‘Anthem Critical Thinking and Writing Skills: An Introductory Guide’ helps readers in the process of critical thinking and persuasive speaking and writing. The text discusses informal thinking, the formal processes of induction, deduction, and syllogistic reasoning, in a clear format that makes it easy for the ‘beginning logician’ to process. Students learn how to form a proposition, identify issues, gather evidence, and process an argument.

To get started, logic games, puzzles, and real life examples ask students to consider how we evaluate, analyze, and decide. What happens if Janie says, ‘Mom, can I go to the party? All of my friends are going!’ And Mom responds, ‘What if all of your friends jumped off the empire State building?’ Is ‘all of my friends are going’ a good reason? Does mom have a point? Language and logic will help students evaluate these everyday decisions. Then a more formal look at induction and deduction challenges students to practice higher-level thinking skills, such as using analogies for evaluation, and working through syllogisms to process ideas. After a review of the Greek Fallacies, readers can have some literary logic fun by analyzing old standards like ‘Love is a Fallacy’ and the persuasive love poem ‘The Passionate Shepherd’.

Victoria Pontzer Ehrhardt is a lifelong educator who has focused on teaching students how to think clearly and write persuasively. A frequent presenter at state and national conferences, Dr Ehrhardt has shared her research and strategies on critical thinking at meetings and conventions sponsored by the College Board, the National Conference for Teachers of English, and the Foundation for Excellent Schools. She currently teaches English at the Harrisburg Area Community College in southeastern Pennsylvania.

Chapter 1. Introduction to Critical Thinking; Chapter 2. What Is Argument?; Chapter 3. Research and Gathering Evidence; Chapter 4. Inductive Reasoning; Chapter 5. Deductive Reasoning; Chapter 6. Errors in Reasoning: The Classical Fallacies; Chapter 7. Reasoning through the Ages; Chapter 8. Putting It All Together: A Research Project; Appendix 1. Answers for Practice Exercises and Chapter Reviews; Appendix 2. Logic Test; Appendix 3. Answers to Logic Test; Appendix 4. Persuasive Research Paper Rubric; Index