Ever been to so many meetings that you couldn't get your work done? Ever fallen asleep during a bulletpoint presentation? Ever watched the news and ended up knowing less? Welcome to the land of Blah Blah Blah. The Problem: We talk so much that we don't think very well. Powerful as words are, we fool ourselves when we think our words alone can detect, describe, and defuse the multifaceted problems of today. They can't-and that's bad, because words have become our default thinking tool. The Solution: This book offers a way out of blah-blah-blah. It's called "Vivid Thinking." In Dan Roam's first acclaimed book, The Back of the Napkin, he taught readers how to solve problems and sell ideas by drawing simple pictures. Now he proves that Vivid Thinking is even more powerful. This technique combines our verbal and visual minds so that we can think and learn more quickly, teach and inspire our colleagues, and enjoy and share ideas in a whole new way. The Destination: No more blah-blah-blah. Through Vivid Thinking, we can make the most complicated subjects suddenly crystal clear. Whether trying to understand a Harvard Business School class, or what went down in the Conan versus Leno battle for late-night TV, or what Einstein thought about relativity, Vivid Thinking provides a way to clarify anything. Through dozens of guided examples, Roam proves that anyone can apply this systematic approach, from leftbrain types who hate to draw to right-brainers who hate to write. This isn't just a book about improving communications, presentations, and ideation; it's about removing the blah-blah- blah from your life for good.

Critical Thinking: The Basics is an accessible and engaging introduction to the field of critical thinking, drawing on philosophy, communication, and psychology. Emphasising its relevance both to academic literacy and to decision-making in a range of contexts, this book introduces and explains the knowledge, methods, and skills needed to identify and avoid poor reasoning, reconstruct and evaluate arguments, and engage constructively in dialogues. Topics covered include: The relationship between critical thinking, emotions, and the psychology of persuasion The role of character dispositions such as open-mindedness, courage, and self-knowledge Argument identification and reconstruction Fallacies and argument evaluation. This second edition has been revised and updated throughout, and includes an additional chapter on the relationship between critical thinking and emotions. There are also new sections on concepts such as the ‘experiential mind’ and ‘need for cognitive closure’, and contemporary examples drawn from issues including conspiracy theories, the pandemic, and misuses of social media. With updated and expanded discussion questions/exercises and suggestions for further reading at the end of each main chapter, this book is an essential read for students approaching the field of critical thinking for the first time, and for the general reader wanting to improving their thinking skills and decision-making abilities.

Thinking Arabic Translation is an indispensable book for linguists who want to develop their Arabic-to-English translation skills. Clear explanations, discussions, examples and exercises enable students to acquire the skills necessary for tackling a broad range of translation problems. The book has a practical orientation, addressing key issues for translators, such as cultural differences, genre, and revision and editing. It is a book on translation method, drawing on a range of notions from linguistics and translation theory to encourage thoughtful consideration of possible solutions to practical problems. This new edition includes: • new material in almost all chapters • a new chapter on parallelism • two new chapters on technical translation: botanical and Islamic finance texts • new and up-to-date examples from all types of translation, covering broad issues that have emerged in the Arab world in recent years • texts drawn from a wide variety of writing types, including newspapers, prose fiction, poetry, tourist material, scientific texts, financial texts, recipes, academic writing, constitutions and political speeches • at least three full-length practical translation exercises in each chapter to complement the discussions and consolidate learning. In addition to the updated Tutor’s Handbook, a Supplement, containing textual material and practical exercises aimed at further developing the translation issues discussed in the main text, and a Tutor’s Handbook to the Supplement, are available at www.routledge.com/cw/dickins. Thinking Arabic Translation is key reading for advanced students wishing to perfect their language skills or considering a career in translation.

Quassim Cassam introduces the idea of epistemic vices, character traits that get in the way of knowledge, such as closed-mindedness, intellectual arrogance, wishful thinking, and prejudice. Using examples from politics to illustrate the vices at work, he considers whether we are responsible for such failings, and what we can do about them.

Learn to utilize social media strategies that inspire behavior change in any landscape Strategic Social Media: From Marketing to Social Change, Second Edition combines best social media marketing practices with the application of traditional communication, behavior change, and marketing theories. More than a basic "how-to" guide, this innovative resource balances social media theory and real-world practice in a variety of areas, including advocacy, public health, entertainment, and education. With a clear and readable style, the authors explain the power and possibilities of social media to influence personal relationships and social change. The media environment of today is more mobile, visual, and personalized than ever before. In the second edition of Strategic Social Media, the authors incorporate advances in the field such as enhanced visual communication, digital experience sharing, omnichannel marketing, IoT, artificial intelligence, mass personalization, and social e-commerce. An entirely new chapter on utilizing social media for personal branding efforts is accompanied by new and updated examples, action plans, business models, and international case studies throughout. Covers all key aspects of strategic social media: landscape, messages, marketing and business models, social change, and the future Highlights opportunities to break down barriers with institutions of power, achieve greater transparency, and mobilize users through social media Contains social media strategies readers can apply to any past, present, or future social media platform Helps practitioners make better decisions about brand objectives and evaluate and monitor social media marketing efforts Provides clear guidance on crafting social media messages that reach intended audiences and ignite dialogue and behavior change Offering comprehensive coverage of both the theory and practice of facilitating behavior change in social media audiences, Strategic Social Media: From Marketing to Social Change, Second Edition, is essential reading for undergraduate and graduate students in digital and social media marketing courses, social media practitioners, entrepreneurs, digital content creators, journalists, activists, and marketing and public relations professionals.

National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry