Kate began a new critical thinking workbook today. The first lesson and worksheet were on short argument, "Distinguishing premises from conclusions." Once she understood the basic idea, she found it to be a way to begin essays by pulling together the main point and strongest evidence. She learned that premises are the reasons behind the point one is making, the persuasive reasoning used -- the why. In conjunction with this, Kate learned that a conclusion is the term used for the point you are arguing for. The worksheet showed an example from Martin Luther King, Jr. The conclusion was that "segregation is morally wrong," and the premise or reason was that it "reduces some persons to the status of things." We discussed segregation and Civil War -- getting all the facts straight and better understood (as a result of the topic of the example). Kate learned two new words: Optimist and pessimist. She said that she is almost always an optimist.