Thinking Skills

1
Thinking Skills

• Chapter 2
• Critical Thinking

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Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking is reasonable, reflective
  thinking focused on deciding what to believe or
  do.
• It involves using basic thinking skills and
  processes to analyze arguments and generate
  insight into particular meanings and
  interpretations to develop cohesive, logical
  reasoning patterns and understand assumptions and
  biases underlying particular positions and to
  attain a credible, concise, and convincing style
  of presentation.

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Concept of Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking has been described in different
  ways
• the evaluation of reasoning and arguments
  (Ruggiero)
• reasonable, reflective thinking directed at
  deciding what to believe or do (Ennis)
• the application of standards to our judgments
  (Paul Elder)
• What these conceptions of critical thinking have
  in common is that before we accept a judgment, we
  should be sure that it is supported by good
  reasons. If it is not, we should not accept it.

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• The critical thinking skills that are the most
  frequently needed in our personal and
  professional lives, fall into two categories
• skills related to basic information that we get
  from a variety of sources, including media,
  textbooks, other people, and even our own
  observations (determining the accuracy of
  observation, determining the reliability of
  sources).
• skills related to inferences in which we draw
  conclusions that we do not verify directly from
  information offered as evidence to support them
  (causal explanation, prediction, generalization,
  and reasoning by analogy), or inferences in which
  we deduce conclusions (conditional reasoning).

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Goals of Critical Thinking

• Critical thinking is considered essential for
  democratic citizenship the goal of teaching
  critical thinking is to develop people who are
  fair-minded, objective, and committed to clarity
  and accuracy.
• Every idea (or project) has its positive points
  and negative ones. Critical thinking does not
  mean to discover the negative points only in your
  opponents idea or point of view. The goal of
  critical thinking is to bring out the truth even
  if it meant your loss.

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Traits of Critical Thinker

• 1. Intellectual Humility (rational modesty)
  Awareness of the limits of ones knowledge,
  including sensitivity to circumstances in which
  ones native egocentrism is likely to function
  self-deceptively sensitivity to bias and
  prejudice in, and limitations of ones view
  point.
• 2. Intellectual Courage The willingness to
  face and assess fairly ideas, beliefs, or
  viewpoints to which we have not given a serious
  hearing, regardless of our strong negative
  reactions to them.
• 3. Intellectual Empathy(understanding)
  (Justice) recognizing the need by imaginatively
  putting oneself in the place of others to
  genuinely understand them, this will lead to an
  intellectual justice.

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• 4. Intellectual good Faith (Integrity or
  reliability ) Recognition of the need to be
  true to ones own thinking, to be consistent
  (steady) in the intellectual standards one
  applies, to hold ones self to the same thorough
  standards of evidence and proof to which one
  holds ones opponents.
• 5. Faith in Reason Confidence that in the
  long run ones own thinking and higher interests
  and those of humankind at large will be served
  best by giving the freest play to reason, by
  encouraging people to come to their own
  conclusions by developing their own rational
  abilities.

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• 6. Intellectual Independence Critical thinking
  is autonomous (self-directed) thinking, it is the
  willingness to tackle all viewpoints
  sympathetically (kindly) and to assess them with
  the same intellectual standards without being
  affected by ones own feelings or interests, or
  the feelings or interests of ones friends,
  community, or nation.
• 7. Intellectual Perseverance (persistence)
  Willingness to pursue (follow) intellectual
  insights (visions) and truths despite
  difficulties, obstacles, and frustrations.
•  

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Skills Used in Critical Thinking

• A wide range of skills in critical thinking have
  been identified through the literature, e.g.
• Focusing on a question
• Analyzing arguments
• Judging the credibility of a source
• Deducing and judging deductions
• Observing and judging observation
• Comparing, Classifying
• Ordering, Representing
• Summarizing, Restructuring, Predicting
• Elaborating (explaining), Identifying
  attributes, relationships.

