Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Connie Missimer's Good Arguments is the best book I know of to teach beginning argumentation to college freshmen and sophomores. It is clear, elegant, and sharp. I especially like the way she outlines the skeleton of an argument, using thesis, evidence, and implications as crucial aspects of the structure.
I have used the book on several occasions as a college textbook and it has proved its worth. Although it is quite expensive, every page is smart and clear, and students really learn from it.
I wish that there was just a little bit more humor in the book, and perhaps some illustrations. It is quite dry for young people who have short attention spans. I have to push them through it, and use the book with other materials such as comic strips and jokes to lighten up the rigorous and sustained ideas which Missimer presents.
-- Kirby Olson, Ph.D.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Good Arguments: An Introduction to Critical Thinking (4th Edition)
This book proceeds from CT in everyday life to sophisticated critical thinking in academic fields, with chapters which clearly outline the types of evidence in science, the social sciences, and the humanities. Unlike most other books, it offers a clear description of CT as the comparison of formulas of CT. Chapter topics include issue, conclusion, and reason; how to create alternative arguments; deciding to accept an argument; assumptions and implications; prescriptions; deliberations; experiment, correlation, and speculation; and problem solving by way of review. For a lifetime of thinking critically, reading the good arguments of others, and creating your own—across a wide spectrum of subjects.
