Title:
Thinking for yourself : developing critical thinking skills through reading and writing
Personal Author:
Edition:
8th ed.
Publication Information:
Boston, MA : Wadsworth Publishing, 2010
Physical Description:
xx, 396 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.
ISBN:
9781428231443
Available:*
Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010204435 | BF455 M29 2010 | Open Access Book | Book | Searching... |
On Order
Summary
Summary
THINKING FOR YOURSELF: DEVELOPING CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS THROUGH READING AND WRITING offers a unique integration of composition, reading, and critical thinking. As you complete the book's writing assignments, you'll see how your writing reflects your thinking and how self-directed improvement in thinking also improves writing. The book offers step-by-step instruction, humor, cartoons, Internet research exercises, and up-to-date social and political examples as a foundation for lifelong improvement in thinking and writing.
Table of Contents
| Preface |
| Introduction |
| Introduction to Critical Thinking |
| Learning How You Think |
| Discovery Exercise |
| Experiencing How We Actually Think: An Exercise for the Whole Class to Complete Together |
| Learning from Sharing How We Think |
| What Is Critical Thinking? Relationship to Creative Thinking |
| Diagram: Different Functions of Left and Right Brain |
| Why Learn Critical Thinking? The Habits of a Critical Thinker |
| Box: Habits of a Critical Thinker |
| Part I Basics of Critical Thinking |
| 1 Observation Skills: What''s Out There? Discovery Exercises |
| Comparing Our Perceptions |
| What Is Observing? Observing a Cube |
| Observation and Insight |
| Using Observation Skills to Develop New Knowledge |
| Reading |
| Look at Your Fish, by Samuel H. Scudder |
| Core Discovery Writing Application |
| Observing the Familiar: Vegetables and Fruit |
| Evaluating Your Work by Using the Scoring Boxes |
| Alternate Core Discovery Writing Application |
| Observing the Unfamiliar: A Tool |
| The Observation Process: Sensing, Perceiving, Thinking |
| Barriers to Observation |
| How Discomfort Leads Us to Think |
| Diagram: A Choice for Thinking |
| The Rewards of Skilled Observation |
| Building Arguments |
| Observation Skills |
| Reading |
| The Innocent EyeDorr Bothwell |
| Chapter Summary |
| Chapter Quiz |
| Composition Writing Application |
| Survival as a Result of Observing: A Descriptive Narrative Essay |
| Readings: God Grew Tired of UsJohn Bul dau |
| WalkingPaul Krafel |
| Spanish Harlem at NightErnesto Quinonez |
| 2 Word Precision: How Do I Describe It? Discovery Exercise |
| On Finding the Right Word |
| Discovery Exercise |
| Taking an Interest in Dictionaries |
| How Well Do You Use Your Dictionary? Clear Thinking Depends on Clear Word Definitions |
| What Makes a Definition? Diagram: Definition Boundaries |
| Exercise |
| Word Boundaries |
| Kinds of Definitions |
| The Connotations of Words |
| The Importance of Defining Key Ideas |
| Word Concepts |
| Defining Reality |
| Defining Truth |
| What Is Critical Reading? Building Arguments |
| Word Choices |
| Chapter Summary |
| Chapter Quiz |
| Composition Writing Application |
| A Short Essay of Definition |
| Box: Clustering |
| Readings |
| Rankism by Robert W. Fuller, Nerds by David Anderegg, Saved by Malcom X |
| Advanced Optional Writing Assignment |
| 3 Facts: What''s Real? Discovery Exercises |
| Beginning with the Word Fact |
| Learning to Recognize Facts |
| Verifying Facts |
| Facts and Reality |
| Facts Are Not Absolutes |
| Distinguishing Facts from Fiction |
| Feelings Can Be Facts |
| Facts and Social Pressure |
| Diagram: Standard and Comparison Lines in the Asch Experiment |
| Facts and Our Limited Senses |
| Reading |
| The Blind Men and the Elephant |
| Statements of Fact |
| Core Discovery Writing Application |
| Using a List of Facts to Describe a Photograph |
| Standards We Use to Determine Facts |
| Chapter Summary |
| Chapter Quiz |
| Composition Writing Application |
| Writing a Short Fact-Finding Report |
| Readings: Our Daily Meds by Melody Peterson, Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser |
| Building Arguments |
| Advanced Optional Writing Assignment |
| 4 Inferences: What Follows? Discovery Exercise |
| Recognizing Inferential Thinking |
| Defining Infer, Understanding the Words Infer and Inference |
| Discovery Exercises |
| Drawing Inferences from Evidence |
| Drawing Inferences from Facts |
| Distinguishing Inferences from Facts |
| How Inferences Can Go Right and Wrong |
| Reading |
| The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle |
| Drawing Inferences from Careful Observation |
| Core Discovery Writing Application |
| Using Facts and Inferences to Describe a Photograph |
| Generalizations Are Inferences |
| Composition Writing Application |
| Writing a Paragraph from Facts, Inferences, and Generalizations |
| Core Discovery Writing Application |
| Analyzing the Use of Facts and Inferences in a Newspaper Article |
| Reading |
| Tougher Grading Better for Students |
| Building Arguments:Inferences |
| Chapter Summary |
| Chapter Quiz |
| Readings |
| Friends by Tim O''Brien, He Fixes Radios by Thinking by Richard P Feynman, The Mistake of the Sand Flea by Paul Krafel |
| Objectives Review of |
| Part I |
| Part II PROBLEMS OF CRITICAL |