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Barriers of Critical Thinking

• 1. Lack of Information or Ignorance
• Critical thinking involves the evaluation of
  information and its conceptualization (forming
  ideas), application, analysis and synthesis.
  Therefore, a critical thinker should have enough
  liable (right) information to be able to achieve
  his/her goal.
• 2. Self Deception (tricking)
• It is not easy to face our failure, many times
  we blame it on others. By deceiving ourselves we
  wont be able to analyze our mistakes and treat
  them.  
• 3. Reliance on Expert Opinion
• Experts have their mistakes, and we can be
  intimidated and influenced by their opinion.
  Being a critical thinker means having a cautious
  skepticism and gullibility (innocence), having an
  open mind while not allowing him/herself to be
  conned (cheated). The critical thinker is able to
  recognize as well as evaluate the adequacy and
  applicability of evidence.

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• 4. Bias and Prejudice and Desire
• Human action is grounded (stuck) in human
  motives and motives are typically grounded in
  human desire and perceived interest. We routinely
  categorize, make assumptions, interpret, and
  infer from within a viewpoint we use to advance
  our personal ends and desires. We are, in a
  word, naturally prejudiced in our own favor. It
  is not enough to be taught to be ethical, and
  respectful of human rights. The mere conscious
  will to do good does not remove prejudices which
  shape our perceptions or eliminate the on-going
  drive to form them. To minimize our egocentric
  (selfish) drives, we must develop critical
  thinking in character as well. Indeed we must
  develop and refine our intellectual skills as we
  develop and refine our intellectual character, to
  embed (insert) the skills in our character and
  shape our character through the skills.

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Evaluating Evidence

• 1. Accuracy of Observation
• Eyewitness accounts (explanations) are a special
  case of primary source information based on
  direct observation. In this instance, the
  conditions of observation, the use of
  observation-enhancing instruments, the persons
  expectations of what he or she is seeing, and
  when the report was recorded are all important.
•  
• 2. The Persons Expertise
• The main source of information must be well
  informed and expert on the subject in question.
  If we need a medical information we should get it
  from a specialized doctor or specialized
  journal.. and so on.
•  

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• 3. Disagreement or agreement among experts
• It is a mistake to think that because someone is
  an expert in a field, his or her judgment must be
  accurate. Experts often disagree and may have
  vested interests (private) or biases. Because
  the general public lacks technical expertise, it
  has no way to determine who to believe. As a
  result, people tend to reject expert analysis and
  believe what they want to believe. A good
  critical thinker must weigh all factors and
  establish a pattern of support for or against a
  sources reliability (trustworthiness)
• 4. Conflicts of Interest
• The believability of fact-finding efforts is
  sharply reduced when the experts doing the
  fact-finding work are likely to benefit
  personally by providing misleading information.
  In this case, opponents and the general public
  are likely to doubt the truthfulness or accuracy
  of the expert's conclusions--even if the expert
  is acting reasonably.
•  

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• 5. Reputation / Lack of credibility
  (trustworthiness)
• Sometimes, we get information about one of the
  factors that influence credibility. We may find
  out, for example, that an individual who provides
  some important information on a current matter
  may not have given accurate information in the
  past. His past record casts some doubt on
  whether he is a reliable source for the
  information he is providing now. However, an
  error in the past is not a sufficient support for
  unreliability in the present. Also, the source
  of professional and personal reputation is
  important according to the type of information we
  are gathering.

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Finding resources is about finding the
information you need to make decisions and create
solutions.

• Knowing how to find information is important
  because it arms you with accurate information.
• Our study focus here will be on three types of
  resources
• 1- The internet.
• 2- The library.
• 3- Human resources.

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1- Internet resources

• Searching the internet for resources should not
  be confusing you just need to know what you are
  looking for, and determine the best way to find
  it.
• First of all, you can start with
• A. search engines

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Examples of search engines

• http//www.google.com
• www.alltheweb.com
• www.yahoo.com
• www.bing.com

• You can also go through many sites at one time.
  This type of search engines called meta-search
  engines.
• Example of such sites
• www.surfwax.com
• Neither search engine can distinguish between
  good and bad sites. They simply list everything
  they can find which meets your search criteria.

