Welcome to LaunchPad for Current Issues and Enduring Questions

What's in LaunchPad for Current Issues and Enduring Questions?

Setting Up and Customizing Your LaunchPad Course

Types of Diagnostic and Summative Assessment Available in LaunchPad for Current Issues and Enduring Questions

Creating and Using Video Assignments

Creating and Using Other LaunchPad Assignment Types

PART ONE Critical Thinking and Reading

PART ONE Critical Thinking and Reading

1 Critical Thinking

Thinking through an Issue: Gay Marriage Licenses

On Flying Spaghetti Monsters: Analyzing and Evaluating from Multiple Perspectives

Stirred and Strained: Pastafarians Should Be Allowed to Practice in Prison (Student Essay)

Generating Ideas: Writing as a Way of Thinking

Nina Fedoroff, The Genetically Engineered Salmon Is a Boon for Consumers and Sustainability

A Short Essay Calling for Critical Thinking

Lynn Stuart Parramore, Fitbits for Bosses

Examining Assumptions

Jena McGregor, Military Women in Combat: Why Making It Official Matters

Thinking Critically: Generating Topics (Chapter 1)

2 Critical Reading: Getting Started

Active Reading

Sanjay Gupta, Why I Changed My Mind on Weed

Summarizing and Paraphrasing

Paraphrase, Patchwriting, and Plagiarism

Susan Jacoby, A First Amendment Junkie

Zachary Shemtob and David Lat, Executions Should Be Televised

Gwen Wilde, Why the Pledge of Allegiance Should Be Revised (Student Essay)

Susan Brownmiller, Let's Put Pornography Back in the Closet

Charles R. Lawrence III, On Racist Speech

Derek Bok, Protecting Freedom of Expression on the Campus

Thinking Critically: Previewing (Chapter 2)

Thinking Critically: Defining Terms and Concepts (Chapter 2)

3 Critical Reading: Getting Deeper into Arguments

Persuasion, Argument, Dispute

Reason versus Rationalization

Some Procedures in Argument

Nonrational Appeals

Does All Writing Contain Arguments?

George F. Will, Being Green at Ben and Jerry's

Stanley Fish, When "Identity Politics" Is Rational

Gloria Jiménez, Against the Odds, and against the Common Good (Student Essay)

Anna Lisa Raya, It's Hard Enough Being Me (Student Essay)

Ronald Takaki, The Harmful Myth of Asian Superiority

James Q. Wilson, Just Take Away Their Guns

Kayla Webley, Is Forgiving Student Loan Debt a Good Idea?

Alfred Edmond Jr., Why Asking for a Job Applicant's Facebook Password Is Fair Game

Sherry Turkle, The Flight from Conversation

Thinking Critically: Establishing Trustworthiness and Credibility (Chapter 3)

Thinking Critically: Giving Definitions (Chapter 3)

4 Visual Rhetoric: Thinking about Images as Arguments

Uses of Visual Images

Seeing versus Looking: Reading Advertisements

Other Aspects of Visual Appeals

Accommodating, Resisting, and Negotiating the Meaning of Images

Are Some Images Not Fit to Be Shown?

Writing about a Political Cartoon

Jackson Smith, Pledging Nothing? (Student Essay)

Visuals as Aids to Clarity: Maps, Graphs, and Pie Charts

Using Visuals in Your Own Paper

Additional Images for Analysis

Nora Ephron, The Boston Photographs

Thinking Critically: Analysis of a Political Cartoon (Chapter 4)

PART TWO Critical Writing

PART TWO Critical Writing

5 Writing an Analysis of an Argument

Analyzing an Argument

Nicholas D. Kristof, For Environmental Balance, Pick Up a Rifle

Betsy Swinton, Tracking Kristof (Student Essay)

Jeff Jacoby, Bring Back Flogging

Gerard Jones, Violent Media Is Good for Kids

Justin Cronin, Confessions of a Liberal Gun Owner

Peter Singer, Animal Liberation

Jonathan Safran Foer, Let Them Eat Dog: A Modest Proposal for Tossing Fido in the Oven

