Everything's an Argument with Readings Book

Preface

Part 1: Reading Arguments

1. Everything Is an Argument

NOT JUST WORDS

Purposes of Argument

Arguments to Inform

Arguments to Convince

Arguments to Explore

Arguments to Make Decisions

Arguments to Meditate or Pray

Occasions for Argument

Arguments about the Past

Arguments about the Future

Arguments about the Present

Kinds of Argument

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT

Arguments of Fact -- Did Something Happen?

Arguments of Definition -- What Is the Nature of the Thing?

Arguments of Evaluation -- What Is the Quality of the Thing?

Proposal Arguments -- What Actions Should Be Taken?

STASIS QUESTIONS AT WORK

Audiences for Arguments

Considering Contexts

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Appealing to Audiences

Emotional Appeals

Ethical Appeals

Logical Appeals

Arguments and Their Rhetorical Situations

Respond

2. Arguments from the Heart -- Pathos

Understanding How Emotional Arguments Work

NOT JUST WORDS

Using Emotions to Build Bridges

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Using Emotions to Sustain an Argument

Using Humor

Using Arguments from the Heart

Respond

3. Arguments Based on Character -- Ethos

NOT JUST WORDS

Understanding How Arguments Based on Character Work

Claiming Authority

Establishing Credibility

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT

Coming Clean about Motives

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Respond

4. Arguments Based on Facts and Reason -- Logos

NOT JUST WORDS

Providing Hard Evidence

Facts

Statistics

Surveys and Polls

Testimonies, Narratives, and Interviews

Using Reason and Common Sense

Cultural Assumptions and Values

Providing Logical Structures for Argument

Degree

Analogies

Precedent

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Respond

5. Thinking Rhetorically

Composing a Rhetorical Analysis

Understanding the Purpose of an Argument

Understanding Who Makes an Argument

Identifying and Appealing to Audiences

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Examining Arguments from the Heart: Pathos

Examining Arguments Based on Character: Ethos

Examining Arguments Based on Facts and Reason: Logos

Examining the Shape and Media of Arguments

NOT JUST WORDS

Looking at Style

Examining a Rhetorical Analysis

Derek Bok, Protecting Freedom of Expression at Harvard

Milena Ateya, A Curse and a Blessing

GUIDE TO WRITING A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

Respond

Part 2: Writing Arguments

6. Structuring Arguments

NOT JUST WORDS

Toulmin Argument

Making Claims

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT

Offering Evidence and Good Reasons

Determining Warrants

Offering Evidence: Backing

Using Qualifiers

Understanding Conditions of Rebuttal

Outline of a Toulmin Argument

A Toulmin Analysis

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Alan M. Dershowitz, Testing Speech Codes

What Toulmin Teaches

Beyond Toulmin

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT

Respond

7. Arguments of Fact

Understanding Arguments of Fact

NOT JUST WORDS

Characterizing Factual Arguments

Developing a Factual Argument

Identifying an Issue

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Researching Your Hypothesis

Refining Your Claim

Deciding Which Evidence to Use

Presenting Your Evidence

Considering Design and Visuals

Key Features of Factual Arguments

GUIDE TO WRITING AN ARGUMENT OF FACT

Respond

Two Sample Factual Arguments

Michael Osofsky, The Psychological Experience of Security Officers Who Work with Executions

FactCheck.org, Abortion Distortions: Senators from Both Sides Make False Claims about Roe v. Wade

