Page 193 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

180 GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS AND CONCEPTS

the authors and audiences of reasoning. Compare with objective and subject. (See
chapter 9.)

knowledge
Knowledge (which we might also call information) is the 'stuff of reasoning.
Knowledge is always relational. First, knowledge is about claims and the links
between them. Second, knowledge is created and maintained intersubjectively, that
is, between audiences and authors. Classes of knowledge and types of information
(see chapter 8) are ways of thinking about the generic relations of knowledge to our
particular topic when researching. Compare with objective. (See chapters 8 and 9.)

link words
The traces to be found in natural language of the mental processes of reasoning;
a useful but unreliable guide to the exact connections between claims. (See
chapter 3.)
list of claims
One half of the analytical structure format. A list of claims shows clearly the claims
to which the diagram of interrelationships refers. Compare with structure diagram.
(See chapter 3.)

mind-map
A tool that assists in analysing connections, concepts, and so on. A mind-map is
not an analytical structure format because the ideas and links are written down in
a tentative way, simply as a way of 'externalising' unprocessed information. (See
chapter 9.)

modes of analysis
Direct analysis concerns, as much as possible, the particular topic of an argument
or explanation. Indirect analysis concerns what others think and write about that
topic. Hypothetical analysis involves the explicit consideration of possible (rather
than actual) situations and the open discussion of assumptions. All three modes are
interrelated and are usually used in concert. For example, if I were to discuss the
way people write about reasoning, that would be direct; if I then considered philo-
sophical arguments about the way people write about reasoning, that would be
indirect. Compare with source. (See chapter 5.)

narrative flow
The written or spoken expression of reasoning in which the analytical structure is
turned into natural language. In narrative flow, we find traces of the linking
process, as well as claims that have been reorganised to meet the requirements of
good expression. As a result, it can be hard to see what is going on in reasoning
unless we also think about the analytical structure that lies behind the narrative.
Compare with analytical structure. (See chapter 3.)