Book Review
Critical Thinking Skills (Palgrave Study Guides)
Stella Cottrell
ISBN: 978-1-403996-85-5 2005 264 pages Palgrave Macmillan
Lea Budden
Senior Lecturer, School of Nursing Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville QLD
This book originates from the impressive collection of study guides from Palgrave publishers. The title, Critical Thinking Skills, Developing Effective Analysis and Argument accurately describes the content of this book. The author has written for a wide audience, with the purpose of assisting the reader to understand and develop skills in critically evaluating and constructing effective written arguments.
Consisting of eleven chapters, the book includes practical exercises, textbox information and reflective questions to help reinforce the information and help the reader develop critical reasoning skills. The structure of the book begins with a description of the basic components of critical reasoning skills, then provides techniques in identifying effective and ineffective arguments, and finally leads to the process of writing and evaluating effective arguments.
The author discusses the differences between arguments and non-arguments in detail, and gives methods to assist the reader to evaluate the consistency, order, flaws, and logic of writers' arguments. Throughout the book, checklists assist the reader to recognise underlying assumptions and implicit arguments such as the use of false premises, association, stereotyping, and meanings of denoted and connoted arguments. Cottrell outlines methods to evaluate the sources of evidence used in arguments by searching the literature to discover the authenticity and validity of the writer's argument. Further analysis of evidence includes information on research basics such sampling, probability, sample sizes and statistical significance, over-generalisation and control of variables in studies.
The information detailed in this book is a valuable resource for nurses who are inexperienced with understanding and interpreting evidence-based health information. The book contains comprehensive information for the analysis of arguments in a clear, user-friendly, writing style and format. In summary, this book is recommended for any nurses who want to develop effective analytic reasoning and writing skills.
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