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How to Think
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How to Think
Your Essential Guide to Clear, Critical Thought

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June 2021 | 160 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd

This is a book about thinking. Engaging and down-to-earth, it captures the habits and practices that are fundamental to clear thinking and effective study.

In his warm and friendly style, Tom Chatfield shows you how to: 

  • Identify and examine your biases
  • Engage in lively, curious skepticism
  • See the value in emotion and use rhetoric persuasively
  • Know when to say 'I don't know'
  • Construct reasoned arguments and explanations
  • Think critically about how you engage with technology. 

Short and punchy, the book views critical thinking as a skill to be continually practiced and developed. It equips you with a toolkit for clearer thinking, describing ten key concepts that help you to apply what you have learned. Including regular reflective exercises, key concepts, further readings, each chapter also offers recommendations for how to put the ideas it discusses into practice.

This book is for undergraduate students and anyone looking to understand the core ideas behind critical thinking. Celebrating both self-reflection and collaboration, this book empowers you to pause, think twice and, above all, think well.

 
Introduction: Thinking about thinking
 
Chapter 1: Attention and reflection: Building habits for better thinking
 
Chapter 2: Working with words: Close reading and clear writing
 
Chapter 3: The importance of assumptions: Examining what has been left unsaid
 
Chapter 4: Giving good reasons: The importance of arguing your case
 
Chapter 5: Seeking good explanations: Investigating the reasons behind things
 
Chapter 6: Creative and collaborative thinking: Finding a process that works for you
 
Chapter 7: Thinking about numbers: How not to lie with statistics
 
Chapter 8: Technology and complexity: The 21st-century context
 
Chapter 9: And finally...
 
A toolkit for clearer thinking: Ten key concepts

Supplements

Critical thinking webinar

Watch the recording of How to Think for Yourself with Tom Chatfield and Alex Baratta. This webinar, hosted by JS Group, offers top tips on how to spot misinformation and engage critically with the world.

Study Skills Hub
Visit our hub for free academic skills, wellbeing and employability resources from our new and bestselling guides, designed to support you from day one all the way through to graduation and beyond.

A very interesting read - concise, engaging and full of useful examples and questions for self-reflection. I believe this will be appealing to students from all levels of study and easily applicable to many assignments.

Mrs Sonya Dineva
School of Psychology, University of East London
February 21, 2022

did not receive on time

Dr Aleksandra Monteiro
Dept of Psychology (Kedleston Cps), Derby University
March 21, 2022

Never received a copy.

Mr Martin Spier
Linguistics, Canterbury Christ Church University
July 29, 2021
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Sample Materials & Chapters

Introduction - How to Think


For instructors

This book is not available as an inspection copy. For more information contact your local sales representative.

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ISBN: 9781529727418
£13.99
ISBN: 9781529727425
£56.00