Lesson 2: HUM 115

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Critical ThinkingLesson 2

• What Are The Issues and Conclusions?

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Lesson 2 Issues and Conclusions

• The problem of find the issue and the conclusion
  in an argument.
• Argument Reasons Conclusions.
• Conclusion what is being said.
• Reasons supporting evidence.
• Page 18 (textbook) Read the paragraph on
  cellphones.

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Lesson 2 Issues and Conclusions

• What does the author of the paragraph want us to
  understand and why?
• People are trying to get you to accept their
  conclusion(s).
• Before you can form a reasonable reaction to what
  you hear/read you must identify their argument.
• What are they concluding (conclusion)? Why are
  they concluding that (reasons)?

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Kinds of Issues

• Issue A question or controversy responsible for
  the conversation or discussion. It is the
  stimulus for what is being said.
• The issue is not the topic. Be Careful-
• Abortion is a topic, not an issue.
• Taxation is a topic, not an issue.
• Neither topic is an issue because they are not in
  the form of a question or controversy.
• If you put those topics in the form of questions
  they become issues.

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Kinds of Issues

• For example
• Topic is Abortion.
• Issue is, should abortion be legal?
• Topic is Taxation.
• Issue is, should we increase the income tax?
• Think of your own Topic.
• Put that Topic in the form of an Idea.

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Kinds of Issues

• Your textbook introduces us to two kinds of
  issues.
• Descriptive Issues issues that raise questions
  about the accuracy of descriptions of the past,
  present, or future.
• Descriptive issues reflect our curiosity about
  patterns or order in the world (why things are
  the way they are).
• Prescriptive Issues issues that raise questions
  about what we should do or what is right or
  wrong, good or bad.
• Ethical or moral issues.
• Demand prescriptive answers (what should or
  should not be done).

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Kinds of Issues

• Take a moment to write out three examples of
• Descriptive Issues.
• Prescriptive Issues.

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Searching For The Issue

• How do we determine what the issue is?
• Sometimes it is clearly stated by the author or
  speaker.
• Examples
• The question I am raising is Does texting and
  driving increase the likely hood of car
  accidents?
• Healthcare reform legislation Is the current
  form of health care legislation good or bad for
  the country?
• Should sex education be taught in schools?
• Each time the issue is centered on a question
  about a particular topic.

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Searching For The Issue

• Sorry, but its not always that easy!
• Many times the issue must be inferred from other
  clues in the text or lecture.
• In those cases, how do we determine what the
  issue is?
• What is the author/speaker responding to?
• What is the authors/speakers background?
• What is their conclusion? (What is a conclusion?)

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Searching for the Conclusion

• Conclusion the message that the speaker/author
  wishes his/her audience to accept.
• What is the author/speaker trying to convince
  their audience of?
• What are they trying to prove?
• What is the main idea of their presentation?
• The answer to these questions is the conclusion.
• To discover the conclusion, look for a statement
  of what the author/speaker wants their audience
  to accept.

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Searching for the Conclusion

• The basic structure of an argument
• This (is true) because of that.
• This Conclusion.
• That Reasons (we will discuss reasons in
  lesson 4).
• This basic structure of an argument represents
  the process of inference.
• Conclusions are inferred They are taken from
  reasoning.

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Searching for the Conclusion

• To believe the conclusion because you believe it
  is well supported by other beliefs is making an
  inference.
• Conclusions require other ideas to support them.
• A conclusion comes after a set of supporting
  statements.
• A conclusion without reasoning is a opinion.

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Searching for the Conclusion

• Smoking in public places should be illegal.
  There are many reasons that laws should be passed
  against smoking in public places. Second hand
  smoke from cigarettes endangers the health of
  people with chronic diseases such as asthma,
  COPD, and emphysema. Second hand smoke also can
  cause lung cancer in otherwise healthy people
• What is the conclusion?
• What are the evidences?

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Clues To Discovery Pages 22-24

• Six Clues
• What is the issue?
• Look for indicator words.
• Look in likely locations.
• Remember what a conclusion is not.
• Context and background.
• and therefore?

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Critical Thinking in Writing and Speaking

• Try to make the issue and conclusion very clear.
• Dont hide the issue and conclusion behind fancy
  language.
• Conclusions should be stated at the beginning or
  the end.
• Precede your conclusion with one of the indicator
  words.
• Make sure you conclusion is clearly supported by
  facts/information (reasoning).

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Critical Thinking HUM 115Identify the Issue
and Conclusion of passage 3 on page 26. Upload
via Moodle