Page 38 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

3

Linking:

The Key Process

in Reasoning

Claims are the basic material of reasoning, but they must be linked together
if we are to argue and explain our points of view. We have already seen that
claims that are linked to a conclusion by supporting it or explaining it are
called premises. A conclusion, therefore, is a claim that is supported or
explained. In this chapter we investigate this linking process in more detail.
My principal goal, again, is to give you greater awareness of how you reason,
in order to improve what you actually do.
There are four main areas we will cover in this chapter:
1 We will examine natural language for the traces of this linking. Traces are
the signals in natural language that we only half-consciously use to
develop our reasoning within a narrative-flow format (what you normally
read and write).
2 We will look at the process of linking analytically, introducing the idea
that all important relationships between claims can be shown in a
diagram. Combining the diagram with a list of claims provides a clear,
analytical structure format without the confusions of natural language.
3 To assist in understanding the analytical structure format, we will learn
about casting the reasoning of others, as a useful exercise for skill devel-
opment.
4 We consider in more detail what we need to know in order to be comfort-
able expressing our critical thoughts in such a format, including the way
in which complex argument forms can be shown using a diagram.