Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Critical thinking -- Critical reading: getting started -- Critical reading: getting deeper into arguments -- Visual rhetoric: thinking about images as arguments -- Writing an analysis of an argument -- Developing an argument of your own -- Using sources -- A philosopher's view : the Toulmin model -- A logician's view : deduction, induction, fallacies -- A psychologist's view : Rogerian argument -- A literary critic's view: arguing about literature -- A debater's view: individual oral presentations and debate -- Student loans : should some indebtedness be forgiven? -- Technology in the classroom: useful or distracting? -- The local food movement : is it a better way to eat? -- The current state of childhood: is "helicopter parenting" or "free-range childhood" better for kids? -- Genetic modification of human beings : is it acceptable? -- Mandatory military service: should it be required? -- College education : what is its purpose? -- Race and police violence: how do we solve the problem? -- Junk food : should the government regulate our intake? -- Online versus IRL: how has social networking changed how we relate to one another? -- Immigration: what is to be done? -- The carceral state: why are so many Americans in jail? -- American exceptionalism: how should the United States teach about its past? -- What is the ideal society? -- How free is the will of the individual within society? -- What is happiness?