Perspectives on Argument

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 20th 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).

Brief Contents

A Perspective on Argument
The Rhetorical Situation: Understanding Audience and Context
Reading, Thinking, and Writing About issues
The Essential Parts of an Argument: The Toulmin Model
Types of Claims
Types of Proof
The Fallacies and Ethical Argument
Multimodal Argument
Rogerian Argument and Common Ground
Review Synthesis of Argument Strategies
The Research Paper: Planning, Research, and Invention
The Research Paper: Using Sources, Writing, and Revising
Argument and Literature
Summary Charts: Synthesis of Chapters
Families and Personal Relationships
Modern Technology
Education and Learning
Race, Culture, Identity
The Environment and Sustainability
Privacy and Security
War and Peace