ENGLISH 225
Recommended texts for English 225:
Essentials of Argument (2nd edition)
By Nancy V. Wood. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009.
In a clear and concise format, Essentials of Argument offers a three part guide to critical reading, critical thinking, research, and constructing an argument. Part I provides a 4 chapter analysis of understanding argument and research. Chapter 1 addresses characteristics of argument, style, and topic selection. Chapter 2 focuses on context and motivation, emphasizing that arguments are situational, and motivated by context bound issues. Chapter 3 outlines research and source evaluation; and chapter 4 offers instruction on how personal argument depends on supporting evidence as well as account for counter-arguments. Part II surveys essential aspects of argument that serve to convince the reader. Chapter 5 breaks down the Toulmin model. Chapter 6 looks at claims and purposes. Chapter 7 explains the connection between support and warrants, and discusses language and style. Chapter 8 has the student apply their evaluative skills and write and argument analysis. Part III has students practice writing arguments, and look at visual and oral forms of argument. Chapter 9 compares Rogerian argument with traditional argument. Chapter 10 examines what it means to support a personal perspective with research from outside sources; and Chapter 11 describes visual and oral argument. 3 Additional appendices include MLA and APA Documentation, Summary Charts, and One Hundred Topics That Generate Issues. The organization of Essentials of Argument is such that each part can stand alone. The benefit being they can be assigned sequentially, or in a way that best supplements the instructor’s specific course organization. While there are no readings, per se, at 340 pages, Essentials offers an affordable and appealing rhetoric text, both in voice and tone, and in its accessibility to an undergraduate audience.
Perspectives on Argument (6th Edition)
By Nancy V. Wood. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009.
Perspectives on Argument contains a rhetoric text and a reader. While the first 4 parts offer students strategies for critical reading, critical thinking, research, and writing arguments, Part V provides 16 readings related to seven general issue areas (e.g., family, technology, crime, race/culture/identity, the environment, immigration, war and peace). In Part I, Engaging with Argument, the 4 chapters look at the characteristics of an effective written argument, both written and visual; how to adopt a personal rhetorical style; strategies for analyzing written, visual, and oral arguments; and ways of integrating reading, viewing, critical thinking, and writing. Part II, Understanding the Nature of Argument, includes 5 chapters that outline the components of the Toulmin rhetorical mode; look at the types of claims and purposes for argument; define the dynamics of proofs and tests for validity; explain logical fallacies and argumentative ethics, extend and apply what they’ve learned to create visual arguments from everyday experience; and analyze Rogerian methods of argument. In Part III, Chapters 11-13 look at the research paper and oral arguments (“Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research” are included for each issue area in “The Reader”). An Appendix to Chapter 13 offers detailed instructions on documenting sources using both MLA and APA styles. Part IV, Chapter 14, covers the application of argumentative theory to literary forms. The four parts preceding the readings are designed to be read as free standing section, depending on the instructor’s organizational scheme. While taking up only a fifth of the text, the readings are comprehensive enough to exclude the need for supplemental materials. The clarity of purpose, logic of organization, and variety of topics in the “issues areas,” makes Perspectives a rhetoric and reader that at once facilitates the instructor’s task and engages the students’ attention.
Current Issues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with Readings (8th Edition)
By Sylvan Barnet, and Hugo Bedau. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.
