THE ELEMENTS OF REASONING is a concise and lucid introduction to the basic elements of argumentative prose and the conceptual tools necessary to understand, analyze, criticize, and construct arguments. This text is not only perfect for a college course in argument analysis, but also as a reference tool when confronted with arguments outside the classroom experience. While THE ELEMENTS OF REASONING covers the standard formal tools of introductory logic, its emphasis is on practical applications to the kinds of arguments students most often encounter.

1. RECOGNIZING ARGUMENTS.
2. ANALYZING ARGUMENTS.
3. EVALUATING ARGUMENTS.
4. SOME VALID ARGUMENT FORMS.
5. MORE VALID ARGUMENT FORMS: CATEGORICAL
6. CAUSAL ANALYSIS.
7. ARGUMENT BY ANALOGY AND MODELS.
8. ERRORS IN REASONING: FALLACIES.
9. DEFINITION.
10. VAGUENESS AND AMBIGUITY.
11. REASONABLE BELIEFS.
12. RULES FOR WRITING.

THE ELEMENTS OF REASONING is a concise and lucid introduction to the basic elements of argumentative prose and the conceptual tools necessary to understand, analyze, criticize, and construct arguments. This text is not only perfect for a college course in argument analysis, but also as a reference tool when confronted with arguments outside the classroom experience. While THE ELEMENTS OF REASONING covers the standard formal tools of introductory logic, its emphasis is on practical applications to the kinds of arguments students most often encounter. NEW glossary included as a succinct collection of all the important key terms and their definitions. NEW revision in Chapter Four of some of the symbols and the form of some of the rules allows users to take advantage of significant online resources for proof construction and checking, and they make the symbolism consistent. NEW material in Chapter Six has been reorganized and cut down to improve clarity of presentation. Concise and easy-to-read, this text serves not only as a core text but also is an appropriate reference in many courses. The text features coverage of common methods of argument not included in most concise texts: causal reasoning, analogical reasoning, reasonable belief, and categorical logic. This book presents readily accessible treatment of real-life arguments, presented in a way that doesn’t demand excessive theoretical preparation.