Communication Skills Clarity and Conciseness Quick win

Rules of Reason

The Online Course for Making and Evaluating Claims

Enroll in Rules of Reason to master the art of clear and critical thinking by learning to create precise claims, recognize biases, and effectively communicate certainty.

17 lessons 1.6 hours 3 preview lessons
About this course

Claims are constantly being made, many of which are confusing, ambiguous, too general to be of value, exaggerated, unfalsifiable, and suggest a dichotomy when no such dichotomy exists. Good critical thinking requires a thorough understanding of the claim before attempting to determine its veracity. Good communication requires the ability to make clear, precise, explicit claims, or “strong” claims. The rules of reason in this book provide the framework for obtaining this understanding and ability.

Communicate and Reason Better. Much Better.

In this course, you will learn to master the art and science of making and evaluating claims. These steps include

  1. Acknowledge the Limits of Your Knowledge Regarding the Claim.
  2. Explore Your Biases Related to the Claim.
  3. Isolate the Actual Claim.
  4. Clearly and Precisely Define Each Relevant Term.
  5. Use Terms That Reflect the Scope of the Claim Accurately.
  6. Operationalize Terms When Possible.
  7. Make the Claim Falsifiable When Possible.
  8. Express an Accurate and Meaningful Level of Confidence.
  9. Convert Causes to Contributing Factors When Appropriate.
  10. Make Strong Analogies and Call Out Weak Ones.
  11. Filter All Relevant Assumptions Through These Same Rules.

By the time you have finished this short book, no matter how good you were before at evaluating claims, you will be even better at it.

17
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3
preview lessons
5
curriculum sections
Communication Skills
primary category
Curriculum preview

Imported lessons, grouped into real sections.

This rendering uses normalized lesson data from the migration pipeline — not placeholder text.

Introduction

3 lessons

1. Course Introduction
1 min Preview
Welcome to my course based on my book, Rules of Reason: Making and Evaluating Claims . I wrote this book with the course in mind, as I felt it would work better as a cour…
2. Preface
4 min Preview
3. Book Introduction
7 min Preview

Know Thyself

2 lessons

4. Rule #1: Acknowledge the Limits of Your Knowledge Regarding the Claim
4 min
5. Rule #2: Explore Your Biases Related to the Claim
12 min

Disambiguate

6 lessons

6. Rule #3: Isolate the Actual Claim
4 min
7. Rule #4: Clearly and Precisely Define Each Relevant Term
3 min
8. Rule #5: Use Terms That Reflect the Scope and Degree of the Claim Accurately
6 min
9. Rule #6: Operationalize Terms When Possible
7 min
The example used in this lesson is for illustration purposes only and does not represent an accurate claim of COVID-19 deaths.
10. Rule #7: Make the Claim Falsifiable When Possible
4 min
11. Rule #8: Express an Accurate and Meaningful Level of Confidence
6 min

Embrace the Continuum

3 lessons

12. Rule #9: Convert Causes to Contributing Factors When Appropriate
5 min
13. Rule #10: Make Strong Analogies and Call Out Weak Ones
12 min
14. Rule #11: Filter All Relevant Assumptions Through These Same Rules
3 min

Putting It All Together

3 lessons

15. Example Claims
17 min
16. Conclusion
2 min
17. The Eleven Rules of Reason for Making and Evaluating Claims
2 min
Acknowledge the Limits of Your Knowledge Regarding the Claim. Explore Your Biases Related to the Claim. Isolate the Actual Claim. Clearly and Precisely Define Each Releva…
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