SUMMARY
CHAPTER 4: MANAGING READING TIME
Comprehension should be your main reading goal, not how fast you read.
• Develop a general study schedule that shows specifically when you plan to study for each class and for how long.
• Choose the times you study based on when you are most alert, and determine the length of time of each study session using your reading averages for the subjects you are taking.
• Track your reading rates so you can create daily reading plans that set realistic goals for your classes each week.
The following reading tips are presented in this chapter and will contribute to your becoming a more efficient reader:
• reading quickly, when it is appropriate
• skimming
• regressing or rereading
• subvocalizing
• pacing
Sunday, January 31, 2010
For Lexophiles Only
FOR YOU LEXOPHILES: (LOVERS OF WORDS)
1. A bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tired.
2. What's the definition of a will? (It's a dead giveaway)
3. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
4. A backward poet writes inverse.
5. In democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.
6. She had a boyfriend with a wooden leg, but broke it off.
7. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
8. If you don't pay your exorcist you get repossessed.
9. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
10. Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat minor.
11. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
12. The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.
13. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blown apart.
14. You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
15. Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN downunder.
16. He often broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
17. Every calendar's days are numbered.
18. A lot of money is tainted. 'Taint yours and 'taint mine.
19. A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.
20. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
21. A plateau is a high form of flattery.
22. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
23. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
24. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.
25. Those who jump off a Paris bridge are in Seine.
26. When an actress saw her first strands of gray hair she thought she'd dye.
27. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
28. Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
29. Acupuncture is a jab well done.
30. Marathon runners with bad footwear suffer the agony of defeat
1. A bicycle can't stand alone because it is two-tired.
2. What's the definition of a will? (It's a dead giveaway)
3. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
4. A backward poet writes inverse.
5. In democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.
6. She had a boyfriend with a wooden leg, but broke it off.
7. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
8. If you don't pay your exorcist you get repossessed.
9. With her marriage she got a new name and a dress.
10. Show me a piano falling down a mineshaft and I'll show you A-flat minor.
11. When a clock is hungry it goes back four seconds.
12. The man who fell into an upholstery machine is fully recovered.
13. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blown apart.
14. You feel stuck with your debt if you can't budge it.
15. Local Area Network in Australia: the LAN downunder.
16. He often broke into song because he couldn't find the key.
17. Every calendar's days are numbered.
18. A lot of money is tainted. 'Taint yours and 'taint mine.
19. A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.
20. He had a photographic memory which was never developed.
21. A plateau is a high form of flattery.
22. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
23. Those who get too big for their britches will be exposed in the end.
24. When you've seen one shopping center you've seen a mall.
25. Those who jump off a Paris bridge are in Seine.
26. When an actress saw her first strands of gray hair she thought she'd dye.
27. Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.
28. Santa's helpers are subordinate clauses.
29. Acupuncture is a jab well done.
30. Marathon runners with bad footwear suffer the agony of defeat
Vocabulary Skills
SUMMARY
CRCB: Chapter 2: DEVELOPING College VOCABULARY
Vocabulary skills are among the most important comprehension strategies you can learn. By increasing your vocabulary, you increase your understanding of textbook information. A rich vocabulary:
· allows you access to many types of reading material.
· enhances your academic abilities.
· increases your chances of getting the job of your choice.
Although no one knows the meaning of every word, or interrupts his or her reading to look up every unfamiliar word in a dictionary, using the simple strategies presented in this chapter will help you figure out and remember the meaning of new words. These strategies include:
· using context clues
· using word analysis
· writing in your textbook
· creating word maps
· understanding denotation and connotation
· using the Card Review System (CRS)
· using new vocabulary daily when you talk and write
New Words for the New Millenium
BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a
deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was
responsible.
CHAINSAW CONSULTANT: An outside expert brought in to reduce
the employee headcount, leaving the top brass with clean
hands.
CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.
IDEA HAMSTERS: People who always seem to have their idea
generator running.
MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the
couch potato.
PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly
in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to
see what's going on.
SITCOMs: (Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage)
What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them
stops working to stay home with the kids.
STARTER MARRIAGE: A short-lived first marriage that ends in
divorce with no kids, no property and no regrets.
STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed
out and whiny.
SWIPED OUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered
useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive
use.
TOURISTS: People who take training classes just to get a
vacation from their jobs. "We had three serious students in
the class; the rest were just tourists."
TREEWARE: Hacker slang for documentation or other printed
material.
XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from
one's workplace.
ALPHA GEEK: The most knowledgeable, technically proficient
person in an office or work group.
CHIPS & SALSA: Chips = hardware, Salsa = software. "Well,
first we gotta figure out if the problem's in your chips or
your salsa.
deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was
responsible.
CHAINSAW CONSULTANT: An outside expert brought in to reduce
the employee headcount, leaving the top brass with clean
hands.
CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.
IDEA HAMSTERS: People who always seem to have their idea
generator running.
MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the
couch potato.
PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly
in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to
see what's going on.
SITCOMs: (Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage)
What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them
stops working to stay home with the kids.
STARTER MARRIAGE: A short-lived first marriage that ends in
divorce with no kids, no property and no regrets.
STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed
out and whiny.
SWIPED OUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered
useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from extensive
use.
TOURISTS: People who take training classes just to get a
vacation from their jobs. "We had three serious students in
the class; the rest were just tourists."
TREEWARE: Hacker slang for documentation or other printed
material.
XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from
one's workplace.
ALPHA GEEK: The most knowledgeable, technically proficient
person in an office or work group.
CHIPS & SALSA: Chips = hardware, Salsa = software. "Well,
first we gotta figure out if the problem's in your chips or
your salsa.
Critical Thinking Links from Text
Text Online site:
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072473762/information_center_view0/
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072473762/information_center_view0/
TFY Glossary
| Glossary | |
| Chapter 1 | |
| Accommodation | Accommodation is achieved when we can do the thinking needed to create a new schema or modify an old schema in order to explain a new experience. |
| Assimilation | Assimilation is achieved when we can integrate new experiences into existing schemas. |
| Disequilibrium | The confusion and discomfort felt when a new experience cannot be integrated into existing schemas. |
| Equilibrium | A stable inner feeling of well being that we feel when our thinking enables us to modify or create a new schema that better explains our world. |
| Hypothesis | Hypothesis is a trial idea, tentative explanation, or theory that can be tested and used to further an investigation. |
| Observe | To watch with attentive awareness. |
| Perceiving | To regard and interpret what the senses tell us. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Schema | Schemas are the mental files in which we store our explanations of experiences. |
| Sensing | To make use of such senses as sight, hearing, and touch. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Glossary | |
| Chapter 2 | |
| Critical reading | Critical reading is analytical and evaluative reading based on accurate neutral comprehension of the material. |
| Definition | A concise explanation of the meaning of a word that shows us its boundaries. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Term and class | Term refers to the word defined and class refers to the largest family to which the term is related. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Word | Word is a sound or group of sounds that communicate meaning. These sounds are also translatable into written symbols. |
| Word concept | A concept is a abstract idea or principle conveyed in a word. |
| Word connotation | Word connotation refers to the additional shades of meaning and emotional associations that a word may carry. |
| Glossary | |
| Chapter 3 | |
| Absolute | An absolute is something that is perfect, complete, always true, something never to be doubted or questioned. |
| Certain | Certain is a characteristic of something fixed, assured, or inevitable. |
| Fact | A fact is something proven to be true, real, existing or to have existed. |
| Fiction | Fiction is an idea or story based on imagination rather than reality. |
| Objective/subjective | Objective is to be impartial, free of bias or prejudice. Subjective is to be swayed by bias or prejudice rather than facts and evidence. |
| Plausibility | This standard weighs the reasonability of a event or explanation. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Probability | This standard estimates the likelihood that an event occurred or will occur. |