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B. Subject directories

• This method of information searching is often
  useful and genuine, because the sites the
  directories list, have been chosen by qualified
  people. Thus, what believed to be poor content,
  not listed.
• Some directories hire experts in various fields
  to write guides to their chosen subjects, and
  also to provide links to related sites.

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Example of such subject directories

• About.com (www.about.com) over 50,00 subjects
  with links to a million websites.
• Academic Info (www.academicinfo.net)
  consistently maintained to add free educational
  resources (for late high school level and above)
  while weeding out outdated ones.
• Librarians Index (www.lii.org) over 11,000
  Internet resources selected as the best by
  librarians.
• Infomine (www.infomine.ucr.edu) aimed at
  university-level instructors and students,
  contains 115,000 Internet resources selected by
  university librarians.

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C. Encyclopedias

• The third way to find what are you looking for is
  searching directly the internet on a site at
  which you believe the information may be found.
• Examples of Encyclopedias sites

Wikipedia.org a free access encyclopedia has its
information from the contribution of public
users. Xrefer.com London-based reference book
search engine searches over 50 encyclopedias,
dictionaries (in many categories), and
thesauri Encyclopedia.com Columbia Encyclopedia,
6th edition Britannica.com the first few
paragraphs of each article are free, so if you
need very basic facts, chances are you will get
them for 50 per year you can have total access
to the site Encarta.com some entire entries are
free, others are blocked to those who have not
paid 69 per year for the CD-ROM or DVD
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D. Dictionaries

• Dictionary.com searches a dozen dictionaries at
  one time, including American Heritage (fourth
  edition),Websters Revised Unabridged (1998),
  Princeton Universitys WordNet, and the CIA World
  Factbook.
• M-W.com Merriam Websters older dictionaries
  searched free for access to the new eleventh
  edition, the annual fee is 14.95
  (merriam-webstercollegiate.com).

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Practice

• Answer (T) true or (F) false for the statements
  below.
• ___ 1. Search engines direct you to the best
  sites about the subject you are researching.
• ___ 2. Doing research on the Internet sometimes
  costs money.
• ___ 3. Subject directories are created by
  computers.
• ___ 4. Some search engines search many other
  search engines at the same time.
• ___ 5. You can only find statistics at a library.

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Roadblock to Good Resources

• The main roadblock, or obstacle of conducting a
  good research is that sites with poor contents
  reside side by side with accurate and legitimate
  websites. Such sites (illegitimate, poor content)
  may make fiction posing as facts, or simply
  slipshod work, can look like real work.
• The best way to avoid reliance on poor
  information is to be suspicious. Do not take any
  information you find on the Internet as truth
  until you can substantiate it with duplicate
  information on at least three other sites.

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Practice

• You are building a house and need to decide how
  to heat it. The contractor can put in a natural
  gas, or electric furnace. You want to choose the
  option that is the least expensive to operate. A
  search on the Internet yields five results. Which
  website(s) will most likely have the information
  you need to make a decision?
• 1. www.epa.org the Environmental Protection
  Agency
• 2. www.ashrae.org/ the Society of Heating,
  Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers
• 3. www.forestry.ext.edu educational site about
  the use of wood in home heating units
• 4. www.electricfurnaceswebe.com retailer of
  electric powered home heating units
• 5. www.energycodes.gov Kansas State Universitys
  Engineering Extension website

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2- The library (print resources)

• We need library in our searching for resources
  because internet doesnt always have everything.
• There are three important reasons to do research
  at the library
• A. librarians. They are trained professionals who
  know how to find what you are looking for,
  whether in the stacks or online.

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• B. Reliability of information. Not all of the
  information you find on the Internet is accurate.
  Anyone can publish online, and it is not always
  easy to distinguish between reliable and
  unreliable websites. Many sites containing bogus
  information appear professional and well-written.
• On the other hand, published books (printed
  ones) that we find in the library have been
  through many layers of safety nets before they
  reach the shelves of a library. They are
  typically written, edited, proofread,
  fact-checked, published, and then selected by a
  librarian for purchase.

