Understanding Argument : A Text with Readings

Index

PART 1. ELEMENTS OF ARGUMENT 1. Exploring the Nature of Argument: The Declaration of Independence; Thurow, Why Women Are Paid Less Than Men-Exercise: Evaluating the Logic of Arguments: Stanley S. Scott, Smokers Get a Raw Deal 2. Reading and Responding to Arguments: Michael Korda, How to Be a Leader; Exercise: A. M. Rosenthal, Politicians of Silence 3. Preparing Good Arguments: Side of a Loaded Issue; Herbert J. Gans, So Student Essay, Gun Control: One Much for the Underclass'?; Student Essay, If You Can't Say Anything Nice, Don't Say Anything PART 2. ARGUMENTS FOR ANALYSIS 4. Debating Education Issues: What Are the Problems? What are the Solutions?: Diane Ravitch, Back to Basics: Test Scores Don't Lie; Richard Lynn, Why Johnny Can't Read, but Yoshio Can; Nathan Caplan, Marcella H. Choy and John K. Whitmore, Indochinese Refugee Families and Academic Achievement; Daniel J. Singal, The Other Crisis in American Education; Charles Fowler, The Case for Music Education; James A. Banks, Multicultural Education: For Freedom's Sake; Albert Shanker, The Pitfalls of Multicultural Education 5. Examining the Arguments for - and against - Censorship: John Stewart Mill, On Liberty; Irving Kristol, Pornography, obscenity, and the Case for Censorship; John J. Conley, S.J., The Public and Its Art; James L. Laney, Why Tolerate Campus Bigots'; Robert O'Neil, Colleges Should Seek Educational Alternatives to Rules That Override the Historic Guarantees of Free Speech 6. Coping with Crime and Violence: Ellen Goodman, A Murder in Boston; Richard Cohen, Crimes of Dispassion; Charles Krautharnmer, Legalise? No. Deglamorize.; Edward Abbey, The Right to Arms; Josh Sugarmann, The NRA is Right, but We Still Need to Ban Handguns; Anthony G. Amsterdam, Race and the Death Penalty; Ernest van den Haag, The ultimate Punishment: A Defense; Hugo Adam Bedau, Death is Different 7. Exploring the Ethics and Politics of Today's Health Issues: Ellen Goodman, Away from Absolutism; George F. Will, Tobacco Road; Jessica Tuchman Mathews, Life and Death: US. Population Policy; Charles Krauthammer, Who Is Spreading AIDS?; Peter A. Singer and Mark Seigler, Euthanasia - A Critique; Sidney Hook, In Defense of Voluntary Euthanasia; Harry Johnson, Health Care: Fire Out of Control; Thomas Bodenheimer, The Way to Real Health Security; Caspar W. Weinberger, Health Care for All Without Government Control 8. Looking at American Society: Conflicts of Gender, Class and Race: Alexis de Tocqueville, from Democracy in America; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Declaration of Sentiments; Michael Hughes and Walter R. Grove, Playing Dumb; Patricia Schroeder, A Case for the Military Freedom Act; David H. Hackworth, The Case for the Military Gay Ban; Elaine H. Kim, The Armed in Self-Defense; Lance Morrow, Vidoe Warriers in Los Angeles; Andrew Hacker, The Myths of Racial Division; Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America 9. Dividing the Pie: Economics and Community:

This rhetoric offers an introduction to the nature of argument that blends both classical and Toulmin patterns, and instruction on how to read, analyze and write effective arguments. This work contains 56 articles which are arranged thematically around seven issues.