AMBA 610: Critical Thinking Assignment Cliffside Holding Company
AMBA 610 Individual Paper Assignment
Week 2: The Manager as a Critical Thinker
Assignment: Individual Paper
In a short paper (7-8 double-spaced pages) apply the 10 steps of the critical thinking model discussed in Asking the Right Questions to assess the arguments made in the critical thinking assignment document posted by your instructor. Include all of the steps and all parts of the steps. Leaving out discussion of any steps will adversely affect your grade. Although not necessary for a passing grade, answers to some of the questions may be enhanced by doing additional research.
Remember that your task is here is to evaluate the memo author's argument as objectively as possible, not to give your own opinions on the issue.
Prepare your paper in the format your instructor requires (Word, pdf, etc.) and post it in your Assignments Folder. The citations and the reference list in the paper should be formatted in accordance with APA guidelines as described in the Hacker text.
Asking the Right Questions
You are using the methodology of Asking the Right Questions to analyze the memo. Thus, you need to give the authors credit. You should state clearly in your introduction that you are using the multi-step method developed by Browne and Keeley and cite the book. The Hacker manual explains how to cite a text by two authors and how to cite subsequent references to the text. If you note in the beginning of the paper that you are using the Browne and Keeley method developed in Asking the Right Questions, it is not necessary to keep repeating this in every step. However, if you paraphrase specific concepts or definitions from the text, you will need an in-text citation. If you use a direct quotation from the text, you will need to cite the source, and include a page number.
Objective 1: Apply models of critical thinking and systems thinking to address complex organizational issues.
Competencies: Critical Thinking and Communication Skills
Criteria | Exceeds Expectations | Meets Expectation | Below Expectations | Unsatisfactory |
1. What are the issue and conclusions? | · Clearly identifies and succinctly summarizes issue and conclusion | · Generally correctly identifies the issue and conclusion · Does not summarize the issue clearly · Does not summarize the conclusion clearly. | · Generally correctly identifies the issue or the conclusion, but not both. · Does not summarize the issue and/or the conclusion clearly. · Confuses concept of issue and conclusion. | · Omits discussion · Does not correctly identify either the issue or the conclusion. · Confuses concept of issue and conclusion. |
2. What are the reasons? | · Clearly identifies and succinctly summarizes all major reasons offered in the memo. | · Clearly identifies some, but not all of the main reasons · Includes items that are not reasons | · Identifies only a limited number of the main reasons · Does not identify reasons clearly · Includes items that are not reasons · Fails to identify major reasons. | · Omits discussion Does not identify main reasons · Confuses reasons with other concepts. |
3. Which words or phrases are ambiguous? | · Identifies the most important ambiguous words and phrases in the memo · Succinctly explains the effect ambiguity has on the author’s reasoning. | · Demonstrates general understanding of concept of ambiguous phrases and identifies some. · Explains the effect ambiguity has on the author’s reasoning | · Demonstrates only a limited understanding of concept of ambiguous phrases and identifies one or two · Either does not explain the effect ambiguity has on the author’s reasoning, or is unclear.
| · Omits discussion · Does not demonstrate understanding of ambiguous phrases · Does not identify key ambiguity in the memo, or includes laundry list of phrases without explanation · Does not explain the effect ambiguity has on the author’s reasoning, or is unclear. |
