Describe

1. An accurate use of words improves our thinking. Words give form to our thoughts so that we can make use of them. Words enable us to communicate with others and ourselves. Knowing the words for things and experiences helps us see and perceive more.

2. Writing helps us learn more about words and how to use them. When we struggle to select words that will describe our experiences, we realize that words are only translations of experience and not the experience itself.

3. Clear thinking depends on a clear understanding of the words we use. Word confusion leads to less consciousness, or disequilibrium, which can only be restored through word clarification.

4. We need to understand what dictionaries can and cannot offer us; we need to use them skillfully and frequently.

5. The thesaurus helps us when we are writing and translating nonverbal experiences and ideas into words; the dictionary helps us when we are reading and interpreting the words of others.

6. Definitions set boundaries for word ideas and show us their specific and general characteristics and how they are related to or distinguished from one another.

7. Dictionary definitions show us the agreements that society has made about a word's meaning. Butwe may also compose our own personal or stpulative definitions of experiences or compose persuasive definitions to sway the opinions of others. In critical thinking it is important not to confuse these different kinds of definitions, or to believe that personal, persuasive, or stipulative definitions carry the same agreements as those found in a dictionary.

8. The test of our understanding of a word is our ability to define it. This ability is particularly important for words representing key ideas that we wish to explain or defend. Taking the itme to define the words we use is an essential prliminary to genuine communication.

9. A study of a word's etymology can help us trace a word back to its earliest root idea and can give us an image that conveys a more concrete sense of the word's logic. Learning a word's etymology can also help us recognize its relationship to ohter words with the same root meanings.

10. The connotations of a word are its associative meanings, which can be positive, negative, or neutral. These associations can take the form of feelings, ideas, images, or thoughts. Thus, although politicians might rarely admit to lying or being confused, it is quite acceptable for them to admit they misspoke.

11. The first stage of critical reading is objective receptivity to the material; this means haveing the technical ability as well as the willingness to accurately reproduce its content without alterations or distortions. If we question and interact with material that we have not accurately interpreted, our criticisms will not be fair or worthwhile.

1. When Frederick Douglass grasped the concept of abolition,he understood it was possible for him to become free.
False
2. Words can be used to do a better or worse job of describing experiences but can never be more than translations of the experiences themselves.
False
3. A dictionary can help us think better when we use it to clear up word confusion.
True
4. Definitions of a word show the word's boundaries.
True
5. Knowing the words for things helps us see them better.
True
6. We do not fully understand a word unless we can define it.
True
7. When people debate a tropic, understanding is greatly helped by their taking the time to define the key terms
True
8. Etymology gives us word histories.
True
9. Pocket dictionaries are sufficient guides for a critical study of word meanings.
False
10. The word ohm comes from the Sanskrit language and means the sound of creation.
True
11. According to most dictionaries, there is more than one acceptable spelling of the word cooperate.
True
12. The term French leave means to say good-bye with a big kiss.
False
13. The prefix in the words insignificant and inflammable means not in Latin.
True
14. The following words all contain the sound called a schwa; mass, polite, placement, bogus, visible.
False
15. The word nausea can be pronounced at least three different ways.
False
16. The word round can function as six different parts of speech; adjective, noun, transitive and intransitive verb, adverb, and preposition.
False
17. Egregious comes from a Latin word meaning standing out from the herd.
True
18. The word nadir in the phrase "the nadir of politics" means the highest point.
False
19. A cogent argument is a convincing one.
True
20. The words decimate means to dice something up into pieces.
True