| Reliability | This is another standard: that the data was confirmed to be fact by a reputable independent source. Reliability also means that the confirmation proved dependable over time. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Verifiability | This is a standard for determining facts; that they can be tested and confirmed to be either true and/or in existence or past existence or not. |
| Verify | To verify is to test and confirm the truth, accuracy, or existence of something. |
| Glossary | |
| Chapter 4 | |
| Description versus Interpretation | Pure description provides factual details that convey an accurate objective depiction of a subject. Interpretation makes inferences and judgments about the subject. |
| Evidence | Evidence is a sign or proof that something is true or that it has or had existence. |
| Generalization | A generalization is a statement derived from the study of a number of cases that summarizes something characteristic about these cases. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Justify | To justify a claim means to defend and support a claim. |
| Obvious | The obvious is something that is unconcealed and easy to see. Yet we may neglect to pay close attention to the obvious because it is so familiar. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Glossary | |
| Chapter 5 | |
| Accommodation | Accommodation is achieved when we can do the thinking needed to create a new schema or modify an old schema in order to explain a new experience. |
| Assimilation | Assimilation is achieved when we can integrate new experiences into existing schemas. |
| Assumption | Assumption is an idea whose truth can be taken for granted. |
| Assumption Layers | Assumption layers can appear beneath simple assertions. Such layers consist of multiple hidden and unexamined assumptions influenced in turn by one or more value assumptions beneath the whole. |
| Counter claim | Counter claim is a response to a claim with a defense or with another claim. |
| Disequilibrium | The confusion and discomfort felt when a new experience cannot be integrated into existing schemas. |
| Equilibrium | A stable inner feeling of well being that we feel when our thinking enables us to modify or create a new schema that better explains our world. |
| Hidden Assumption | A hidden assumption is an unclear and unstated idea assumed to be true that is integral to a line of reasoning. In an argument, it is a hidden premise that cannot be examined for truth and validity. Blind acceptance of a hidden premise can lead to the acceptance of a false or invalid conclusion. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Lateral thinking | Lateral thinking solves problems by reviewing options, overcoming assumptions, and inventing new solutions. Vertical thinking follows more conventional step-by-step logic. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Schema | Schemas are the mental files in which we store our explanations of experiences. |
| Thesis | A thesis is a short summary statement of an idea that an essay intends to prove. It is also called the thesis statement and controlling idea. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Value or Belief Assumption | Value assumption is a belief that we take for granted, one that rarely questioned or even articulated. Remaining hidden and unexpressed, a value assumption can nevertheless shape a chain of reasoning. |
| Working Assumption | A working assumption is a trial idea, theory, strategy, or hypothesis assumed to be true in order to further an investigation. It is a conscious assumption. |
| Glossary | |
| Chapter 6 | |
| Advice | Advice is to recommend an opinion to someone else. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Judgment | Judgment is a final opinion, decision, conclusion or evaluation about something. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Personal taste or preference | Personal taste or preferences are forms of opinions that express likes or dislikes. They can be irrational and need not be supported with reasons. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Glossary | |
| Chapter 7 | |
| Evaluate | To determine the value or worth of something. |
| Evaluations in word connotations | Highly connotative words can be chosen to convey a person’s likes and dislikes under the guise of offering facts. |
| Expectations | Mental constructs that anticipate the way things will be or should be. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Premature evaluation | To judge something before one has finished examining it. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Propaganda | Propaganda is the manipulation of public opinion for the benefit of the propagator. |
| Relativism | Relativism is the belief that concepts such as right and wrong are not absolutes but depend on situations and the cultures. |
| Skilled Evaluations | Skilled evaluations are opinions formed by experts after a careful and impartial study. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Glossary | |
| Chapter 8 | |
| An unconscious viewpoint | An unconscious viewpoint is a perspective unidentified by the viewer. |
| Egocentrism | Egocentrism is the assumption that one’s perspective is the only perspective. |
| Ethnocentrism | Ethnocentrism is the assumption that one’s own social or cultural group is superior to all others. |