4. What are the value and descriptive assumptions?
| · Demonstrates solid understanding of value and descriptive assumptions · Clearly identifies and succinctly discusses the major descriptive and value assumptions in the memo. · Demonstrates clear understanding of the difference between value assumptions and descriptive assumptions. | · Demonstrates some understanding of value and descriptive assumptions. · Identifies some and provides satisfactory explanation of their effect on the argument. · May have some minor confusion over definitions | · Demonstrates limited understanding of value and descriptive assumptions · Identifies some, but may have major confusion, and/or does not provide satisfactory explanation of their effect on the argument. | · Omits discussion · Does not demonstrate understanding of value and descriptive assumptions. · Generally confused about the concepts. |
5. Are there any fallacies in the reasoning? | · Demonstrates solid understanding of the concept of reasoning fallacies · Identifies the most important fallacies in the argument by name · Discusses their impact on the argument. | · Demonstrates a satisfactory understanding of the concept of reasoning fallacies · Identifies most of the important ones by name · Provides a satisfactory discussion of their impact on the argument. | · Demonstrates a limited understanding of the reasoning fallacies · Identifies only one or two of the important fallacies in the argument by name and/or does not provide a satisfactory discussion of their impact on the argument. | · Omits discussion · Does not demonstrate understanding of the reasoning fallacies · Fails to identify the important fallacies in the argument by name · Does not provide a satisfactory discussion of their impact on the argument... |
6. How good is the evidence? | · Clearly identifies types of evidence in the memo · Demonstrates the ability to analyze the quality of the evidence. | · Identifies a majority of the evidence in the memo · Presents a satisfactory analysis of the quality of the evidence. | Identifies only a limited amount of the evidence in the memo, and/or fails to explain how it affects the argument. | · Omits discussion · Does not identify and analyze the evidence · Does not demonstrate an understanding of the definition of evidence and how it affects an argument. |
7. Are there rival causes? | · Demonstrates solid understanding of the concept of rival causes · Clearly identifies possible rival causes in an author’s argument. | · Demonstrates satisfactory understanding of the concept of rival causes · Identifies possible rival causes in an author’s argument. | · Demonstrates a limited understanding of the concept of rival cause · Identifies possible rival causes in an author’s argument; however, these rival causes may not be plausible. | · Omits discussion · Does not demonstrate understanding of the concept of rival causes. |
8. Are the statistics deceptive? (if present) | · Identifies statistics in an argument · Provides a solid analysis of the value of the statistical evidence. | · Identifies statistics in an argument · Provides a satisfactory analysis of the value of the statistical evidence. | · May identify statistics in an argument, · Fails to provide a satisfactory analysis of the value of the statistical evidence. | · Omits discussion · Does not recognize the use of statistics in an argument
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9. What significant information is been omitted? | · Offers persuasive arguments regarding significant information that has been omitted · Provides a convincing discussion regarding the impact of the missing information. | · Identifies some missing significant information · Offers a satisfactory explanation as to how this missing information affects the argument. | · Identifies a limited amount of missing significant information · Offers a weak explanation as to how this missing information affects the argument. | · Omits discussion · Does not recognize significant missing information · Does not demonstrate understanding of the impact of omitted significant information. |
10. What reasonable conclusions are possible? | · Offers persuasive alternative conclusions based upon the most important reasons offered in the memo. | · Demonstrates satisfactory understanding of the concept of alternative conclusions · Offers some plausible examples. | · Demonstrates only a limited understanding of the concept of alternative conclusions · Offers some non-plausible examples | · Omits discussion · Does not demonstrate understanding of the concept of alternate conclusions and fails to recognize or discuss them. |
Content Grade: (possible 80 points) | 72-80 | 64-71.5 | 63.5-56 | 55 and under |
Your Content Grade |
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Form | · Graduate level writing is reflected throughout the paper, including accurate spelling, punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure. · Citations are properly used (APA format) · All sources are identified and cited properly in the text and the reference list · Page limit requirements are met. | · Writing is acceptable, · Few errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, and/or sentence structure · Few errors in the proper use of citations (APA format) · All sources are identified and cited properly in the text and the reference list. · Page limit requirements are met. | · Writing does not meet graduate standards. · Unacceptable number of errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure · Citations and/or reference list are not properly used.(APA format) · Paper does not exceed page limit requirements by more than 10%. | · Writing does not meet graduate standards. · Unacceptable number of errors in spelling, punctuation, grammar, sentence structure · Citations and/or reference list are not properly used.(APA format) · Paper exceeds page limit requirements by more than 10%. |
Form Grade: (possible 20 points) | 18-20 | 16-17.5 | 14-15.5 | 14 and under |
Your Form Grade |
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Total Grade | 90-100 | 80-89 | 70-79 | Below 69 |
Your Total Grade |
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Additional Comments:
10 years ago
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asking_the_right_questions.docx