Current Issues provides a detailed study of argumentative writing. Focusing on having the students know how to accurately summarize an argument, understand the claim (thesis) of an argument, locate the stated and unstated assumptions of an argument, analyze and evaluate the strength of an argument’s evidence, and account for the differences and similarities among various readings on a topic, the text’s overarching goal is to foster an intelligent understanding of public discourse as an ever present civic conversation in a public forum. Part I, Critical Thinking and Reading (Chapters 1-4), and Part II, Critical Writing (Chapters 5-7), offer instruction in critical thinking and writing arguments. They contain twenty-eight readings for analysis and discussion. Throughout the book, each essay is followed by a Topics for Critical Thinking and Writing section. Part III, Further Views on Argument (Chapters 8-14), surveys the following perspectives: the philosopher’s view (Toulmin model), logician’s view ((deduction, induction, and fallacies), moralist’s view (ethical considerations), lawyer’s view (legal issues), psychologist’s view (Rogerian argument), literary critic’s view (literary critique), and the forensic view (oral presentation and debate). A color coded section on documentation (MLA and APA), as well as some sample student essays are also included. While this text is highly recommended for the depth and scope of its interdisciplinary approach, some instructors might want a greater variety of visual arguments (advertisements and aesthetic representations) and more eye appealing images (color graphics). The anthology (reader) which takes up half of the text is more than balanced by Parts I-IV strong emphasis on writing instruction. The combination of rhetoric lessons and readings on social issues is comprehensive enough to negate the necessity of buying two expensive textbooks. Current Issues offers a challenging, yet intellectually accessible, approach to argumentative writing for the undergraduate student.
The Structure of Argument (6th Edition)
By Annette T. Rottenberg, and Donna Winchell. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.
At 545 pages, The Structure of Argument offers a brief, yet effective, combination of rhetorical/argumentative instruction and readings for analysis that emphasize practice in close analysis, evaluation of supporting materials, and logic of organization. While this text has condensed—and made accessible—the Toulmin model of argument (claim, evidence, and warrant), it also puts/places special evidence on motivational appeals (emotional responses evoked by warrants based on appeals to the values of the audience), and an audience-centered approach that sees swaying the audience to the arguer’s position as the rhetorical goal. The text is comprised of two sections. Part I provides four introductory chapters on the terms of argument and audience; critical reading and listening; analyzing visual texts; and support and organization. Chapters 5 through 8 focus closely on defining terms, defending claims, types of support, and analyzing warrants. Chapter 9 takes up popular fallacies as well as inductive and deductive reasoning, and Chapter ten outlines the importance of word choice in effective arguments. Part II looks at the writing process, research and presentation. Chapters 11 and 12 explain topic selection, surveying peripheral issues, organizing the issues, and drafts and revisions. Also included are annotated research papers in both the MLA and APA style. Chapter 13 sets out guidelines for presenting oral arguments. Although this text seems especially accessible to first year students (125), it might also be used in argumentative writing courses (225). The Structure of Argument offers understandable and effective strategies for teaching critical thinking and convincing arguments, along with a brief, yet compelling, variety of essays on contemporary topics.
Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: A Brief Guide to Argument (6th Edition)
By Sylvan Barnet, and Hugo Bedau. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.
Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: A Brief Guide to Argument is a relatively small text that provides effective instruction in analyzing and evaluating evidence in arguments. The book contains four sections. Part I, Critical Thinking and Reading (Chapters 1-4), and Part II, Critical Writing (Chapters 5-7), together comprise a condensed course in methods of thinking about and writing arguments. “Thinking” means critical analytic thought (Chapter 1); “writing” is understood as the implementation of effective, respectable strategies. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 address critical reading (Chapter 4 is devoted to reading images). In Part II, Chapters 5 (argument analysis), 6 (personal style of argument), and 7 (using sources) focus on critical writing. Parts I and II contain twenty-eight readings (nine are student papers). Part III, Further Views on Argument (Chapters 8-14), as in Barnet’s and Bedau’s longer text, Current Issues and Enduring Questions, surveys the following perspectives: the philosopher’s view (Toulmin model), logician’s view ((deduction, induction, and fallacies), moralist’s view (ethical considerations), lawyer’s view (legal issues), psychologist’s view (Rogerian argument), literary critic’s view (literary critique), and the forensic view (oral presentation and debate). Part IV (Chapter 15), is a casebook on the state and the individual, asking the question, “What is the Ideal Society?” The essayists here include Thomas More, Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas Jefferson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ursula K. Le Guin. A color coded section on documentation (MLA and APA), as well as some sample student essays are also included. This text’s central premise is that having students learn how to identify important types of evidence and key analytical and evaluative critical strategies improves the style of prose and intellectual depth of their writing. Offering a balanced mix of instruction and essays, Critical Thinking provides a mix of thought provoking and challenging readings designed to engage the students’ interest.
