Perspectives on Argument, Books a la Carte Edition

by Wood, Nancy V.; Miller, James S.

• ISBN13: 9780134424248
• ISBN10: 0134424247
• Edition: 9th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2017-01-19
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

NOTE: This “Books a la Carte” edition features the same content as the traditional text in a convenient, three-hole-punched, loose-leaf version. Books a la Carte also offer a great value–this format costs significantly less than a new textbook. Before purchasing, check with your instructor or review your course syllabus to ensure that you select the correct ISBN.

For courses in English.

 

Learn the skill of rational argument.

Perspectives on Argument  teaches you strategies for critical thinking, critical reading, research, and writing that will help you participate in all types of argument. The 9th Edition extends beyond reading, visual and multimodal argument into the timely topic of online argument. Students will encounter argument at home, school and on the job. This book arms you with the tools you need to identify controversial topics, form opinions and reactions to text and pictures, and write persuasive papers that express their viewpoints. The book also follows the premise that not all arguments involve right and wrong. Students will learn skills like finding common ground, consensus, withholding opinions, negotiating, and even changing beliefs when they can no longer make a case for them.

 

Perspectives on Argument,  9th Edition is also available via Revel™, an interactive learning environment that enables students to read, practice, and study in one continuous experience. Learn more.

Author Biography

Nancy V. Wood, Professor Emerita of English at the University of Texas at Arlington, taught courses in rhetoric and composition, American literature, and Milton and also served as Director of First Year English, Department Chair, and Assistant Vice President of Undergraduate Academic and Student Affairs. She created the training program for the graduate teaching assistants who teach the freshman argument classes at the university.  Perspectives on Argument, developed in the context of this program, underwent constant classroom testing of both content and classroom activities.  Other argument textbooks of the time tended to present issues as having only two sides, pro and con, with the possibility of one side “winning.”  Perspectives on Argument took a different approach by suggesting that issues may invite a variety of perspectives and that common ground and eventual consensus are also possible outcomes.

 

Much of Wood’s academic career focused on what freshman students need to become successful college students.  While a graduate student in English at Cornell University, Wood taught study skills to Cornell students.  Later at the University of Texas at El Paso she created the Study Skills and Tutorial Services, a university-wide program that provided academic support to 12,000 students a year.

 

Wood is also the author of Essentials of Argument, Writing Argumentative Essays, and College Reading: Purposes and Strategies (Prentice/Pearson).  

James Miller is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater where he teaches courses in 20^th century American literature, digital rhetoric, and composition.  His scholarship focuses on issues of public memory and the formation of middle-class identity in twentieth-century America, as well as the role commodity culture plays in shaping historical consciousness. His published work has appeared in such journals as American Studies, The Journal of American Folklore, and The Public Historian. In addition to Perspectives on Argument, Professor Miller is the author of several other rhetorical studies and argument readers, among them, The Eater Reader (Pearson).

Table of Contents

1. A Perspective on Argument
2. The Rhetorical Situation: Understanding Audience and Context
3. Reading, Thinking, and Writing About issues
4. The Essential Parts of an Argument: The Toulmin Model
5. Types of Claims
6. Types of Proof
7. The Fallacies and Ethical Argument
8. Multimodal Argument
9. Rogerian Argument and Common Ground
10. Review Synthesis of Argument Strategies
11. The Research Paper: Planning, Research, and Invention
12. The Research Paper: Using Sources, Writing, and Revising
13. Argument and Literature
14. Summary Charts: Synthesis of Chapters
15. Families and Personal Relationships
16. Modern Technology
17. Education and Learning
18. Race, Culture, Identity
19. The Environment and Sustainability
20. Privacy and Security
21. War and Peace