Becoming a Critical Thinker: A User Friendly Manual

Developing Instinctive Analytical Skills in Students

Becoming a Critical Thinker: A User Friendly Manual trains students to distinguish high-quality, well-supported arguments from those with little or no evidence to support them.

It develops the skills required to effectively evaluate the many claims facing them as citizens, learners, consumers, and human beings, and also to be effective advocates for their beliefs.

Teaching and Learning Experience

Improve Critical Thinking - Coverage of persuasive speaking, decision-making, the Toulmin model of argumentation, and chapter-end writing and speaking exercisesall teach students to construct and present arguments so that they can gain skill and confidence.

Engage Students - Becoming a Critical Thinker: A User Friendly Manual exposes students to a variety of contemporary and multicultural issues, engaging their understanding of analytical skills through the use of articles and varied examples.

Support Instructors - Teaching your course just got easier! You can create a Customized Text or use our Instructor’s Manual, Electronic “MyTest” Test Bank or PowerPoint Presentation Slides. PLUS, our new Instructor’s Manual has been updated and expanded with revised tests and answer keys, a discussion of chapter exercises, and suggestions for teaching critical thinking concepts.

Sherry Diestler serves as chair of the Communication Studies department at Contra Costa College, where she teaches Critical Thinking, Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, and Speaking in the Community. She founded the college's competitive Speech and Debate Team and also created the college's Communication Lab to help students across the curriculum prepare and present speeches for their classes. Her department won a POWER award for Outstanding Program Outcomes Assessment (Student Learning Outcomes) from the Research Planning Group of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges.
Sherry received bachelor's degrees in English and Speech at Pennsylvania State University and earned membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Her master's degree in Communication Arts and Sciences/Media Studies is from Queens College of the City University of New York, where she was fortunate to be trained under Joseph DeVito and Gary Gumpert. She has worked as a communications consultant for the Office of Personnel Management, Western Region, as well as for a number of private corporations. In addition to the six prior editions of Becoming a Critical Thinker, she has edited three editions of her department custom text with Fountainhead Press entitled Public Speaking for College, Competition, and Career. Her online interpersonal communication text, The Interpersonal Project: Tools for Building, Maintaining, and Repairing Relationships, is being used across her department. She serves as chair of the Professional Development Committee and on the Board of Gateway to College and is a member of the National Communication Centers Association and the National Communication Association.