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• C. Price. The use of a library, including all of
  its electronic services, is free. Some of the
  research resources on the Internet are not. There
  are sites that give away some information, but
  charge for full access to their site. Others will
  not let you in at all unless you are a
  subscriber. Some Internet resources charge
  prohibitively high subscription prices, such as
  the Oxford English Dictionary (currently 550 per
  year). Libraries often pay these prices and
  provide full access.

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3. Going to the experts

• Sometimes, you cant find out what you need to
  know from a website or the library, such as
  interest rates on mortgages that change daily, in
  such cases, you need to find a person or people
  who have the information you are looking for.
• Who are experts Experts are simply those who
  know their subjects and can be relied upon to
  supply correct information.
• They might know about it because they have
  studied it or worked with it long enough to be
  considered highly informed.

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Checking credentials

• before relying on an expert, determine that the
  person has the proper credentials.
• Ask questions about where they are getting their
  information from.
• On what sources do they rely?
• How are they qualified to provide you with the
  information you are looking for?

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Practice

• The college you will attend in the fall has a
  rule that all incoming freshman must take at
  least two courses outside their major during
  their first year at the school. After looking at
  the course catalog, you determine that you only
  have room for one such course. You need to know
  how steadfastly the college maintains this rule.
  Must you drop a course in your major, or can you
  take a required course outside your major as a
  sophomore? How will you get the information you
  need?
• a. Write a letter to the President of the college
• b. Check the schools website
• c. Look it up in the brochure
• d. Call the registrar

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Argument and Reasoning

• Statement and Claims
• For the purposes of critical thinking, all
  sentences can be divided into those that can be
  true or false, and those that cannot. Only a few
  sentences cannot be true or false commands
  (Just do it!), exclamations (How beautiful!), and
  questions (Why not?).
• The vast majority of all sentences in critical
  thinking are called statements or claims. Note
  that you dont need to know whether a statement
  is true or false, just that it has the form of
  sentences as Before he died, Elvis was thinking
  of becoming a vegetarian.

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• Arguments
• An argument is a series of statements used to
  persuade someone of something. That something
  is called the conclusion or a claim. The first
  job in analyzing any argument is to identify its
  conclusion. One way to identify conclusions, or
  other parts of an argument, is to look for their
  indicators.
•  

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• Propositions (offers)
• A proposition is a statement which is either true
  or false. The proposition is the meaning of the
  statement, not the precise arrangement of words
  used to convey that meaning.
• Premises
• Premises (evidences) are statements that directly
  support the conclusion or to look at it another
  way, the reasons for accepting the argument.
  Premises are only premises in the context of a
  particular argument they might be conclusions in
  other arguments.  

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I like Ahmad. Ahmad is a nice boy. So he will
receive a reward from his school, because Ahmad
is really smart boy.
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• You should always state the premises of the
  argument explicitly. Failing to state your
  assumptions is often viewed as suspicious, and
  will likely reduce the acceptance of your
  argument.
• The premises of an argument are often introduced
  with words such as "Assume...", "Since...",
  "Obviously..." and "Because...." It's a good idea
  to get your opponent to agree with the premises
  of your argument before proceeding any further.
• The word "obviously" is also often viewed with
  suspicion. It occasionally gets used to persuade
  people to accept false statements, rather than
  admit that they don't understand why something is
  'obvious'. So don't be afraid to question
  statements which people tell you are 'obvious' --
  when you've heard the explanation you can always
  say something like "You're right, now that I
  think about it that way, it is obvious."

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• Inference
• Once the premises have been agreed, the argument
  proceeds via a step-by-step process called
  inference. 
• In inference, you start with one or more
  propositions which have been accepted you then
  use those propositions to arrive at a new
  proposition. If the inference is valid, that
  proposition should also be accepted. You can use
  the new proposition for inference later on.

