Entry 1 (magazine) : The 7 Steps of Highly Cool People

Submitted to : Airil Haimi Mohd Adnan, tutor

In partial requirement for BEL 313, Introduction to Critical Thinking.

Test #2, Semester 1 2013/2014,

Universiti Teknologi MARA, Seri Iskandar Campus,

Perak Darul Ridzuan.

Submitted by : Muhammad Shahidan Ameer B. Hammad, UiTM #2011282812

After reading this article, the first things that blow my mind is the author gives his idea without any strong reference. I also found that there are uses of fallacies used by the author in this article. Firstly, there are clearly uses of slippery slope by the statement “It makes your teeth go yellow and gives a pungent stench to your sweat”. It clearly shows that the author relates the yellow teeth’s and stench sweats together when you are smoking.

                Next, there are uses of appeal to tradition due to the statement “I know, I know, some of you are allowed to drink alcohol when you come of age.” The author assumed that if the people come of age, people are allows for drinks or do whatever he want and clearly shows the presence of these fallacies. Besides, there is clearly the use of appeal to inappropriate authority. It can be seen by the statement “Even my friends tell me dancing is the best form of exercise, and it is definitely not a crime.” The question is who are author's friends? Does he really have the authority to say that? And if he really knows, what is he trying to complained about.

                In a conclusion, this article is really fun to be read but it is not good enough in the scope of critical thinking. Also we can conclude that this article is full with ideas but are lack of fact that are not strong enough to support the arguments.

(250 words)

Shahidan