstances would benefit or be inspired to read it.
There is no politically incorrect content.
As briefly mentioned, the causal, offhand, self help nature of this book is not designed in any way to be used as a text. Because each chapter is separate with no sequencing, it would be impossible to develop any in depth assignments, No exercises are added so nothing would materialize in the way of theory, practice, analysis or discussion.
Table of Contents
- 1: Standing Up For Your Point Of View
- 2: Communicating An Argument
- 3: Clash
- 4: Claims
- 5: Building Your Case With Issues, Analysis And Contentions
- 6: Evidence
- 7: Reasoning
- 8: Validity Or Truth
- 9: Changing Beliefs, Attitudes and Behavior
- 10: Decision Making - Judging an Argument
- 11: Discovering, Examining and Improving Our Reality
- 12: The Foundations of Critical Thinking
About the Book
There is a quote that has been passed down many years and is most recently accounted to P.T. Barnum, “There is a sucker born every minute.” Are you that sucker? If you were, would you like to be “reborn?” The goal of this book is to help you through that “birthing” process. Critical thinking and standing up for your ideas and making decisions are important in both your personal and professional life. How good are we at making the decision to marry? According to the Centers for Disease Control, there is one divorce in America every 36 seconds. That is nearly 2,400 every day. And professionally, the Wall Street Journal predicts the average person will have 7 careers in their lifetime. Critical thinking skills are crucial.
Critical thinking is a series learned skills. In each chapter of this book you will find a variety of skills that will help you improve your thinking and argumentative ability. As you improve, you will grow into a more confident person being more in charge of your world and the decisions you make.
About the Contributors
Author
Jim Marteney, Professor Emeritus (Communication Studies) at Los Angeles Valley College