Extensively classroom-tested, Critical Thinking: An Introduction to Analytical Reading and Reasoning provides a non-technical vocabulary and analytic apparatus that guide students in identifying and articulating the central patterns found in reasoning and in expository writing more generally. Understanding these patterns of reasoning helps students to better analyze, evaluate, and construct arguments and to more easily comprehend the full range of everyday arguments found in ordinary journalism. Critical Thinking distinguishes itself from other texts in the field by emphasizing analytical reading as an essential skill. It also provides detailed coverage of argument analysis, diagnostic arguments, diagnostic patterns, and fallacies. Opening with two chapters on analytical reading that help students recognize what makes reasoning explicitly different from other expository activities, the text then presents an interrogative model of argument to guide them in the analysis and evaluation of reasoning. This model allows a detailed articulation of "inference to the best explanation" and gives students a view of the pervasiveness of this form of reasoning. The author demonstrates how many common argument types--from correlations to sampling--can be analyzed using this articulated form. He then extends the model to deal with several predictive and normative arguments and to display the value of the fallacy vocabulary. Designed for introductory courses in critical thinking, critical reasoning, informal logic, and inductive reasoning, Critical Thinking features hundreds of exercises throughout and includes worked-out solutions and additional exercises (without solutions) at the end of each chapter. An Instructor's Manual, including solutions to the text's unanswered exercises and featuring other pedagogical aids, is available.

Chapters 1 and 4-8 open with an Introduction Each chapter ends with Supplemental Exercises and Answers Preface Part One. PARAPHRASING 1. THE BARE-BONES PARAPHRASE The Concept of Paraphrase Reading and Paraphrase Technique and Vocabulary Human Understanding Subtler Issues Two Principles of Paraphrasing Things to Keep in Mind 2. READING FOR STRUCTURE: DEPENDENCY AND SUBORDINATION Complexity Technique and Vocabulary Useful Patterns Tricks for Tough Cases Systematic Features Trial and Error Exercise 3. READING FOR REASONING: PARAPHRASING ARGUMENTS Reading for a Particular Purpose Reading for Reasoning A Shortcut: Schematizing Directly from a Passage Charitable Schematizing PART TWO. ANALYZING REASONING 4. ARGUMENT ANALYSIS: ANSWERING QUESTIONS The Purpose of Analysis The Fundamental Concepts: Questions and Answers Refining the Apparatus and Exercising Our Skills Evaluating Arguments: How Good Are the Reasons? Interim Summary: What We Have Learned So Far Dealing With Disagreement 5. DIAGNOSTIC ARGUMENTS Diagnostic Questions Diagnostic Concepts Diagnostic Articulation Refinements Diagnostic Investigation 6. DIAGNOSTIC PATTERNS Cause and Correlation Testimony Sampling Counting CaseS: Induction by Enumeration Circumstantial Evidence 7. FURTHER APPLICATIONS: PREDICTION AND RECOMMENDATION Prediction Recommendation 8. FALLACIES Fallacies of Construction Critical Fallacies APPENDIX. DEDUCTION Introduction Semantic Conflict Semantic Evaluation Deductive Argments Structure Tests and Criteria Relative Strength Summary Glossary of Important Terms Index

Larry WrightProfessor of Philosophy, University of California, Riverside