Pearson Longman offers a variety of low cost texts geared toward instructors’ individual teaching styles and students’ budgets. Here are three examples.
Envision: Writing and Researching Arguments (2nd Edition)
By Christine L. Alfano, and Alyssa J. O’Brien. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008.
Envision: Writing and Researching Arguments’ short three part structure expands on the first edition’s focus on understanding, analyzing, and writing about visual rhetoric by broadening its scope to include a stronger emphasis on writing instruction and textual interpretation of verbal print documents. Part I, Analysis and Argument, provides exercises meant to improve students’ proficiency in critical reading, rhetorical analysis, and how to synthesize and incorporate multiple perspectives. Both conventional academic essays and contemporary popular articles are included. Chapters 1 through 3 concentrate on analyzing texts, strategies of persuasion, and composing arguments. Part II, Research arguments, offers lessons in how to compose a research proposal, keep a research log, find credible sources, include grafts and charts, revise, and integrate sources. Field and library research, as well as collaborative drafting are also included here. Part III, Design, Delivery, and Documentation, has to do with the presentation and delivery of written and visual arguments. While various documentation styles are briefly touched upon, the emphasis is on disciplines in the humanities, hence the comprehensive focus on MLA style. Benefits of this text include a clear sequence of assignments section, a comprehensive Companion website, and an Instructor’s manual offering helpful pedagogical advice, and an overview of each chapter. While thoroughly accessible to today’s students, because Envision confines itself solely to contemporary examples, some instructors may want to assign supplementary readings.
To the Point: Reading and Writing Short Arguments (2nd Edition)
By Gilbert H. Muller, and Harvey S. Wiener. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009
One of the enticements of To the Point: Reading and Writing Short Arguments is its combination of concision and comprehensiveness. Part I includes three introductory chapters that cover the basic argumentative paradigms—Aristotelian logic, the Toulmin model, syllogisms, deduction, and logical fallacies, for example—as well as a close focus on reading and writing within the context of various rhetorical approaches. Part II presents a series of paired essays (six chapters), pro and con perspectives on today’s issues: hip-hop culture, the SUV phenomenon, the Wal-Mart mega-store mentality, animal rights, stem cell research, and capital punishment. Part III presents less polarizing issues as a way of showing how argument can be as much meditative as persuasive, offering multiple views on citizen concerns—the environment: how can we preserve it?; work, class and money; and terrorism, to name a few. Part IV provides six classic arguments by Plato, Jonathan Swift, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Rachel Carson. And Martin Luther King Jr. Part V, “A Casebook of Arguments on Our Diets: Are We What We Eat?” includes essays, Web sites, and advertisements on body image and cultural identity. Part VI outlines the construction of a brief argumentative research paper and offers a model of successful academic research accessible to today’s student. In addition to its clarity of instruction, range of examples, and easy affordability, To the Point also offers a supplemental instructor’s manual and MyCompLab Web application that provides comprehensive and integrated resources for both teacher and student.
Good Reasons: Researching and Writing Effective Arguments (4th Edition)
By Lester Faigley, and Jack Selzer. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009
In a clear, accessible language, Good Reasons, at 325 pages, offers a straightforward approach to argument that explains the importance of persuasive writing. Choosing to avoid complicated terminology, this text’s only technical terms are the classical concepts of “pathos,” “ethos,” and “logos. Steps for analyzing written and visual arguments and for writing definition, causal, evaluation, narrative, rebuttal, and proposal arguments are outlined in a clear, understandable way. Encouraging students to formulate arguments in different genres and various media, over 75 illustrations that exemplify the pervasiveness and persuasiveness of image-text arguments are provided (photographs, charts, tables, and ads). It also covers research writing, source evaluation, and MLA and APA documentation sources. Notwithstanding the rhetorical strategies new to this edition, Good Reasons’ limited readings make it a better supplemental resource than a central text in a first year college writing course.
Recommended texts for English 225:
Essentials of Argument (2nd edition)
By Nancy V. Wood. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2009.
