Page 22 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

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Claims:

The Key Elements

of Reasoning

This chapter begins our in-depth exploration of how to use reasoning more
effectively in order to make us smart thinkers. As suggested in chapter 1,
learning to use reasoning better requires that we be more aware of what we
are already doing. We need to learn some basic terms and concepts with
which to talk and think about reasoning. The aim of this chapter is to
improve our awareness of how we are actually doing reasoning. The focus in
this chapter is on claims. In the next chapter we look at the process of
linking claims together to form reasoning.
There are three main areas that we will cover in this chapter:
1 We will look at language, since reasoning is a way of manipulating and
using words and statements. Language allows us to make claims about
the world. Claims are the key component of reasoning.
2 We need to understand more about the significant properties of these
claims which affect how we use them in reasoning.
3 We see how claims function differently, as premises or as conclusions,
depending on how we link them together. The conclusion is what you are
arguing for or explaining. The premises are how you get to your conclu-
sion.