8. Arguments of Definition

Understanding Arguments of Definition

NOT JUST WORDS

Kinds of Definition

Formal Definitions

Operational Definitions

Definitions by Example

Other Issues of Definition

Developing a Definitional Argument

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Formulating Claims

Crafting Definitions

Matching Claims to Definitions

Considering Design and Visuals

Key Features of Definitional Arguments

GUIDE TO WRITING AN ARGUMENT OF DEFINITION

Respond

Two Sample Definitional Arguments

Sayoh Mansaray, The Offbeat Allure of Cult Films

Lynn Peril, Pink Think

9. Evaluations

Understanding Evaluations

Criteria of Evaluation

Characterizing Evaluation

Quantitative Evaluations

NOT JUST WORDS

Qualitative Evaluations

Developing an Evaluative Argument

Formulating Criteria

Making Claims

Presenting Evidence

Considering Design and Visuals

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Key Features of Evaluations

GUIDE TO WRITING AN EVALUATION

Respond

Two Sample Evaluations

Nisey Williams, Why I Hate Britney

Jon Pareles, The Case against Coldplay

10. Causal Arguments

Understanding Causal Arguments

Characterizing Causal Arguments

NOT JUST WORDS

Developing Causal Arguments

Formulating a Claim

Developing the Argument

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Considering Design and Visuals

Key Features of Causal Arguments

GUIDE TO WRITING A CAUSAL ARGUMENT

Respond

Two Sample Causal Arguments

La Donna Beaty, What Makes a Serial Killer?

Dana Gioia, Why Literature Matters

11. Proposals

Understanding and Categorizing Proposals

Characterizing Proposals

Developing Proposals

Defining a Need or Problem

Making a Strong and Clear Claim

Showing That the Proposal Addresses the Need or Problem

Showing That the Proposal Is Feasible

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Using Personal Experience

Considering Design and Visuals

NOT JUST WORDS

Key Features of Proposals

GUIDE TO WRITING A PROPOSAL

Respond

Two Sample Proposals

Manasi Deshpande, A Call to Improve Campus Accessibility for the Mobility Impaired

P. J. O'Rourke, Mass Transit Hysteria

Part 3: Style and Presentation in Arguments

12. Style in Arguments

Style and Word Choice

NOT JUST WORDS

Sentence Structure and Argument

Punctuation and Argument

Special Effects: Figurative Language and Argument

Tropes

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT

Other Tropes

Schemes

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Respond

13. Humor in Arguments

Understanding Humor as Argument

Characterizing Kinds of Humor

NOT JUST WORDS

Satire

Parody

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Developing Humorous Arguments

Respond

14. Visual Arguments

The Power of Visual Arguments

Shaping the Message

NOT JUST WORDS

Achieving Visual Literacy

Analyzing Visual Elements of Arguments

Using Visuals in Your Own Arguments

Visual Arguments Based on Character

Visual Arguments Based on Facts and Reason

Visual Arguments That Appeal to Emotion

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Respond

15. Presenting Arguments

Print Presentations

NOT JUST WORDS

Oral/Multimedia Presentations

Oral Arguments and Discussion

Formal Oral/Multimedia Presentations

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT

Arguments to Be Heard

Arguments to Be Remembered

The Role of Visuals in Oral/Multimedia Arguments

Some Oral/Multimedia Presentation Strategies

A Note about Webcasts--Live Presentations over the Web

Web-Based Presentations

Web Sites

Blogs

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Respond

Part 4: Conventions of Argument

16. What Counts as Evidence

Evidence and the Rhetorical Situation

Firsthand Evidence and Research

Observations

Interviews

Surveys and Questionnaires

Experiments Personal Experience

NOT JUST WORDS

Secondhand Evidence and Research

Library Sources

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT

Online Sources

Using Evidence Effectively

Considering Audiences

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT

Building a Critical Mass

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Arranging Evidence

Respond

17. Fallacies of Argument

Flashpoints of Emotional Argument

Scare Tactics

Either-Or Choices

NOT JUST WORDS

Slippery Slope

Sentimental Appeals

Bandwagon Appeals

Flashpoints of Ethical Argument

Appeals to False Authority

Dogmatism

Moral Equivalence

Ad Hominem Arguments

Flashpoints of Logical Argument

Hasty Generalization

Faulty Causality

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Begging the Question

Equivocation

Non Sequitur

The Straw Man

Faulty Analogy

Respond

18. Intellectual Property, Academic Integrity, and Avoiding Plagiarism

Crediting Sources in Arguments

Citing Sources and Recognizing Plagiarism

NOT JUST WORDS

Inaccurate or Incomplete Citation of Sources

Acknowledging Your Use of Sources

Using Copyrighted Internet Sources

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT

Acknowledging Collaboration

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Respond

19. Evaluating and Using Sources

Evaluating Sources

Print Sources

SOURCE MAP: EVALUATING ARTICLES

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

Electronic Sources

SOURCE MAP: EVALUATING WEB SOURCES

Field Research

Using Sources

Signal Words and Introductions

NOT JUST WORDS

Quotations

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT

Paraphrases

Summaries

Visuals

Respond

20. Documenting Sources

IF EVERYTHING'S AN ARGUMENT . . .