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• Conclusion
• Hopefully you will arrive at a proposition which
  is the conclusion of the argument - the result
  you are trying to prove. The conclusion is the
  result of the final step of inference. It's only
  a conclusion in the context of a particular
  argument it could be a premise or assumption in
  another argument.
• The conclusion is said to be affirmed(stated) on
  the basis of the premises, and the inference from
  them. Conclusions are often identified by phrases
  like "therefore..." or "...implies that.

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I like Ahmad. Ahmad is a nice boy. So he will
receive a reward from his school, because Ahmad
is really smart boy.
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Types of Arguments

• 1. Deductive (logical) Argument
• Is generally viewed as the most precise and the
  most persuasive. It is an argument in which the
  premises provide (or appear to provide) complete
  support for the conclusion.
• A good deductive argument is known as a valid
  argument and is such that if all its premises are
  true, then its conclusion must be true. If all
  the argument is valid and actually has all true
  premises, then it is known as a sound (thorough)
  argument. If it is invalid or has one or more
  false premises, it will be unsound.

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Example

• 1. If you place wood in the fire, it will burn
  (i.e., if P then Q)
• 2. This is a piece of wood (i.e., P)
• 3. Therefore, it will burn (i.e., Q)
• If the premises are all true, then so is the
  conclusion. In deductive terms, as an argument,
  this is both valid and sound. Yet how do we know
  that the premises are in fact true? This is
  where inductive reasoning proves useful.

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• 2. Inductive Argument
• Is an argument such that the premises provide
  (or appear to provide) some degree of support
  (but less than complete support) for the
  conclusion. Induction is usually described as
  moving from the specific to the general.
  Arguments based on experience or observation is
  best expressed inductively.
• The reasoning might go something like this 
• Most of French class students are English.
• John is a student in the French class.
• 3. Therefore, John is English.

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• inductive generalization when we generalize form
  a number (n) of cases that we know to be true,
  and infer that the same thing will remain true in
  all future cases involving what we believe to be
  wood and fire.
• argue causation Inductive arguments are
  evaluated according to the degree to which the
  conclusion is probably true, as distinct from
  conclusively true in deductive arguments. In
  terms of validity, an inductive argument is
  neither valid nor invalid.

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• Inductive arguments are evaluated according to
  the degree to which the conclusion is probably
  true, as distinct from conclusively true in
  deductive arguments. In terms of validity, an
  inductive argument is neither valid nor invalid.
• A good inductive argument is known as a strong
  (or "cogent clear) inductive argument. It is
  such that if the premises are true, the
  conclusion is likely to be true.
• Example
• All of French class students are English.
• John is a student in the French class.
• 3. Therefore, John is English.

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Spotting arguments

• Spotting an argument is harder than spotting
  premises or a conclusion. Lots of people shower
  their writing with assertions, without even
  producing anything you might reasonably call an
  argument.
• Sometimes people may state their conclusions
  first, and then justify them afterwards. This is
  valid, but it can be a little confusing.
• A statement of the form "X because Y" can be
  re-phrased as an equivalent statement, of the
  form "Y therefore X."

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Evaluating Arguments

• 1. Comprehending and using language with
  accuracy, clarity and discrimination
• The critical thinker should notice the language
  used in the argument, it should be clear and
  comprehensive. The words should be precise and
  do not imply other meanings. The critical
  thinker should also distinguish the emotional
  words used which may affect his/ her judgment. 
• 2. Distinguishing between facts and opinions
• It is very important to be able to distinguish
  between facts and opinions, we may argue to
  reject or accept opinions, but we cant argue
  with facts.

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Practice

• Label each statement as either (F) fact or (O)
  opinion.
• ___ 1. The USA is bigger in size than the UAE.
• ___ 2. Ice cream is the most delicious dessert.
• ___ 3. I went to London for a vacation last year.
• ___ 4. Putting money in the stock market is a bad
  idea.

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• 3. Applying integrated (unified) information
• The critical thinker should be able to
  distinguish if his opponents arguments have
  contradictory information. At the same time he
  should check his argument and use only integrated
  information.
• 4. The sufficiency of premises
• Depending on the argument in question, we should
  have enough premises to reach to a certain
  conclusion. Take the following example
• Premises 1 Fatima is a student in UAEU
• Premises 2 Fatima is taking a thinking skills
  course
• Conclusion Therefore, Fatima is majoring in
  Education
• As we notice in the previous example, the
  sentences are clear, facts, integrated, yet they
  are not enough to reach to that conclusion.