In a clear and concise format, Essentials of Argument offers a three part guide to critical reading, critical thinking, research, and constructing an argument. Part I provides a 4 chapter analysis of understanding argument and research. Chapter 1 addresses characteristics of argument, style, and topic selection. Chapter 2 focuses on context and motivation, emphasizing that arguments are situational, and motivated by context bound issues. Chapter 3 outlines research and source evaluation; and chapter 4 offers instruction on how personal argument depends on supporting evidence as well as account for counter-arguments. Part II surveys essential aspects of argument that serve to convince the reader. Chapter 5 breaks down the Toulmin model. Chapter 6 looks at claims and purposes. Chapter 7 explains the connection between support and warrants, and discusses language and style. Chapter 8 has the student apply their evaluative skills and write and argument analysis. Part III has students practice writing arguments, and look at visual and oral forms of argument. Chapter 9 compares Rogerian argument with traditional argument. Chapter 10 examines what it means to support a personal perspective with research from outside sources; and Chapter 11 describes visual and oral argument. 3 Additional appendices include MLA and APA Documentation, Summary Charts, and One Hundred Topics That Generate Issues. The organization of Essentials of Argument is such that each part can stand alone. The benefit being they can be assigned sequentially, or in a way that best supplements the instructor’s specific course organization. While there are no readings, per se, at 340 pages, Essentials offers an affordable and appealing rhetoric text, both in voice and tone, and in its accessibility to an undergraduate audience.
Perspectives on Argument (6th Edition)
By Nancy V. Wood. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2009.
Perspectives on Argument contains a rhetoric text and a reader. While the first 4 parts offer students strategies for critical reading, critical thinking, research, and writing arguments, Part V provides 16 readings related to seven general issue areas (e.g., family, technology, crime, race/culture/identity, the environment, immigration, war and peace). In Part I, Engaging with Argument, the 4 chapters look at the characteristics of an effective written argument, both written and visual; how to adopt a personal rhetorical style; strategies for analyzing written, visual, and oral arguments; and ways of integrating reading, viewing, critical thinking, and writing. Part II, Understanding the Nature of Argument, includes 5 chapters that outline the components of the Toulmin rhetorical mode; look at the types of claims and purposes for argument; define the dynamics of proofs and tests for validity; explain logical fallacies and argumentative ethics, extend and apply what they’ve learned to create visual arguments from everyday experience; and analyze Rogerian methods of argument. In Part III, Chapters 11-13 look at the research paper and oral arguments (“Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research” are included for each issue area in “The Reader”). An Appendix to Chapter 13 offers detailed instructions on documenting sources using both MLA and APA styles. Part IV, Chapter 14, covers the application of argumentative theory to literary forms. The four parts preceding the readings are designed to be read as free standing section, depending on the instructor’s organizational scheme. While taking up only a fifth of the text, the readings are comprehensive enough to exclude the need for supplemental materials. The clarity of purpose, logic of organization, and variety of topics in the “issues areas,” makes Perspectives a rhetoric and reader that at once facilitates the instructor’s task and engages the students’ attention.
Current Issues and Enduring Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking and Argument, with Readings (8th Edition)
By Sylvan Barnet, and Hugo Bedau. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.