MLA Style

In-Text Citations

Explanatory and Bibliographic Notes

List of Works Cited

Sample First Page for an Essay in MLA Style

Sample List of Works Cited for an Essay in MLA Style

NOT JUST WORDS

APA Style

In-Text Citations

Content Notes

List of References

Respond

Part 5: Arguments

21. Who's the Fairest of Them All?

P. Byrnes, It Begins [cartoon]

Ellen Goodman, The Culture of Thin Bites Fiji [essay]

Anne E. Becker, Abstract, Discussion, and Conclusion of Television, Disordered Eating, and Young Women in Fiji: Negotiating Body Image and Identity During Rapid Social Change [EXCERPT FROM Research Article]

Jane Stern, Big, Review of Fat Girl: A True Story by Judith Moore [book review]

W. Charisse Goodman, One Picture Is Worth a Thousand Diets [essay]

New York Times, Reshaping America: Popular Cosmetic Procedures, By Sex [Graph]

Rob Walker, Social Lubricant: How A Marketing Campaign Became the Catalyst for a Societal Debate [magazine article]

Meghan Daum, Those Unnerving Ads Using "Real" Women [essay]

Guy Trebay, When Did Skivvies Get Rated NC-17? [newspaper article]

Making a Visual Argument: Three Views on Body Image [photograph + cartoon + poster]

Toby Old, From Waterlog: The Beach Series

Mikhaela Blake Reid, Your Yucky Body: A Repair Manual

Jason Stirman, Crossroads Baptist Church, Reflections: Body Image Seminar

22. How Does the Media Stereotype You?

Making a Visual Argument: Artists and Comics Take On Stereotyping [poster + web homepage + poster]

Geo Vittoratos, Come as Your Favorite Stereotype

Latino Comedy Project, Will Stereotype for Food

New York Arab-American Comedy Festival, The Arabs Are Coming!

Tania Ralli, Who's a Looter? In Storm's Aftermath, Pictures Kick Up a Different Kind of Tempest [newspaper article]

Chong-suk Han, Gay Asian-American Male Seeks Home [essay]

David Carr, On Covers of Many Magazines, a Full Racial Palette Is Still Rare [newspaper article]

Commercial Closet Association, Mainstream/Business-to-Business Advertising Best Practices [Web text]

Anne-Marie O'Connor, Not Only Natalee Is Missing: Is the Media Inattention to Missing Women Who Aren't White Due to Deliberate Racism or Unconscious Bias? [newspaper article]

David Bositis, Skin-Deep: What Polls of Minorities Miss [newspaper article]

William Sea, Advertising Sets Double Standard for the Male Gender [essay]

The Onion, Graphic Artist Carefully Assigns Ethnicities to Anthropomorphic Recyclables [WEB TEXT]

23. Is Sports Just a Proxy for Politics?

Juliet Macur, Rowing Scholarships Available. No Experience Necessary [newspaper article]

Jessica Gavora, Time's Up for Title IX Sports [essay]

Ruth Conniff, Title IX: Political Football [essay]

Leslie Heywood, Despite the Positive Rhetoric about Women's Sports, Female Athletes Face a Culture of Sexual Harassment [newspaper article]

Barbara Munson, Common Themes and Questions about the Use of "Indian" Logos [manifesto]

Jim Shore, Play with Our Name [newspaper editorial]

Making a Visual Argument: Editorial Cartoonists Take On the Use of Native American Mascots and Imagery [3 cartoons]

Lucy A. Ganje, Reality TV

Lalo Alcaraz, But I'm Honoring You, Dude!

Thom Little Moon, Which One Is the Mascot?

