Intended to improve critical thinking skills (and thereby the reading and writing skills that depend on critical thinking) through awareness of thinking patterns and activities, this textbook has three parts. Part 1, "Foundations: Thinking about Thinking," examines how our minds work as we try to make sense of the world around us and of our experiences in it. This part contains the following chapters: (1) Thinking about Ideas; (2) Thinking about Feelings; and (3) Thinking about Language. Part 2, "Practical Applications: Strategies for Nonfiction Writing and Reading," which introduces problem-solving strategies for approaching many of the reading and writing tasks to be faced in academic and professional settings, contains the following chapters: (4) The Writer's Strategies; (5) The Reader's Strategies; and (6) How to Write about Nonfiction Texts. Part 3, "Readings," contains articles which elaborate on the topics introduced in previous chapters. (SR)