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Logical Fallacies

• Logical fallacies are errors that occur in
  arguments.
• Every argument makes some assumptions. A
  convincing argument makes only warranted
  assumptions, i.e., its assumptions are not
  questionable or false. So, fallacies of
  assumption make up one type of logical fallacy.

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• 1. The Bandwagon Fallacy (Peer Pressure)
• The Bandwagon is a fallacy in which a threat of
  rejection by one's peers (or peer pressure) is
  substituted for evidence in an "argument.
  "Example
• Joe "Bill, I know you think that 112. But we
  don't accept that sort of thing in our group. "
• Bill "I was just joking. Of course I don't
  believe that."
• Salem I like tennis, I think tennis is a good
  sport.
• Khalid What! Tennis is for girls, only weak boys
  like tennis.
• Ahmad I dont like anyone likes tennis. Soccer
  is for champs.
• Salem Oh! Youre right, soccer is better. I hate
  tennis.

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• It should be noted that loyalty to a group and
  the need to belong can give people very strong
  reasons to conform to the views and positions of
  those groups. Further, from a practical
  standpoint we must often compromise our beliefs
  in order to belong to groups. However, this
  feeling of loyalty or the need to belong simply
  does not constitute evidence for a claim.
• 2. Straw Man Fallacy
• One of the characteristics of a cogent
  refutation (rejection) of an argument is that the
  argument one is refuting is not represented
  fairly and accurately. To distort or misrepresent
  an argument one is trying to refute is called the
  straw man fallacy. It doesn't matter whether the
  misrepresentation or distortion is accidental and
  due to misunderstanding the argument or is
  intentional and aimed at making it easier to
  refute. Either way, one commits the straw man
  fallacy.
• In other words, the attacker of a straw man
  argument is refuting a position of his own
  creation, not the position of someone else. The
  refutation may appear to be a good one to someone
  unfamiliar with the original argument.

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• Example on the Straw man fallacy
• Bill and Jill are arguing about cleaning out
  their closets Jill "We should clean out the
  closets. They are getting a bit messy." Bill
  "Why, we just went through those closets last
  year. Do we have to clean them out
  everyday?" Jill "I never said anything about
  cleaning them out every day. You just want too
  keep all your junk forever, which is just
  ridiculous.
• 3. False Dilemma
• A False Dilemma is a fallacy in which a person
  uses the following pattern of "reasoning"  
• Either claim X is true or claim Y is true (when X
  and Y could both be false).
• Claim Y is false.
• Therefore claim X is true.
• This line of "reasoning" is fallacious because if
  both claims could be false, then it cannot be
  inferred that one is true because the other is
  false.

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Example on False Dilemma 1. Bill "Jill and I
both support having prayer in public
schools." 2. Jill "Hey, I never said that!" 3.
Bill "You're not an atheist are you
Jill? Example 2 1. Bill is dead or he is
alive. 2. Bill is not dead. 3. Therefore Bill is
alive.
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• 4. Appeal to Pity
• An Appeal to Pity is a fallacy in which a person
  substitutes a claim intended to create pity for
  evidence in an argument. Example You must
  accept that 1146, after all I'm dying..."
  While you may pity me because I am dying, it
  would hardly make my claim true.
• Example of a case in which a claim evokes pity
  and also serves as legitimate evidence
• Professor "You missed the midterm, Bill."
• Bill "I know. I think you should let me take the
  makeup."
• Professor "Why?"
• Bill "I was hit by a truck on the way to the
  midterm. Since I had to go to the emergency room
  with a broken leg, I think I am entitled to a
  makeup."
• Professor "I'm sorry about the leg, Bill. Of
  course you can make it up."

