Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking with NEW MyCompLab -- Access Card Package

ALERT: Before you purchase, check with your instructor or review your course syllabus to ensure that you select the correct ISBN. Several versions of Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products exist for each title, including customized versions for individual schools, and registrations are not transferable. In addition, you may need a CourseID, provided by your instructor, to register for and use Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products.   Packages Access codes for Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products may not be included when purchasing or renting from companies other than Pearson; check with the seller before completing your purchase.   Used or rental books If you rent or purchase a used book with an access code, the access code may have been redeemed previously and you may have to purchase a new access code.   Access codes Access codes that are purchased from sellers other than Pearson carry a higher risk of being either the wrong ISBN or a previously redeemed code. Check with the seller prior to purchase.   -- Used in a variety of courses in various disciplines, Asking the Right Questions helps bridge the gap between simply memorizing or blindly accepting information, and the greater challenge of critical analysis and synthesis.  Specifically, this concise text teaches how 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.    0321881680 / 9780321881687 Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking with NEW MyCompLab Package consists of 0205111165 / 9780205111169 Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking 020589190X / 9780205891900 NEW MyCompLab - Valuepack Access Card

Table of Contents:
 Preface    Key ongoing features of Asking the Right Questions    The special features of this new edition   Chapter 1: The Benefit and Manner of Asking the Right Questions    The Sponge and Panning for Gold: Alternative Thinking Styles    Tan Example of the Panning for Gold Approach    The Myth of the “Right Answer”    The Usefulness of Asking the Question: “Who Cares?”    Weak-Sense and Strong-Sense Critical Thinking    The Satisfaction of Panning for Gold    The Importance of Practice    The Right Questions    Critical Thinking is a Social Activity    Values and Other People    The Primary Values of a Critical Thinker    Thinking and Feeling    Keeping the Conversation Going    Creating a Friendly Environment for Communication    Wishful Thinking: Perhaps the Biggest Single Obstacle to Critical Thinking   Chapter 2: What are the Issue and the Conclusion?    Kinds of Issues    Searching for the Issue    Searching for the Author’s or Speaker’s Conclusion    USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION    Clues to Discovery: How to Find the Conclusion    Critical Thinking and Your Own Writing and Speaking    Narrowing Your Issue Prior to Writing    Practice Exercises    Sample Responses   Chapter 3: What Are the Reasons?    Initiating the Questioning Process    Words that Identify Reasons    Kinds of Reasons       Keeping the Reasons and Conclusions Straight    USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION    Critical Thinking and Your Own Writing and Speaking    Practice Exercises    Sample Responses   Chapter 4: What Words or Phrases Are Ambiguous?    The Confusing Flexibility of Words    Locating Key Terms and Phrases    Checking for Ambiguity    USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION    Determining Ambiguity    Context and Ambiguity    USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION    Ambiguity, Definitions, and the Dictionary    Ambiguity and Loaded Language    Limits of Your Responsibility to Clarify Ambiguity    Ambiguity and Your Own Writing and Speaking    Practice Exercises    Sample Responses   Chapter 5: What Are the Value and Descriptive Assumptions?    General Guide for Identifying Assumptions    Value Conflicts and Assumptions    From Values to Value Assumptions    Typical Value Conflicts    The Communicator’s Background as a Clue to Value Assumptions    Consequences as Clues to Value Assumptions    More Hints for Finding Value Assumptions    Finding Value Assumptions on Your Own    USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION    Values and Relativism    Identifying and Evaluating Descriptive Assumptions    Illustrating Descriptive Assumptions    Clues for Locating Assumptions    Avoiding Analysis of Trivial Assumptions    Practice Exercises    Sample Responses   Chapter 6: Are There Any Fallacies in the Reasoning?    A Questioning Approach to Finding Reasoning Fallacies    Evaluating Assumptions as a Starting Point    Discovering Other Common Reasoning Fallacies    Looking for Diversions    Sleight of Hand: Begging the Question    USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION    Summary of Reasoning Errors    Expanding Your Knowledge of Fallacies    Fallacies and Your Own Writing and Speaking    Practice Exercises    Sample Responses   Chapter 7: How Good Is the Evidence: Intuition, Personal Experience, Case Examples, Testimonials, and Appeals to Authority?    The Need for Evidence    Locating Factual Claims    Sources of Evidence    Intuition as Evidence    Personal Experience as Evidence    Case Examples as Evidence    Testimonials as Evidence    Appeals to Authority as Evidence    USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION    EVIDENCE AND YOUR WRITING AND SPEAKING    Practice Exercises    Sample Responses   Chapter 8: How Good Is the Evidence: Personal Observation, Research Studies, and Analogies?    Personal Observation    Research Studies as Evidence    Problems with Research Findings    Generalizing from the Research Sample    Biased Surveys and Questionnaires    Critical Evaluation of a Research-Based Argument    Analogies as Evidence    Identifying and Comprehending Analogies    Evaluating Analogies    USING EVIDENCE IN YOUR OWN WRITING    Research and the Internet    Practice Exercises    Sample Responses   Chapter 9: Are There Rival Causes?    When to Look For Rival Causes    The Pervasiveness of Rival Causes    Detecting Rival Causes    The Cause or a Cause    Rival Causes for Differences Between Groups    Confusing Causation with Association    Confusing “After this” with “Because of this”    Explaining Individual Events or Acts    Evaluating Rival Causes    RIVAL CAUSES AND YOUR OWN COMMUNICATIoN    Exploring Potential Causes    Narrowing Down Your List of Potential Causes    Practice Exercises    Sample Responses   Chapter 10: Are the Statistics Deceptive?    Unknowable and Biased Statistics    Confusing Averages    Concluding One Thing, Proving Another    Deceiving by Omitting Information    Risk Statistics and Omitted Information       USING STATISTICS IN YOUR WRITING    Practice Exercises    Sample Responses   Chapter 11: What Significant Information is Omitted?    The Benefits of Detecting Omitted Information    The Certainty of Incomplete Reasoning    Questions that Identify Omitted Information    The Importance of the Negative View    Omitted Information That Reminas Missing    MISSING INFORMATION IN YOUR OWN ARGUMENTS    USING THIS CRITICAL QUESTION    Practice Exercises    Sample Responses   Chapter 12: What Reasonable Conclusions Are Possible?    Assumptions and Multiple Conclusions    Dichotomous Thinking: Impediment to Considering Multiple Conclusions    Two Sides or Many?    Searching for Multiple Conclusions    Productivity of If-Clauses    Alternative Solutions as Conclusions    The Liberating Effect of Recognizing Alternative Conclusions    All Conclusions Are Not Created Equal    Summary    Practice Exercises    Sample Respones   Final Word