Current Issues provides a detailed study of argumentative writing. Focusing on having the students know how to accurately summarize an argument, understand the claim (thesis) of an argument, locate the stated and unstated assumptions of an argument, analyze and evaluate the strength of an argument’s evidence, and account for the differences and similarities among various readings on a topic, the text’s overarching goal is to foster an intelligent understanding of public discourse as an ever present civic conversation in a public forum. Part I, Critical Thinking and Reading (Chapters 1-4), and Part II, Critical Writing (Chapters 5-7), offer instruction in critical thinking and writing arguments. They contain twenty-eight readings for analysis and discussion. Throughout the book, each essay is followed by a Topics for Critical Thinking and Writing section. Part III, Further Views on Argument (Chapters 8-14), surveys the following perspectives: the philosopher’s view (Toulmin model), logician’s view ((deduction, induction, and fallacies), moralist’s view (ethical considerations), lawyer’s view (legal issues), psychologist’s view (Rogerian argument), literary critic’s view (literary critique), and the forensic view (oral presentation and debate). A color coded section on documentation (MLA and APA), as well as some sample student essays are also included. While this text is highly recommended for the depth and scope of its interdisciplinary approach, some instructors might want a greater variety of visual arguments (advertisements and aesthetic representations) and more eye appealing images (color graphics). The anthology (reader) which takes up half of the text is more than balanced by Parts I-IV strong emphasis on writing instruction. The combination of rhetoric lessons and readings on social issues is comprehensive enough to negate the necessity of buying two expensive textbooks. Current Issues offers a challenging, yet intellectually accessible, approach to argumentative writing for the undergraduate student.
The Structure of Argument (6th Edition)
By Annette T. Rottenberg, and Donna Winchell. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.
At 545 pages, The Structure of Argument offers a brief, yet effective, combination of rhetorical/argumentative instruction and readings for analysis that emphasize practice in close analysis, evaluation of supporting materials, and logic of organization. While this text has condensed—and made accessible—the Toulmin model of argument (claim, evidence, and warrant), it also puts/places special evidence on motivational appeals (emotional responses evoked by warrants based on appeals to the values of the audience), and an audience-centered approach that sees swaying the audience to the arguer’s position as the rhetorical goal. The text is comprised of two sections. Part I provides four introductory chapters on the terms of argument and audience; critical reading and listening; analyzing visual texts; and support and organization. Chapters 5 through 8 focus closely on defining terms, defending claims, types of support, and analyzing warrants. Chapter 9 takes up popular fallacies as well as inductive and deductive reasoning, and Chapter ten outlines the importance of word choice in effective arguments. Part II looks at the writing process, research and presentation. Chapters 11 and 12 explain topic selection, surveying peripheral issues, organizing the issues, and drafts and revisions. Also included are annotated research papers in both the MLA and APA style. Chapter 13 sets out guidelines for presenting oral arguments. Although this text seems especially accessible to first year students (125), it might also be used in argumentative writing courses (225). The Structure of Argument offers understandable and effective strategies for teaching critical thinking and convincing arguments, along with a brief, yet compelling, variety of essays on contemporary topics.
Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: A Brief Guide to Argument (6th Edition)
By Sylvan Barnet, and Hugo Bedau. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.
Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: A Brief Guide to Argument is a relatively small text that provides effective instruction in analyzing and evaluating evidence in arguments. The book contains four sections. Part I, Critical Thinking and Reading (Chapters 1-4), and Part II, Critical Writing (Chapters 5-7), together comprise a condensed course in methods of thinking about and writing arguments. “Thinking” means critical analytic thought (Chapter 1); “writing” is understood as the implementation of effective, respectable strategies. Chapters 2, 3, and 4 address critical reading (Chapter 4 is devoted to reading images). In Part II, Chapters 5 (argument analysis), 6 (personal style of argument), and 7 (using sources) focus on critical writing. Parts I and II contain twenty-eight readings (nine are student papers). Part III, Further Views on Argument (Chapters 8-14), as in Barnet’s and Bedau’s longer text, Current Issues and Enduring Questions, surveys the following perspectives: the philosopher’s view (Toulmin model), logician’s view ((deduction, induction, and fallacies), moralist’s view (ethical considerations), lawyer’s view (legal issues), psychologist’s view (Rogerian argument), literary critic’s view (literary critique), and the forensic view (oral presentation and debate). Part IV (Chapter 15), is a casebook on the state and the individual, asking the question, “What is the Ideal Society?” The essayists here include Thomas More, Niccolo Machiavelli, Thomas Jefferson, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Martin Luther King Jr., and Ursula K. Le Guin. A color coded section on documentation (MLA and APA), as well as some sample student essays are also included. This text’s central premise is that having students learn how to identify important types of evidence and key analytical and evaluative critical strategies improves the style of prose and intellectual depth of their writing. Offering a balanced mix of instruction and essays, Critical Thinking provides a mix of thought provoking and challenging readings designed to engage the students’ interest.