| Exterior | To be exterior to one’s own viewpoint is to have a detached awareness of one’s viewpoint. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| News framing | News framing describes the way relative importance can be implied about a news item by layout design, page placement, photos, and the wording of headlines. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Religiocentrism | Religiocentrism is the assumption that one’s own religion is superior to all others. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Viewpoint | A viewpoint is a personal or collective perspective consisting of memories, beliefs, and associations from which events are observed and evaluated. |
| Glossary | |
| Chapter 9 | |
| Argument | An argument offers reasons to support a conclusion with the intent to persuade. |
| Conclusion | A clear statement of what an argument intends to prove or has proven. |
| Consistency | Consistency refers to standards of logical coherence as well as constancy. |
| Contradiction | A contradiction refers to a part or parts inconsistent with, or illogical to, other parts. |
| Debate question | A debate question is a neutrally stated question designed to provide a focus for pro and con positions on an issue. |
| Discrepancy | A discrepancy, like an incongruity, is something that diverges from an expected standard. |
| False Information | False information refers to information that can be proven to be untrue. |
| Implied conclusion | A conclusion understood but not explicitly stated. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Irreconcilable | Irreconcilable are conflicting ideas, beliefs, or information that cannot coexist, such as contradictions. |
| Issue | An issue is a matter of dispute. |
| Missing Information | Missing information refers to essential information purposefully or inadvertently omitted from an argument or report. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Reason | A statement offered to explain, justify, or support the conclusion. |
| Report | A report offers objective accounts of events and objective information. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Topic | A topic is a subject that is written or spoken about. |
| Glossary | |
| Chapter 10 | |
| Appeal to Bandwagon | This fallacy seeks to persuade by appealing to the wisdom of the momentum of a popular opinion. |
| Appeal to False Authority | This fallacy seeks to persuade by citing fake, questionable, or inappropriate authority. |
| Appeal to Fear | This fallacy seeks to persuade by arousing fear that clouds rationality. |
| Appeal to Pity | This fallacy seeks to persuade by arousing pity. |
| Circular Reasoning | This fallacy assumes what it is supposed to prove by reasserting the conclusion, sometimes in different words, as though this conclusion needed no supporting reasons. |
| Fallacy | A fallacy is an invalid, argument that can be deceptive or misleading. |
| Fallacy of Word Ambiguity | This fallacy seeks to gain an advantage in an argument by using vague undefined words that can be interpreted in more than one way. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Misleading Euphemisms | This fallacy hides meaning by creating words that make a less acceptable idea seem positive or unrecognizable. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Personal Attack | This fallacy attacks a person’s character without addressing the issue. |
| Pointing to Another Wrong | This fallacy distracts attention from an admitted wrongdoing by claiming that similar actions went unnoticed and unpunished. |
| Poisoning the Well | This fallacy seeks to prejudice others against a person, group or idea so that their arguments cannot be heard on their own merits. |
| Prejudicial Language | This fallacy attempts to persuade through the use of loaded words that convey a bias. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Red Herring | This fallacy distracts attention away from the lack of proof for a claim by raising irrelevant issues. |
| Straw man | This fallacy misrepresents or caricatures an opponent’s position, then refutes the false replica created. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Glossary | |
| Chapter 11 | |
| Analogical Reasoning | Analogical reasoning draws conclusions on the basis of observed correspondences. |
| Cause | A perceived source or consequence of an event. |
| Conclusion of an inductive study | To make a generalization about empirical findings that may or may not confirm the hypothesis tested. It also may not be totally certain. |
| Either-or Fallacy | This fallacy is an argument that oversimplifies a situation, asserting that there are only two choices when actually there are many. |
| Extrapolation | This is an inference based on an estimated projection of known information. |
| False Analogy | This fallacy compares two things that may have some similarities but also significant differences that are ignored for the sake of the argument. |
| Hasty Generalization | This fallacy is a conclusion based on insufficient evidence. |
| Hypothesis | Hypothesis is a trial idea, tentative explanation, or theory that can be tested and used to further an investigation. |
| Inconsistencies and Contradictions | This fallacy makes claims that are contradictory or offers evidence that contradicts the conclusion. |
