A number of distinctive characteristics make the text an effective tool for both instructors and students. Exercises, discussion topics, and writing assignments encourage active participation, stimulating students to critically examine their own and others’ thinking.

* The enduring themes surrounding the events of September 11 have been infused throughout the text, encouraging students’ (and faculty’s) critical reflection and analysis. Themes and dilemmas explored include patriotism, individual freedom versus national security, and the ways in which different cultures perceive each other.
* Two portfolios of color images—”Thinking Critically About Images: Truth and Reality in Popular Culture” and “Thinking Critically About Images: Truth and Reality in the Media”—help students improve their ability to think critically about visual information. From advertising to current events to web sites, these sections provoke careful and creative analysis of the ways our values, beliefs, and perceptions are influenced (and, occasionally, manipulated) by visual information.
* Thinking Activities appear in the text and link students to the book’s companion Web site. These activities encourage students to move seamlessly from the classroom to the world beyond, offering additional links and web-based activities to enhance their critical and creative engagement with the exercises.
* In-text readings—and dozens more on the companion web site—reflect the latest thinking on cross-disciplinary topics such as human cloning, globalization, the environment, and challenges to civil liberty, giving instructors choice and currency.

Boothman, now a lecturer and licensed master practitioner of neurolinguistic programming (the art and science of how the brain affects human connections), says that the key to making others like you quickly lies in establishing a rapport: you have to find out what you have in common or, if you seemingly have nothing in common, purposely try to become like the other person for a short time. He then goes on to offer simple techniques for getting a rapport going: adopt a positive attitude; make sure your words, tone, and gestures are all saying the same thing; synchronize your attitude and body movements to those of another person’s (which makes the person feel comfortable with you–although he or she may not know why); and ask lots of open-ended questions. Boothman also describes how to figure out a stranger’s favored sense for receiving information about the world–some rely on visual cues, others on auditory or kinesthetic (touch) input–and use it to your best advantage.

If discovering how to connect with others is the secret to business and life success, as Boothman contends, then employing the strategies in this book will make you instantly likeable and give you a leg up on the competition. –Nancy Monson