Krista Horton

Textbook Review

Current Issues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument with

Readings by Sylvan Barnet, Hugo Bedau, and John O’Hara clearly centers developing the

capacity to think critically, challenge assumptions, analyze arguments, and constructing your

own argument. Perhaps the heart of the text is captured in their statement on what it is to think

through an issue: “Critical thinking means questioning not only the beliefs and assumptions of

others, but also one’s own beliefs and assumptions. When developing an argument, you ought to

be identifying important problems, exploring relevant issues, and evaluating available evidence

fairly—not merely collecting information to support a preestablished conclusion” (4). They focus

on awareness of thought processes and examining and understanding personal consciousness and

reasoning that leads to making choices and experiencing emotions that, in turn, determine our

reactions. With a premise on critical thinking through understanding thoughts as a process and

how one arrives at a thought or an action (if an individual perceives thought as separate from

action), the authors include a variety of works ranging from W. E. B. Dubois to Emerson to more

contemporary writers discussing issues or arguing for or against matters such as fake news,

public executions, #MeToo, conspiracism, concepts of democracy and the death of it, and

revising the Pledge of Allegiance, though there is a larger spectrum of “issues” throughout the

text than what is listed here. The inclusion of a diverse array of issues and voices provides ways

to advance critical thinking skills regarding awareness of ideologies and ideological stances,

challenging assumptions, and joining or creating conversations through forms of argument

through the analysis of such arguments.

“Further Views on Argument,” “Current Issues: Occasions for Debate,” “Current Issues:

Casebooks,” and “Enduring Questions: Essays, Poems, and Stories,” with a total of twenty-eight

sections, each with their own variety of subsections within the sections, spread throughout the six

parts. In the latter part of the text, many of what I referred to as “subsections,” are works by other

authors. The first portion of the book pours its attention into analyzing and evaluating from

multiple perspectives and issues, what constitutes critical thinking and what obstructs it, counter

arguments, forming ideas and learning the art of inquiry, how to approach issues, and

challenging and examining assumptions (both personal and those belonging to others).

Throughout the book, it is common to come across sections followed up by “Topics for Critical

Thinking and Writing” that provide a numbered list of essential questions pertaining to the text

and/or to the thought processes of the individual reading the text or may instruct the reader to

summarize a text, state the thesis, or do external research. Also found frequently throughout are

boxes that provide a checklist for students. For example, “A Checklist for Examining

Assumptions” and “A Checklist for Analyzing an Argument” are checklists included in the text.

Parts One and Two end each section with assignment (e.g. “Assignments for Critical Reading”).

A checklist contains an assortment of questions that may look like “if there are inconsistencies,

are they in the summary or the original selection?”, “can I state the thesis?”, “have I identified

any of the assumptions presupposed in the writer’s argument?”, “can I examine the assumptions

that come with my approach?”, etc. (21-59).

The text is structured in a way that scaffolds material. This is not at all a comprehensive

list, but parts One-Three are devoted to understanding and practicing critical thinking,

argumentative forms, analyzing argument, structure, and methods, views of argument, methods
of reasoning, inquiry, drafting, revising, using sources, an understanding of identifying and using

appeals, fallacies, bias, identifying legitimate sources and fake news, summarizing and

paraphrasing, organizing, transitions, audience, purpose, presentations, etc. After the text’s

devotion to awareness, form, process, and practice, it moves on to parts Four-Six which provide

numerous works by a variety of authors related to each section’s topic or issue. Topics include

genetic modification, student loans, race and criminal justice, etc. Specifically, “Part Four”

provides six topic/issue sections that contain two articles per section. The articles in these

sections display binary thinking—two opposing forces. One article in each section argues for the

issue while the other article argues against it. “Part Five” has seven “issue” sections with

anywhere between four and seven articles in each section. This perhaps moves students away

from stark binary thinking of identifying obvious stances and allows more room for the student

to determine elements of argument and understanding of ideologies and thought processes. “Part

Six,” titled “Enduring Questions: Essays, Poems, and Stories,” moves on to more philosophical

and metacognitive forms of thought and awareness by providing works that question and explore

the nature of society, the “other” and how we construct the “other,” and happiness. This section

may further enhance students’ critical thinking and inquiry skills and help them to begin more

deeply locating their own ideological stances.

Personally, I find little fault in this text. The authors do open “Part One” about critical

thinking and reading with Emerson’s thoughts on critical thinking which is quite typical of texts

related to English studies to open with a canonical white man. The sections do tend to favor male

authors, though there are a variety of women authors included. With all of the hullabaloo

regarding critical thinking, assumptions, and fake news, I think it is important to note that this

text, like many others, possesses the static assumption and claim that entities such as the news
(e.g. CNN, FOX, etc.) are diehard factual and legitimate sources of knowledge to pull from while

“othering” “conspiracy-minded” people, a term I have recently become aware of. In my opinion,

this stance, which invalidates those who question and theorize the truthfulness and intent of

certain sources, violates the framework of listening as proposed by authors Foss and Griffin.

Listening’s framework involves the conscious effort to understand the perspective of another by

considering why they believe what they believe while also acknowledging that their beliefs are

valid by “trust[ing] that others are doing the best they can at the moment and simply need ‘to be

unconditionally accepted as the experts on their own lives’” (Foss and Griffin 4).

Though the text is, for the most part, inclusive, it is ethnocentric in that it firmly locates

itself in the “white habitus” by not addressing language differences and sticking to the dominant

pedagogy that centers English language and ways of knowing. Or perhaps addressing language

diversity is not necessary in a first-year composition book specifically pertaining to critical

thinking and argument? However, part of shifting the paradigm (decolonization/decentering

colonial norms) includes pluriversality and “teach[ing] what it take to understand, listen, and

write in multiple dialects simultaneously. We should teach how to let dialects comingle, sho nuff

blend together…” (Young 112). The text may provide a platform to analyze some aspects of

“analyze[ing] the politico-economic relationships between the center and the periphery in the

colonial matrix of power, between what is deemed as standard and what is deemed nonstandard,”

but to do so, some knowledgebase of colonialism, colonial norms, decolonization, and anti-racist

efforts is required (Alvarez 20). In this way, I do not think this text can be classified as a

decolonial pedagogical tool because it falls short of the delinking project that “seek[s]

emancipations from colonial and neo-colonial elites and liberation for the colonized majority of

the Americas” (20).

Alvarez, Steven. “Literacy.” Decolonizing Rhetoric and Composition Studies, 2016.

Barnet, Bedau, and O’Hara

Foss, Sonja K. and Griffin, Cindy L. “Beyond Persuasion: A Proposal for an Invitational

Rhetoric.” EBSCO Publishing, 2003.

Young, Vershawn Ashanti. “Should Writers Use They Own English?” Iowa Journal of Cultural

Studies, vol 12.1, 2010.