Critical Thinking and Everyday Argument - Softcover

VerLinden, Jay

Softcover

ISBN 10: 053460174X ISBN 13: 9780534601744

Publisher: Cengage Learning, 2004

Synopsis

Learn how to win arguments with CRITICAL THINKING AND EVERDAY ARGUMENT with InfoTrac! Through everyday experiences and examples, this communication text introduces you the principles of argumentation and helps you apply these principles to your own life. Studying is made easy with a website that helps you test your mastery of the material through quizzes, tests, and tutorials.

About this title

About the Author

Jay VerLinden is a Professor in the Department of Communication at Humboldt State University. He participated in competitive speech and debate through high school and college, and coached Forensics for 20 years before retiring from Forensics to become department chairman. He was the Director of Forensics at Wayne State College in Nebraska, Simpson College in Iowa, and Humboldt State University in California. He was the president of the Mid-America Forensics League and the Northern California Forensics Association. He earned his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Northern Colorado and a Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Review

"VerLinden invites students to explore a world of argumentation and persuasion in which they are already living--to identify potential fallacies, to enhance critical thinking skills and to ultimately defend a position with improved language, logic and evidence."

"I would describe this text to a colleague as a student-centered, engaging text offering scholars of argumentation a stimulating work for undergraduate course in argumentation and critical thinking. CRITICAL THINKING AND EVERYDAY ARGUMENT boasts the clarity and reasoned approach of its subject. The text is attentive to its audience without sacrificing the intellectual rigor of its subject matter."

"The book simplifies theories of argumentation and critical thinking so that students should find these ideas easy to use in the construction, interpretation, and evaluation of everyday arguments. The book does a particularly good job of illustrating how the principles apply to arguments in interpersonal conflicts and small group decisions."

"I think your author is to be praised for seeking to write a text that accommodates what are often competing strands--instructing students in the pursuit of sound, logical, and reasonable arguments, while simultaneously directing them to participate in a cooperative spirit and exercise rhetorical/contextual sensitivity. He seems to communicate very well that arguing isn't about diagrams on a page, but is, rather, about human beings bringing their best ideas to the table in the hopes that we can act in ways that serve us well."

"I like the fact that the text moves away from formal debate and toward an inclusive view of argument. Students will be much more interested in a text that sees argument as a natural part of their lives. Very few of our students will ever engage in a formal debate."

Edition details

• Publisher: Cengage Learning
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 053460174X
• ISBN 13: 9780534601744
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 380