| Induction | To reason about all members of a class on the basis of an examination of some members of a class. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Loaded Question | This fallacy uses a biased question that seeks to obtain a predetermined answer. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Pattern | A perceived design or form. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Questionable Statistic | This fallacy backs up an argument with statistics that are either unknowable or unsound. |
| Reasoning through enumeration | This is reasoning through counting. Reasoning draws conclusions or inferences from facts or premises. |
| Reasoning through Statistics and Probability | This occurs in inductive reasoning. Statistics is the science of collecting, organizing, and interpreting numerical data. Probability in statistics estimates the ratio of the number of actual occurrences of a specific event to the total number of possible occurrences. |
| Reasoning with hypotheses | To conceive a trial idea and use it to implement an investigation. |
| Slippery Slope | This fallacy is an unwarranted claim that permitting one event to occur will lead to an inevitable and uncontrollable chain reaction. |
| The empirical or scientific method | The empirical or scientific method is based on observation and experiment. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Glossary | |
| Chapter 12 | |
| Deduction | Deduction is to draw an inference about a specific instance from a general principle. |
| Hidden premise | Hidden premise is a made claim in support of a conclusion that is implied but not stated. When not exposed, it can lead to the acceptance of a false conclusion. |
| Infer | To use imagination and reasoning to fill in missing facts. To connect the dots. |
| Logic | Logic is the science of good reasoning. |
| Opinion | Opinion is a word used to include an unsupported belief, a supported argument, an expert’s judgment, prevailing public sentiment, and a formal statement by a court. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Syllogism | A syllogism is the standardized form that makes the structure of a deductive argument visible. A syllogism consists of two premises or claims followed by a conclusion inferred from these premises. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
| Valid and sound | A valid deductive argument is one in which the conclusion is correctly inferred from the premises. An argument is sound when the conclusion cannot be false because the premises are true and the reasoning is valid. |
| Creative thinking | Creative thinking leads to the invention of something new. It makes use of imagination, challenges assumptions, and engages in problem solving. |
| Critical thinking | Critical thinking brings conscious awareness, skills, and standards to the process of observing, analyzing, reasoning, evaluating, reading, and communicating. |
| Critical thinking standards | Criteria used to attain, describe, and judge excellence in critical thinking. |
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Glossary -- Observation -- TFY-C1
| Glossary | |
Chapter 1 | |
| Accommodation | Accommodation is achieved when we can do the thinking needed to create a new schema or modify an old schema in order to explain a new experience. |
| Assimilation | Assimilation is achieved when we can integrate new experiences into existing schemas. |
| Disequilibrium | The confusion and discomfort felt when a new experience cannot be integrated into existing schemas. |
| Equilibrium | A stable inner feeling of well being that we feel when our thinking enables us to modify or create a new schema that better explains our world. |
| Hypothesis | Hypothesis is a trial idea, tentative explanation, or theory that can be tested and used to further an investigation. |
| Observe | To watch with attentive awareness. |
| Perceiving | To regard and interpret what the senses tell us. |
| Principal claim and reasons | These are the two parts of an argument. The principal claim is the thesis or conclusion. The reasons support this claim through evidence or other claims. A claim is an assertion about something. |
| Schema | Schemas are the mental files in which we store our explanations of experiences. |
| Sensing | To make use of such senses as sight, hearing, and touch. |
| Thinking | Purposeful mental activity such as reasoning, deciding, judging, believing, supposing, expecting, intending, recalling, remembering, visualizing, imagining, devising, inventing, concentrating, conceiving, considering. |
Observation: Five Senses
Observation: Five Senses
Observation -- Five Senses
Observation -- Five Senses
- Five Senses. What do you see? What objects, plants, or animals are in the place? What colors do you see? What do you hear? What would a hidden microphone record in the place you're describing? What does the air smell like? Is it annoying? pleasant? What does it remind you of? Where does the smell come from -- are there blooming flowers? cooking food? cans of oil? What do you taste? Are you touching anything? (Skip any questions that don't make sense for the place you're describing.)
- Different Angles. Consider the object you're describing from different angles. What does the object look like from the top? What if you were underneath the object? What would you see or notice if you were looking at the object from the right side? What does it look like from the left side? Make the object the Earth. You become the moon, and orbit the object. What do you notice as you travel around it?