Thad Williamson, Bad as They Wanna Be: Loving the Game Is Harder as Colleges Sell Out Themselves, the Fans, the Athletes [essay]

Tom Sorensen, Dress Code Suitable Only to NBA Suits [Newspaper article]

Larry Stewart, Barkley Fully Supports NBA's New Dress Code [newspaper article]

Bryan Curtis, Cheerleaders: What to Do about Them? [WEB TEXT]

24. What's It Like to Be Bilingual in the United States?

Tom Meyer, Just 180 Days to Learn Miwok [cartoon]

Janny Scott, Foreign Born in the U.S. at Record High [newspaper article]

Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation, 2002 National Survey of Latinos [survey summary]

Rolando Briseño, Bicultural Tablesetting [painting]

Myriam Marquez, Why and When We Speak Spanish in Public [Newspaper editorial]

Sandra Cisneros, From Bien Pretty [SHORT STORY excerpt]

Marjorie Agosín, Always Living in Spanish and English [essay + POEM]

Lan Cao, The Gift of Language [BOOK excerpt]

Andrea Lo, Finding Myself through Language [essay]

Mary Pipher, Language and High School, from The Middle of Everywhere: Helping Refugees Enter the American Community [Book excerpt]

National Institute of Mental Health, En la comunidad latina tenemos una cultura de silencio [poster]

Samuel G. Freedman, It's Latino Parents Speaking Out on Bilingual Education Failures [Newspaper ARTIcle]

Firoozeh Dumas, From Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America [Book excerpt]

25. What Does Your Language Say about Your Identity?

Chicago Women's Club, Pledge for Children [Pledge]

Ariel Dorfman, If Only We All Spoke Two Languages [essay]

Chang-rae Lee, Mute in an English-Only World [newspaper article]

Amy Tan, Mother Tongue [essay]

John Rickford, Suite for Ebony and Phonics [essay]

David D. Troutt, Defining Who We Are in Society [essay]

Making a Visual Argument: Public Service Campaigns Use Language to Send a Message [5 posters]

National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, He Might Dump Me…

National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, You Smoked Weed…

National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, Labeled…

National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, You Scan Me…

National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, Filed under: Pothead…

Steve Rushin, Hip Unchecked:In Sports and on TV, Sarcasm and Cynicism Are Drowning Out Sincerity and Compassion [magazine article]

Deborah Tannen, From You're Wearing That? [BOOK EXCERPT]

Making a Visual Argument: Gendering Language: Women and Men Speaking in New Yorker Cartoons [5 cartoons]

Mick Stevens, Talk to Me Alice, I Speak Woman

Leo Cullum, The Emergence of Language

William Hamilton, Look, All I'm Saying Is…

Roz Chast, An Excerpt from Men Are from Belgium, Women Are from New Brunswick

Peter Steiner, And Do You, Deborah Tannen, Think They Know What They're Talking About?

26. What Role Should Religion Play in Public Life?

Laurie Goodstein, More Religion, but Not the Old-Time Kind [NEWSPAPER ARTICLE]

Pew Global Attitudes Project, Among Wealthy Nations…, U.S. Stands Alone in Its Embrace of Religion [survey]

Michelle Bryant, Selling Safe Sex in Public Schools [ESSAY]

Naomi Schaefer Riley, Introduction to God on the Quad: How Religious Colleges and the Missionary Generation Are Changing America [BOOK EXCERPT]

Elisabeth Bumiller, Preaching to the Choir? Not This Time [ESSAY]

Concerned Faculty, Staff, and Emeriti of Calvin College, An Open Letter to the President of the United States, George W. Bush [LETTER]

Gaylen J. Byker, Reflections on the 2005 Commencement [WEB TEXT]

John Zwier, An Opportunity for Intelligent Debate [ESSAY]

Antonin Scalia, God's Justice and Ours [essay]

Randy Cohen, Between the Sexes [newspaper article]

Mariam Rahmani, Wearing a Head Scarf Is My Choice as a Muslim: Please Respect It [ESSAY]

Ad Council, A Priest, a Rabbi, and an Imam Are Walking down the Street [ADVERTISEMENT]