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• 5. Burden of Proof (Argument from Ignorance)
• Burden of Proof is a fallacy in which the burden
  of proof is placed on the wrong side. Another
  version occurs when a lack of evidence for side A
  is taken to be evidence for side B in cases in
  which the burden of proof actually rests on side
  B. A common name for this is an Appeal to
  Ignorance.
• As an example, in most cases the burden of proof
  rests on those who claim something exists (such
  as Bigfoot (Yeti), psychic (mental) powers,
  universals, and sense data).
• John "I think that some people have psychic
  powers." Edward "What is your proof?" John
  "No one has been able to prove that people do not
  have psychic powers."

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• 6. Personal Attack
• A personal attack is committed when a person
  substitutes abusive (rude) remarks for evidence
  when attacking another person's claim or claims.
  This line of "reasoning" is fallacious because
  the attack is directed at the person making the
  claim and not the claim itself. The truth value
  of a claim is independent of the person making
  the claim. After all, no matter how repugnant
  (distasteful) an individual might be, he or she
  can still make true claims.  
• In general, it is best to focus one's attention
  on the content of the claim and not on who made
  the claim. It is the content that determines the
  truth of the claim and not the characteristics of
  the person making the claim.
• Dave says that we should pay our share of taxes
  to the company. But he is untrustworthy, so it
  must be wrong to do that.

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• 7. Poisoning the Well
• This sort of "reasoning" involves trying to
  discredit (dishonor) what a person might later
  claim by presenting unfavorable information (be
  it true or false) about the person. This
  "argument" has the following form  
• Unfavorable information (be it true or false)
  about person A is presented.
• Therefore any claims person A makes will be
  false.
• - Example Don't listen to him, he's fake.

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• 8. Diverting the Attention (Evading the Issue)
• This type of fallacy occurs when the person does
  not have a valid proof for his/ her argument, or
  if he/she does not wish to present the
  information in hand.
• The person diverts his opponent attention and
  moves to another topic. This diversion could be
  very smooth and involve interesting topics that
  most of times people do not notice it.

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Rules of Presenting a Convincing Argument

• 1. Respect your opponent and the opinions of
  others, remember always that respect generates
  respect and disrespect generates disrespect. 
• 2. Understand your opponent opinions/ points of
  view, and identify their strengths as well as
  weaknesses. Strive to be fair-minded in
  evaluating all points of view.
•  
• 3. All reasoning leads somewhere or has
  implications and consequences, Trace the
  implications and consequences that follow from
  your reasoning. Search for negative as well as
  positive implications. Consider all possible
  consequences  

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• 4. Respecting diversity of culture, socioeconomic
  variations, take into account the feelings,
  beliefs, and thoughts of other people.
• 5. Have a positive direction. Dont argue against
  a certain view point if you cant offer an
  alternative for it.
•  
• 6. Do not deny facts associated with certain
  arguments, even if these facts may weaken your
  position. Search for information that opposes
  your position as well as information that
  supports it. Make sure that all information used
  is clear, accurate, and relevant to the
  question at issue.

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• 7. Admit strong points in your opponent
  argument, this will increase your creditability.
  Be open-minded seriously consider other points
  of view and be willing to consider changing one's
  own position.
• 8. Do not exaggerate in presenting your
  argument, people have short attention span. Few
  strong arguments have more affect than long,
  boring, and probably weak ones.
• 9. Present suitable argument for your specific
  audience. Be aware of your audiences interest to
  be able to present a good argument. 
• 10. Do not use an argument unless you believe in
  it and have sufficient evidence to do so.
  Restrict your claims to those supported by the
  data you have. Withhold judgment/argument when
  the evidence and reasons are not sufficient to do
  so.

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Table 2 Examples of strategies students could
use toimprove their critical thinking abilities
Strategies to improve critical thinking
From Chaffee (1997)Ask yourself key questions. e.g., What is the issue?What is the evidence?What are the arguments?Are the evidence and arguments sound? Check the argument for fallaciesempirical generalizationsfalse generalizations Identify the words that cue in an argumentUse mind maps to clarify your conceptualization
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End of Chapter 2