- Focus on the Iceberg. Only one-eighth of an iceberg is above the surface of the water. The majority of the iceberg is underwater, yet most people think only about the part that appears above the surface. There are two options for you to consider: choose the one that fits your object best. (1) Look only at the top eighth or so of the object. If you saw only the upper eighth, if the rest were submerged, what would you think about the object? What would you see? What would you make of the part that you couldn't see? (2) Think about your object creatively. What you see, there on the surface, is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. What is hidden below the surface? What might you think of the object based only on the surface appearance, and what is the significance of the parts of the object that cannot be seen?
- Tiny Ants. When you're in a tall building looking down at the ground, the people and objects moving around can look like tiny ants. Take a bird's-eye view of your object. Put it in the world of tiny ants. From far above, what would you see? What would seem important? What features would be noticeable?
- Technicalities. Write an technical description of your object. Look at the object as you might to describe it for a legal document or in a scientific report. Focus on the known facts, rather than opinions or impressions that you have of the object. Focus on an objective view.
- Create a cartoon version. The cartoon world is a bit different from the real world. If your object were in a cartoon world, what parts would be exaggerated for comic effect? What parts would probably be omitted from the cartoon drawing? What cartoon would the object probably appear in? How does thinking of your object as a cartoon influence what you see?
- Different days. How does the object or place change from one day to the next? Is it different on weekends? Take me through a week in the life of the object. If you were to peek in on it every day, what would change? What would stay the same?
- Longshot. Pretend it's twenty years in the future. Take a look at your object or place. What do you notice? How would you describe it twenty years from now? What characteristics would remain the same? What would change? What would you see? hear? smell? How could you tell that time had passed by just by looking at the object or place?
- 15 Minutes of Fame. According to Andy Warhol, everyone has 15 minutes of fame. What would your object's or place's 15 minutes be? Describe your object in a way that highlights the features that place it in the limelight. Add details that help me understand how your object or place gained its 15 minutes.
- Opposites. You can learn a great deal about an object or place by defining the things that it is not. Describe the things that your object or place is not. What features and characteristics would never apply to it? How are these characteristics and features important? Why is their absence important?
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Text Price Comparison Link
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http://www.textbookpricecomparison.com/
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Texts / Instructional Materials
Instructional Materials and References
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Mayfield, M. (2007). Thinking for yourself. (8th Ed.). Boston: Cengage Learning: Wadsworth. ISBN: 978-1-4282-3144-3 (TFY)
Daiek, D., & Anter, N. (2004) Critical reading for college and beyond. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 0072473762 (CRCB)
RECOMMENDED TEXT:
Harris, Robert. A. Creative Problem Solving. Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publishing, 2002. ISBN: 1-884585-43-4 (CPS)
COMPANION SITES
Critical Reading for College and Beyond Companion site:
Note: Course and student blogs and wiki sites to be presented in class
Syllabus -- Spring 2010
Lincoln University
COURSE SYLLABUS
Course: Critical Thinking
Department and number: English 75
Credit: 3 units
Course prerequisites: none
Semester: Spring 2010 – Tuesdays, 9-10:15, 10:30-11:45
Instructor: Dr. Sylvia Y. Schoemaker Rippel
Email: sysr@lincolnuca.edu
Course-related email for the semester: profsr20@gmail.com
Office hours and location: T, Th 11:45-12:30 and by arrangement, room 307
Office phone: 510-628-8036
Instructional Materials and References
REQUIRED TEXTS:
Mayfield, M. (2007). Thinking for yourself. (7th Ed.). Boston: Cengage Learning: Wadsworth. ISBN: 1-4130-1772-X (TFY)
Daiek, D., &; Anter, N. (2004) Critical reading for college and beyond. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN: 0072473762 (CRCB)
RECOMMENDED TEXT:
Harris, Robert. A. Creative Problem Solving. Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publishing, 2002. ISBN: 1-884585-43-4 (CPS)
COMPANION SITES
Note: Course and student blogs and wiki sites to be presented in class
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Critical thinking (E75) considers the cognitive skills and communicative strategies for defining, applying, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information. The course includes structural and operational approaches to task/mission analysis, decision-making, change forecasting, adaptation, and evaluation. Systems approach to analysis and solution of complex problems. Conceptual issues in problem definition, goal determination and measurement of effectiveness. (3 units)
OBJECTIVES
Students will develop their cognitive skills and enhance their communicative strategies for defining, applying, analyzing, synthesizing and evaluating information. The course will incorporate the following University learner and institutional goals:
University learner goals 1 -6, and specifically (3.2) To examine objectively various sides of issues; (3.3) To utilize the procedures involved in systematic problem solving; and in English:: To develop basic academic and professional skills (1); To develop the ability to communicate effective in English, oral and in writing, and to read with understanding (1.1) and institutional goals, especially 1, (1.1-1.4), 2.4
FORMAT
The course sessions will include presentation, discussion, and application modes.
