Exam 4: Clarify Ideas and Concepts

Using examples based on recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings or comparable examples of your own choosing, explain why strong critical thinking includes the development of the skill of interpretation and the habit of judiciousness.

When Uncle Frank issued his command that "Bad language" should never be used in his presence, his college-aged nieces and nephews agreed out of respect to honor his wishes. But later, when they were out together and he was not with them, they discussed what each of them thought that Uncle Frank had meant. Explain why it can be difficult to interpret an expression like "Don't use bad language!"

Contextualizing resolves problematic ambiguity by reminding us of the topic being discussed or the circumstances within which a statement was made.

Explain why interpreting the meaning of a political campaign promise like "We will reform government so that we do what is right!" is problematic.

What does "taking a person's words out of context" mean and why is that a problem? Use examples to amplify your explanation.

How does the discussion of academic language communities help college freshmen and sophomores find success in typical college introductory courses? And, how does applying critical thinking help students move more easily into the academic language community of their chosen major?

Rather than bargaining with her partner until a compromise was hammered out about which one of them had to stay late to complete the paperwork, Judy, a police officer, preferred to approach disagreements with her partner using ______________ negotiation.

One of the most practical ways of resolving problematic vagueness and ambiguity is to introduce _____________ that clarify which cases are included or excluded.

The example in the text about the word person and the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that corporations are persons reinforces the idea that ________.

The school principal was giving out Perfect Attendance Awards to the children in the second grade and called Jennifer to the front of the class saying. "Jennifer gets a Perfect Attendance Award too because she did not miss a single day of school except for the three days her parents held her out for religious reasons. And, after all, authentic perfect attendance means attending school each and every day that you should have attended." Explain what makes the school principal's message problematic to interpret.

Contrast interest-based negotiation from position-based negotiation and describe how you may be able to approach the problem of finding a job on campus using interest-based negotiation. You may use examples from the text or, preferably, introduce your own examples to illustrate your points.

Saying that a term or expression is problematically vague means that the word or expression ________.

Simpson wanted to have a face-to-face conversation with the professor about the problems he was having in class. But instead he ended up texting "this is a hard course" to the professor. Because of the shift to written communication, Simpson can expect which of the following?

Which critical thinking skill, along with the critical thinking habit of judiciousness, is the primary skill for determining the meaning and significance of what is being communicated?

James is in the process of purchasing a new home. He is going back and forth with the sellers over the one issue of the selling price. Neither James nor the sellers want to compromise. Jim thinks the sellers are asking too much. The sellers think Jim is not a serious buyer. Jim and the sellers are engaging in ________.

In the sentence "The disappointed one who lives with no expectations is truly happy," the word truly is used as a ____________ word to twist the meaning of happy.

Saying that a term or expression is problematically ambiguous means that the word or expression ________.

What is the "first rule of fair-minded interpretation"?

Regardless of context or purpose, vague or ambiguous words or expressions are always problematic.

Seeking to form an accurate interpretation of a speaker's words, images, gestures, poem, report, and so on, what questions can a person use to discover the speaker's purpose?