Making a Visual Argument: Public Service Campaigns for Religious Tolerance [4 posters]

U.S. Department of Justice, Common Muslim American Head Coverings

The SikhNetwork, Sikhs: Proud to Be Americans

Anti-Defamation League, Anti-Semitism Is Anti-Me

Anti-Defamation League, Anti-Semitism Is Anti-Me

Azar Nafisi, Mysterious Connections That Link Us Together [radio transcript]

27. What Should "Diversity on Campus" Mean?

Making a Visual Argument: Student-Made Diversity Posters [6 posters]

James Sanders, A Universe Within

Stephanie Heyman, Everyone A Part, No One Apart

Heidi Small, Lives Woven Together

Alyson Jones, What's Your View?

Megan Stampfli, Embrace Diversity

Carolyn Woito, Breaking Boxes, Building Bridges

Sarah Karnasiewicz, The Campus Crusade for Guys [web text]

Katherine S. Mangan, Bar Association Moves to Strengthen Diversity Requirements for Accreditation of Law Schools [newspaper article]

Making a Visual Argument: Cartoonists Take On Affirmative Action [5 cartoons]

Mike Lester, It's GOT to Be the Shoes

Dennis Draughon, Supreme Irony

Mike Thompson, Daniel Lives on Detroit's Eastside…

Signe Wilkinson, Admissions

Dean Camp, Pricey

Frederick M. Hess, Schools of Reeducation? [essay]

David Horowitz, In Defense of Intellectual Diversity [essay]

David Horowitz, Academic Bill of Rights [manifesto]

Stanley Fish, "Intellectual Diversity": The Trojan Horse of a Dark Design [essay]

Michael J. Ellis, Once More unto the Breach [essay]

Ann Marie B. Bahr, The Right to Tell the Truth [essay]

John Tierney, Where Cronies Dwell [newspaper article]

New York Times Letters, Through the Prism of Left and Right: Responses to John Tierney's "Where Cronies Dwell" [letters]

Walter Benn Michaels, Diversity's False Solace [essay]

28. Why Do They Love Us? Why Do They Hate Us?

Hannah Fairfield, America: Not Their First Choice [GRAPH]

Richard Bernstein, The Days After: The View from Abroad [NEWSPAPER ARTICLE]

Waleed Ziad, Jihad's Fresh Face [NEWSPAPER ARTICLE]

David Rieff, Their Hearts and Minds? Why the Ideological Battle against Islamists Is Nothing Like the Struggle against Communism [NEWSPAPER ARTICLE]

Making a Visual Argument: How Others See Us [3 PAINTINGS]

Anipas P. Delotavo Jr., Europe Gave Us Shakespeare…

Zaid Omar, Misconception

Jibby Yunibandhu, At Home with the Braves

Dinesh D'Souza, America the Beautiful: What We're Fighting For [BOOK EXCERPT]

Mark Hertsgaard, The Oblivious Empire [BOOK EXCERPT]

Thomas L. Friedman, Revolution Is U.S. [BOOK EXCERPT]

Josef Joffe, The Perils of Soft Power [MAGAZINE ARTICLE]

Richard Pells, Is American Culture "American"? [ESSAY]

Michael Medved, That's Entertainment? Hollywood's Contribution to Anti-Americanism Abroad [ESSAY]

Making a Visual Argument: Exporting America [8 PHOTOgraphs]

Les Stone, Advertisement for Metropolitan Life Insurance in Taipei

China Features/Corbis Sygma, Poster for the Film Titanic in Peking

Tatiana Markow, McDonald's in Shanghai

Koren Ziv, Nike in Jerusalem

Haruyoshi Yamaguchi, Mother and Children at DisneySea, the Disney Theme Park in Japan

John Van Hasselt, Advertising Budweiser as Capitalism Comes to China

John Van Hasselt, Selling Coke and Pepsi in India

Mohsen Shandiz, Coca-Cola and Marlboro in Iran

Diana Abu-Jaber, My Suspicious Last Name [ESSAY]

Yiyun Li, Passing Through [ESSAY]

Glossary

Acknowledgments

Index