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
Students are expected to attend class, to participate in individual and group work in a productive manner, to complete assignments according to schedule and at a level appropriate to university rubrics, and to take personal responsibility for meeting the objectives of the course.
TOPICAL OUTLINE
Topics covered include observation skills, appropriate language skills and encoding strategies, differentiating among fact, inference, judgment, recognizing fallacies of reasoning and evaluation, understanding viewpoint, analyzing character, logic, and emotion in persuasion.
For each of the units on schedule below (as well as additional assignments given in class), students will do the following:
· Read assigned materials with care and understanding,
· Complete and present selected exercises relevant to the class and text materials
· Reflect on the weekly assignments in writing, addressing primary content and points of personal interest,
· Create a personalized, three-level map for each week’s assignment using the open source program Freemind (available in the computer lab and downloadable from http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
· Email your assignments to me at profs360@gmail.com,
· Blog your work for sharing and presentations. (For help see: How-to Video and help.blogger.com
Note: The maps for your blog need to be in graphic (.png or .jpg) format and you will need to save the native Freemind (.mm) format for submitting your work to me by email.
Assignments are due on the dates indicated in the schedule below. Additions/revisions to the schedule will be announced in class as needed. Class attendance is mandatory for content, interactions, and presentations. Researched materials must be documented using a consistent style for both in-text and end-text citations of sources using the published standards of the most recent subject-appropriate style guide, such as APA (social sciences) or MLA (humanities), for example.
SCHEDULE
| Wk | Date | Unit | TFY Text Reference | CRCB Text Reference |
| 1 | 19-Jan | Introduction Where Do You Stand? | ||
| 2 | 26-Jan | Observation | TFY C1, Observation | CRCB C1, Reading |
| 3 | 2-Feb | Language and Thought | TFY C2, Word Precision | CRCB C2, Vocabulary |
| 4 | 9-Feb | Facts | TFY C3, Facts | CRCB C3, Memory |
| 5 | 16-Feb | Inferences | TFY C4, Inferences | CRCB C4, Time |
| 6 | 23-Feb | Assumptions | TFY C5, Assumptions | CRCB C5, Main Ideas |
| 7 | 2-Mar | Opinions Evaluations | TFY C6, Opinions TFY C7, Evaluations | CRCB C6, Details CRCB C7, Inference |
| 8 | 9-Mar | Midterm | ||
| 16-Mar | Spring Recess | |||
| 9 | 23-Mar | Points of View | TFY C8, Viewpoints | CRCB C8, Texts |
| 10 | 30-Mar | Argument | TFY C9, Argument | CRCB C9, PSR Strategies |
| 11 | 6-Apr | Fallacies | TFY C10, Fallacies | CRCB C10, Marking |
| 12 | 13-Apr | Induction | TFY C11, Inductive Reasoning | CRCB C11, Advanced Strategies |
| 13 | 20-Apr | Deduction | TFY C12, Deductive Reasoning | CRCB C12, Arguments |
| 14 15 | 27-Apr 4-May | Characteristics of a Critical Thinker Final | Review Presentations | |
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA & METHOD OF EVALUATING STUDENTS
Students will demonstrate their level of achievement through appropriate and accurate application of critical thinking theory, including problem-solving, analysis, and decision-making criteria in approaching and solving text, classroom, and real-world exercises, individually and as group participants.
Grading Guidelines
Class Participation | 15% | ||
Quizzes | 10% | ||
Projects | 15% | ||
Term Paper | 30% | ||
Presentation | 10% | ||
Final Exam | 20% | ||
Total | 100% | ||
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Rev: Jan 10
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