- The two types of issues are descriptive issues and prescriptive issues. Descriptive issues are issues that have questions that ask about what something is and a prescriptive issue is an issue that poses a question that challenges something that is happening.
- Some questions I can ask myself in finding a conclusion are: What are the writer or speaker trying to prove? What is the communicator’s main point? A question I would ask as well is, “Does the first paragraph leave me questioning?” If it does, I can skip to the end because the conclusion is often there, if not in the introduction. Other ways to find the conclusion is to look for indicator words like, consequently, therefore, thus, shows that, ect., and remember that a conclusion is not a reason, for example, “I had a nasty taste in my mouth,” is evidence to the conclusion that, “This milk is bad.” Also, you can sometimes find a conclusion if you know that your author always has a certain position, so, get to know your authors.
- According to “Critical Thinking” (Browne and Keeley), the combination of the reasons and the conclusion results in what we defined in chapter 2 as the “argument.” Some characteristics of an argument is that they have intent, the measurements of quality vary, and it could be a single reason for a conclusion or several reasons for a conclusion. An argument has the issue at hand, the evidence or answers to the issue, and the conclusion.
- The main question you ask yourself when looking for reasons to a conclusion is “Why.” “Why do the writer or speaker believe the conclusion?” Some indicator words to a reason are: because, studies show that, as a result of, and so on.
- Issue at hand: Intellectual Pride. Conclusion: the anecdote, or cure, for intellectual pride is a concept called intellectual humility. (Not all these terms are found in the source but I summarized it with my own terms) Reasons: Laszlo Bock, of Google, said “without intellectual humility, you are unable to learn.” Intellectual humility is the ability to understand the limits of ones own knowledge so it takes pride out of the question. Psychologist Tennelle Porter agrees with Bock and says that “Intellectually humble people are more likely to learn from people they disagree with.” Carol Dweck says that people that can’t do this have a “fixed mind-set.” The author of “How ‘Intellectual Humility’ Can Make You A Better Person,” Cindy Lamother, also got her reasonings from psychological studies published in journals, experiments that dealt with correlations, newspapers and other sources.
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