Thinking critically about the arguments and messages we see every day a " in words or in pictures a " gives us the power to make up our own minds. Thinking critically about the way we express ourselves a " in writing or in person a " gives us the power to persuade. In Critical Thinking: An Appeal to Reason, Peg Tittle empowers students with a solid grounding in the lifelong skills of argumentation, evaluation, and considered analysis that should underpin every studenta (TM)s education. Starting with the building blocks of a good argument, rather than by introducing the pitfalls to avoid, this comprehensive new textbook offers a full course in critical thinking, complete with material on visual reasoning, practice questions from standardized reasoning tests, and 30 extended arguments from academic philosophy, journalism, and the blogosphere for students to grapple with.