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Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, 12th edition

Published by Pearson (June 13, 2017) © 2018

  • M Browne Bowling Green University
  • Stuart M. Keeley Bowling Green State University

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For courses in argument, linguistics, and composition – or in any course where critical thinking is key.

Think critically, analyze objectively, and judge soundly when you know the right questions to ask.

Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking bridges the gap between simply memorizing or blindly accepting information, and the greater challenge of critical analysis and synthesis. Authors M. Neil Browne and Stuart Keeley teach students to think critically by exploring the components of arguments – the ¿¿issues, conclusions, reasons, evidence, assumptions, and language – ¿¿and showing how to spot fallacies, manipulations, and faulty reasoning. They demonstrate how to respond to alternative points of view and make the best personal choices about what information to accept or reject.

Now in its 12th Edition, this current and concise text greatly extends the understanding of critical thinking to writing and speaking. Additionally, the updated practice passages and exercises, as well as an enhanced visual program, add to this book’s appeal in a variety of courses and disciplines.

Integrate your approach to critical thinking, objective analysis, and sound judgment.

  • Critical thinking is presented as a process for improving the beliefs we hold and the decisions we make. In our current world of “fake news” and scientific “perspectives,” the ability to evaluate research studies and think critically about their results is crucial.
      • A step-¿by¿-step approach introduces a particular critical-thinking learning skill in each chapter, and then adds to the list of cumulative skills with each subsequent chapter.  
      • NEW! The understanding of critical thinking has been extended to writing and speaking, through the expertise of an experienced writing teacher, who illustrates how to translate critical analysis into powerful speeches and effective, coherent prose.
  • EXPANDED! The social or interactive nature of critical thinking – how the questioning methods and techniques can greatly influence the value of the dialogue – is strongly emphasized. Some people feel threatened when their beliefs are challenged, and that leads to a communication breakdown. Using a more interactive approach to questioning and listening stimulates conversation and produces more successful outcomes.
  • UPDATED! Insights from Daniel Kahneman – renowned psychologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow – are integrated throughout the book, emphasizing the benefits and importance of slow thinking.


Guide reading and listening habits with current topics, fresh visuals, and hands-on practice.

  • NEW! New sections on Measurement Errors, Grey Thinking, Managed Reasoning, and Fundamental Attribution Errors cover issues of current interest and importance.
  • NEW! Visual representations echo what is said in print, benefitting many students as they learn to think critically. This edition adds multiple charts at the very point where especially important ideas are being discussed.
  • Practice Passages¿ offer opportunities to immediately apply critical-thinking skills to a short passage, appearing at the end of each chapter.
      • NEW! One-third of the practice passages have been replaced with material more closely tied to students’ lives.
      • Think-aloud answers, for early practice passages, walk students through the process of responding critically to the passage. “Hearing” the step-by-step process of accepting, rejecting, revising, and organizing an answer gives the reader a more realistic picture of the actual process.