Thinking Critically: Drawing Conclusions and Implying Proof (Chapter 5)

6 Developing an Argument of Your Own

Planning, Drafting, and Revising an Argument

Peer Review

A Student's Essay, from Rough Notes to Final Version

Emily Andrews, Why I Don't Spare "Spare Change" (Student Essay)

Thinking Critically: “Walking the Tightrope” (Chapter 6)

Thinking Critically: Using Transitions in Argument (Chapter 6)

Thinking Critically: Varying Tone (Chapter 6)

Thinking Critically: Eliminating We, One, and I (Chapter 6)

7 Using Sources

Why Use Sources?

Choosing A Topic

Finding Material

Interviewing Peers and Local Authorities

Evaluating Your Sources

Taking Notes

A Note on Plagiarizing, Paraphrasing, and Using Common Knowledge

Compiling an Annotated Bibliography

Writing the Paper

Quoting from Sources

Documentation

An Annotated Student Research Paper in MLA Format

An Annotated Student Research Paper in APA Format

Thinking Critically: Using Signal Phrases (Chapter 7)

PART THREE Further Views on Argument

PART THREE Further Views on Argument

8 A Philosopher's View: The Toulmin Model

The Claim

Grounds

Warrants

Backing

Modal Qualifiers

Rebuttals

James E. McWilliams, The Locavore Myth: Why Buying from Nearby Farmers Won't Save the Planet

Thinking with Toulmin's Method

Thinking Critically: Constructing a Toulmin Argument (Chapter 8)

9 A Logician's View: Deduction, Induction, Fallacies

Deduction

Induction

Fallacies

Max Shulman, Love Is a Fallacy

10 A Psychologist's View: Rogerian Argument

Rogerian Argument: An Introduction

Carl R. Rogers, Communication: Its Blocking and Its Facilitation

Edward O. Wilson, Letter to a Southern Baptist Minister

11 A Literary Critic's View: Arguing about Literature

Interpreting

Judging (or Evaluating)

Theorizing

Robert Frost, Mending Wall

Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress

Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour

Thinking about the Effects of Literature

Plato, "The Greater Part of the Stories Current Today We Shall Have to Reject"

Thinking about Government Funding for the Arts

12 A Debater's View: Individual Oral Presentations and Debate

Individual Oral Presentations

The Audience

Delivery

The Talk

Formal Debates

PART Four Current Issues: Occasions for Debate

PART Four Current Issues: Occasions for Debate

Robert Applebaum, Debate on Student Loan Debt Doesn’t Go Far Enough

Robert Applebaum, Debate on Student Loan Debt Doesn’t Go Far Enough

Analyzing a Visual: Student Loan Debt

Justin Wolfers, Forgive Student Loans? Worst Idea Ever

Sig Behrens, The Education-Technology Revolution Is Coming

Sig Behrens, The Education-Technology Revolution Is Coming

Analyzing a Visual: Technology in Classrooms

Ruth Starkman, Cyberslacking in Shanghai: What My Students Taught Me

Stephen Budiaksnky, Math Lessons for Locavores

Stephen Budiaksnky, Math Lessons for Locavores

Analyzing a Visual: Local Farming

Kerry Trueman, The Myth of the Rabid Locavore

Nick Gillespie, Millennials Are Selfish and Entitled, and Helicopter Parents Are to Blame

Nick Gillespie, Millennials Are Selfish and Entitled, and Helicopter Parents Are to Blame

Analyzing a Visual: Overparenting

Alfie Kohn,The One-Sided Culture War Against Children

Ronald M. Green, Building Baby from the Genes Up

Ronald M. Green, Building Baby from the Genes Up

Analyzing a Visual: Genetic Modification of Human Beings

Richard Hayes, Genetically Modified Humans? No Thanks

Charles Rangel, The Draft Would Compel Us to Share the Sacrifice

Charles Rangel, The Draft Would Compel Us to Share the Sacrifice

Analyzing a Visual: Military Recruiting

James Lacey, We Need Trained Soldiers, Not a Horde of Draftees

PART FIVE Current Issues: Casebooks

PART FIVE Current Issues: Casebooks

A College Education: What Is Its Purpose?