Pearson Longman offers a variety of low cost texts geared toward instructors’ individual teaching styles and students’ budgets. Here are three examples.
Envision: Writing and Researching Arguments (2nd Edition)
By Christine L. Alfano, and Alyssa J. O’Brien. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008.
Envision: Writing and Researching Arguments’ short three part structure expands on the first edition’s focus on understanding, analyzing, and writing about visual rhetoric by broadening its scope to include a stronger emphasis on writing instruction and textual interpretation of verbal print documents. Part I, Analysis and Argument, provides exercises meant to improve students’ proficiency in critical reading, rhetorical analysis, and how to synthesize and incorporate multiple perspectives. Both conventional academic essays and contemporary popular articles are included. Chapters 1 through 3 concentrate on analyzing texts, strategies of persuasion, and composing arguments. Part II, Research arguments, offers lessons in how to compose a research proposal, keep a research log, find credible sources, include grafts and charts, revise, and integrate sources. Field and library research, as well as collaborative drafting are also included here. Part III, Design, Delivery, and Documentation, has to do with the presentation and delivery of written and visual arguments. While various documentation styles are briefly touched upon, the emphasis is on disciplines in the humanities, hence the comprehensive focus on MLA style. Benefits of this text include a clear sequence of assignments section, a comprehensive Companion website, and an Instructor’s manual offering helpful pedagogical advice, and an overview of each chapter. While thoroughly accessible to today’s students, because Envision confines itself solely to contemporary examples, some instructors may want to assign supplementary readings.
To the Point: Reading and Writing Short Arguments (2nd Edition)
By Gilbert H. Muller, and Harvey S. Wiener. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009
One of the enticements of To the Point: Reading and Writing Short Arguments is its combination of concision and comprehensiveness. Part I includes three introductory chapters that cover the basic argumentative paradigms—Aristotelian logic, the Toulmin model, syllogisms, deduction, and logical fallacies, for example—as well as a close focus on reading and writing within the context of various rhetorical approaches. Part II presents a series of paired essays (six chapters), pro and con perspectives on today’s issues: hip-hop culture, the SUV phenomenon, the Wal-Mart mega-store mentality, animal rights, stem cell research, and capital punishment. Part III presents less polarizing issues as a way of showing how argument can be as much meditative as persuasive, offering multiple views on citizen concerns—the environment: how can we preserve it?; work, class and money; and terrorism, to name a few. Part IV provides six classic arguments by Plato, Jonathan Swift, Virginia Woolf, George Orwell, Rachel Carson. And Martin Luther King Jr. Part V, “A Casebook of Arguments on Our Diets: Are We What We Eat?” includes essays, Web sites, and advertisements on body image and cultural identity. Part VI outlines the construction of a brief argumentative research paper and offers a model of successful academic research accessible to today’s student. In addition to its clarity of instruction, range of examples, and easy affordability, To the Point also offers a supplemental instructor’s manual and MyCompLab Web application that provides comprehensive and integrated resources for both teacher and student.
Good Reasons: Researching and Writing Effective Arguments (4th Edition)
By Lester Faigley, and Jack Selzer. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009
In a clear, accessible language, Good Reasons, at 325 pages, offers a straightforward approach to argument that explains the importance of persuasive writing. Choosing to avoid complicated terminology, this text’s only technical terms are the classical concepts of “pathos,” “ethos,” and “logos. Steps for analyzing written and visual arguments and for writing definition, causal, evaluation, narrative, rebuttal, and proposal arguments are outlined in a clear, understandable way. Encouraging students to formulate arguments in different genres and various media, over 75 illustrations that exemplify the pervasiveness and persuasiveness of image-text arguments are provided (photographs, charts, tables, and ads). It also covers research writing, source evaluation, and MLA and APA documentation sources. Notwithstanding the rhetorical strategies new to this edition, Good Reasons’ limited readings make it a better supplemental resource than a central text in a first year college writing course.
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