  • The understanding of critical thinking has been extended to writing and speaking, through the expertise of an experienced writing teacher, who illustrates how to translate critical analysis into powerful speeches and effective, coherent prose.
  • EXPANDED! The social or interactive nature of critical thinking — how the questioning methods and techniques can greatly influence the value of the dialogue — is strongly emphasized. Some people feel threatened when their beliefs are challenged, and that leads to a communication breakdown. Using a more interactive approach to questioning and listening stimulates conversation and produces more successful outcomes.
  • UPDATED! Insights from Daniel Kahneman — renowned psychologist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, and author of Thinking, Fast and Slow — are integrated throughout the book, emphasizing the benefits and importance of slow thinking.
  • New sections on Measurement Errors, Grey Thinking, Managed Reasoning, and Fundamental Attribution Errors cover issues of current interest and importance.
  • Visual representations echo what is said in print, benefitting many students as they learn to think critically. This edition adds multiple charts at the very point where especially important ideas are being discussed.
  • One-third of the practice passages have been replaced with material more closely tied to students’ lives.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  1. The Benefit and Manner of Asking the Right Questions
    • The Noisy, Confused World We Live In
    • Experts Cannot Rescue Us, Despite What They Say
    • The Necessity of Relying on Our Mind
    • Critical Thinking to the Rescue
    • The Sponge and Panning for Gold: Alternative Thinking Styles
    • Weak-Sense and Strong-Sense Critical Thinking
      • The Importance of Practice
    • Critical Thinking and Other People
      • Primary Values of a Critical Thinker
    • Keeping the Conversation Going
      • Creating a Friendly Environment for Communication
    • Writing and Speaking as Critical Thinkers
  2. What Are the Issue and the Conclusion?
    • Kinds of Issues
    • Searching for the Issue
    • Searching for the Author’s or Speaker’s Conclusion
    • Clues to Discovery: How to Find the Conclusion
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
  3. What Are the Reasons?
    • Initiating the Questioning Process
    • Words That Identify Reasons
    • Keeping the Reasons and Conclusions Straight
      • Reasons First, Then Conclusions
    • Writing and Speaking as Critical Thinkers
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
  4. What Words or Phrases Are Ambiguous?
    • The Confusing Flexibility of Words
    • Locating Key Terms and Phrases
    • Checking for Ambiguity
    • Determining Ambiguity
    • Context and Ambiguity
    • Ambiguity, Definitions, and the Dictionary
    • Limits of Your Responsibility to Clarify Ambiguity
    • Writing and Speaking as Critical Thinkers
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
  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
    • The Value of Knowing the Value Priorities of Others
    • Values and Relativism
    • Identifying and Evaluating Descriptive Assumptions
    • Illustrating Descriptive Assumptions
    • Common Descriptive Assumptions
    • Clues for Locating Assumptions
    • Writing and Speaking as Critical Thinkers
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
  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
    • Summary of Reasoning Errors
    • Expanding Your Knowledge of Fallacies
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
  7. The Worth of Personal Experience, Case Examples, Testimonials, and Statements of Authority as Evidence
    • Fact or Opinion?
    • The Need for Dependable Evidence
    • Sources of Evidence
    • Personal Experience as Evidence
    • Case Examples as Evidence
    • Testimonials as Evidence
    • Appeals to Authority as Evidence
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
  8. How Good Is the Evidence: Personal Observation and Research Studies?
    • Personal Observation as Evidence
    • Biased Surveys and Questionnaires
    • Research Studies as Evidence
      • General Problems with Research Findings
    • Generalizing From the Research Sample
    • Generalizing From the Research Measures
    • When You Can Most Trust Expert Opinion
      • Research and the Internet
    • Writing and Speaking as Critical Thinkers
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
  9. Are There Rival Causes?
    • When to Look for Rival Causes
    • The Pervasiveness of Rival Causes
    • Detecting Rival Causes
    • The Cause or a Cause
    • Multiple Perspectives as a Guide to Rival Causes
    • 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
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
  10. Are Any Statistics Deceptive?
    • Unknowable and Biased Statistics
    • Confusing Averages
    • Measurement Errors
    • Concluding One Thing, Proving Another
    • Deceiving by Omitting Information
    • Using Statistics in Your Writing
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
  11. What Significant Information Is Omitted?
    • The Benefits of Detecting Omitted Information
    • The Certainty of Incomplete Reasoning
    • Questions That Identify Omitted Information
    • But We Need to Know the Numbers
    • The Importance of the Negative View
    • Omitted Information That Remains Missing
    • Writing and Speaking as Critical Thinkers
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
  12. What Reasonable Conclusions Are Possible?
    • Dichotomous Thinking: Impediment to Considering Multiple Conclusions
    • Grey Thinking: Two Sides or Many?
    • Productivity of If-Clauses
    • The Liberating Effect of Recognizing Alternative Conclusions
    • Summary
    • Practice Exercises
    • Sample Responses
  13. Speed Bumps Interfering with Your Critical Thinking
    • The Discomfort of Asking the Right Questions
    • Thinking Too Quickly
    • Stereotypes
    • Mental Habits That Betray Us
      • Halo Effect
      • Belief Perseverance
      • Availability Heuristic
      • Answering the Wrong Question
    • Egocentrism
    • Wishful Thinking: Perhaps the Biggest Single Speed Bump on the Road to Critical Thinking
    • Final Words

Index

Professor M. Neil Browne has taught critical thinking, great ideas, economics, and law at Bowling Green State University for five decades. During that time, he authored 55 books and 170 professional research articles in multiple disciplines. In addition, he consulted and trained – focusing heavily on critical thinking – the faculty, corporate managers, and government leaders at some of the nation’s most prestigious institutions. He has recently been asked to keynote the International Critical Thinking Conferences in Turkey and China.

Browne created the Honors Scholars Learning Community at Bowling Green, with the single focus of enhancing the critical thinking and ethical reasoning of the university’s most outstanding students. Critical thinking has also been a core element of his success as a coach of Intercollegiate Mock Trial, Intercollegiate Mediation, and Intercollegiate Model Arab League teams.


Stuart Keeley received his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Illinois, and enjoyed a flourishing 30-year career as a psychology professor at Bowling Green State University. His undergraduate and graduate teaching focused on abnormal psychology and clinical assessment. He also taught critical thinking to freshmen for many years. In 2000, the Bowling Green State University Trustees awarded him the title of Distinguished Teaching Professor of Psychology.

In addition to Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, Keeley has published numerous other books,including Striving for Excellence in College; Asking the Right Questions in Abnormal Psychology; and Psychology on the Internet: Evaluating Online Resources. His dozens of research articles in psychology and higher education have centered around pedagogy, community mental health training, and decision making. Now in his retirement, he continues to be an avid listener and reader, as well as an accomplished author.

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