A College Education: What Is Its Purpose?

Carlo Rotella, No, It Doesn't Matter What You Majored In

Ed Conard, We Don't Need More Humanities Majors

Christian Madsbjerg and Mikkel B. Rasmussen, We Need More Humanities Majors

Scott Samuelson, Why I Teach Plato to Plumbers

Mark Slouka, Mathandscience

David Foster Wallace, Commencement Address, Kenyon College

Gene Demby, The Birth of a New Civil Rights Movement

Gene Demby, The Birth of a New Civil Rights Movement

Heather Mac Donald, The New Nationwide Crime Wave

Baltimore Sun Editorial Board, No "Ferguson Effect"

Steve Chapman, Are Blacks to Blame for Cops' Actions?

David H. Bayley, Michael A. Davis, and Ronald L. Davis, Race and Policing: An Agenda for Action

Anonymous Editorial, New York Times, A Ban Too Far

Anonymous Editorial, New York Times, A Ban Too Far

Analyzing a Visual: The Nanny State

Daniel E. Lieberman, Evolution's Sweet Tooth

Donald Marron, Should Governments Tax Unhealthy Foods and Drinks?

Letters of Response by Fizer et al.

Jules Evans, Are We Slaves to Our Online Selves?

Jules Evans, Are We Slaves to Our Online Selves?

Navneet Alang, Eat, Pray, Post

Tim Krieder, I Know What You Think of Me

Charles Seife, This Is Your Brain . . .

Stephen Marche, Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?

Josh Rose, How Social Media Is Having a Positive Impact on Our Culture

David Cole, Five Myths about Immigration

David Cole, Five Myths about Immigration

Barry R. Chiswick, The Worker Next Door

John Tierney, Ángels in America

Victor David Hanson, Our Brave New World of Immigration

Analyzing Visuals: Immigration Then and Now

Adam Gopnik, The Carceral State: Why Are So Many Americans in Jail?

Adam Gopnik, The Carceral State: Why Are So Many Americans in Jail?

Heather Ann Thompson, How Prisons Change the Balance of Power in America

Marian Wright Edelman, The Cradle to Prison Pipeline

Jed S. Rakoff, Mass Incarceration: The Silence of the Judges

Peter Wagner and Bernadette Rabuy, Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie

Conor Friedersdorf, Breaking Bad: America Has Used Walter White Logic since 9/11

Conor Friedersdorf, Breaking Bad: America Has Used Walter White Logic since 9/11

Steven M. Walt, The Myth of American Exceptionalism

Herman Cain, In Defense of American Exceptionalism

Clifford D. May, In Defense of American Exceptionalism

David Bromwich, It's Time to Rethink American Exceptionalism

Ellen Bresler Rockmore, How Texas Teaches History

PART SIX Enduring Questions: Essays, a Story, Poems, and a Play

PART SIX Enduring Questions: Essays, a Story, Poems, and a Play

Thomas More, From Utopia

Thomas More, From Utopia

Niccolò Machiavelli, From The Prince

Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

Martin Luther King Jr., I Have a Dream

W. H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen

Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus

Walt Whitman, One Song, America, Before I Go

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

Thoughts about Free Will

Thoughts about Free Will

Plato, Crito

George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant

Walter T. Stace, Is Determinism Inconsistent with Free Will?

Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail

Peter Cave, Man or Sheep?

Thomas Hardy, The Man He Killed

T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Susan Glaspell, Trifles

Mitsuye Yamada, To the Lady

Thoughts about Happiness, Ancient and Modern

Thoughts about Happiness, Ancient and Modern

Daniel Gilbert, Does Fatherhood Make You Happy?

Henry David Thoreau, Selections from Walden

Darrin M. McMahon, In Pursuit of Unhappiness

Epictetus, From The Handbook

Bertrand Russell, The Happy Life

The Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, Inner Contentment

C. S. Lewis, We Have No "Right to Happiness"

Judy Brady, I Want a Wife