Arguing Across the Disciplines: A Rhetoric and Reader Book

Part I

1. Reading and Responding to Arguments

Rhetoric and Persuasion

Critical Reading for Ideas and Organization

Identifying a Thesis

Responding to What You Read

A Sample Essay for Student Annotation

Edward T. Hall, “Hidden Culture” (Anthropology)

Keeping a Reading Journal

Summarizing

Three Arguments for Critical Reading (in the Liberal Arts, Social Sciences and Sciences)

Roger Ebert, “Great Movies” (Film Criticism)

Eric Schlosser, “Kid Kustomers” (Marketing)

Loren Eiseley, “How Flowers Changed the World” (Botany)

2. Strategies for Arguing

Introduction to the Toulmin Model

Kinds of Claims

Factual Claims

Causal Claims

Value Claims

Policy Claims

Definition

Methods of Defining Terms

Extended Definition

James Baldwin, "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me What It Is"

3. Supporting Arguments

Using Evidence

Testimony of Experts

Examples from Personal Experience

Hypothetical Cases

Analogies

Statistics

Understanding Warrants

Underlying Assumptions

Evaluating Types of Warrants

Considering the Audience

The Rogerian Method

The Toulmin Model

4. Arguing in the Disciplines

Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, Social Sciences, and Sciences

Arguing in the Arts

Arguing in Ethics

Arguing in History

Arguing in Social Sciences

Arguing in the Law

Arguing in Business

Arguing in the Sciences

Three Arguments for Analysis

Kenneth M. Stampp, “To Make Them Stand in Fear” (History)

John M. Darley and Bibb Latane, “Why People Don’t Help in a Crisis” (Social Psychology)

Arthur D. Hasler and James A. Larsen, “The Homing Salmon” (Ichthyology)

5. Reasoning in Inductive and Deductive Arguments

Methods of Reasoning

Inductive Reasoning

By Means of Causal Generalization, Sampling, and Analogy

Deductive Reasoning

Logical Fallacies

A Sample Inductive Argument for Analysis

Garret Hardin, “Lifeboat Ethics” (Ethics)

A Sample Deductive Argument for Analysis

Milton Friedman, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits” (Economics)

6. The Role of Language in Argument

Tone

Irony

Satire

Sample Essay for Analysis

Mark Twain’s, “The Lowest Animal” (Literature)

Language and Persuasion

The Ethical Dimension of Persuasion

Propaganda

Intensifying and Downplaying

Two Short Arguments for Analysis

Charles Sevilla, “The Case of the Non-Unanimous Jury” (Law)

Robert E. Jones, “Justice Can Be Served Despite Dissenting Votes” (Law)

7. Writing and Refuting Arguments

Prewriting

Invention Strategies

Arriving at a Thesis

Making up an Outline

Writing the Introduction, the Middle, and the Conclusion

Audience

Writing the First Draft

Revising and Rewriting Your Essay

Analyzing Someone Else’s Argument

How to Analyze an Argument

Sample Annotated Essay

Judith Ortiz Cofer, “The Myth of the Latin Woman” (Cultural Anthropology)

Identifying Your Thesis

Providing Evidence by Paraphrasing and Quoting

Sample Summary

A Sample Student Essay, “Examining the Latina Stereotype” based on Cofer’s Essay

Refuting Arguments

Analyzing an Argument and Inventing Your Own

An Argument with a Student’s Refutation

Esther Vilar, “The Business World as a Hunting Ground” (Cultural Anthropology)

A Student’s Refutation of Vilar’s Essay, “Are Men Really the Slaves of Women?”

8. Reading and Analyzing Visual Texts

Elements of Design

Analyzing a Web site

Tables, Graphs, and Charts

Reading Images as Cultural Signs

Case Study for the Paper Clip Project

Techniques of Advertising

Portfolio of Ads to Analyze

9. Writing Arguments from Sources

Finding a Question to Answer

Using the Library

Using the On-line Computer Catalog

Using Periodical Indexes

Using Book Reviews, Newspaper Indexes and Abstracts, Field Research and Interviews

Using Computerized Data Bases

Evaluating Source Material

Drawing Up a Working Bibliography

Tips for Evaluating Electronic Sources

The Dangers of Undocumented Sources

Note-taking Procedures

Using Your Notes to Create an Outline

The Preliminary Thesis Statement

Creating the Rough Draft

Revising the Rough Draft into a Final Draft

Revising and Editing with a Computer

Preparing the Manuscript

The MLA Style of In-text Citation

Sample Research Paper in MLA Style

The APA Style of In-text Citation

Sample Research Paper in APA Style

Using the CSE Style to Document the Manuscript

Sample Research Paper in CSE Style

Part II

LIBERAL ARTS

Art and Architecture

Richard Keller Simon, “The Shopping Mall and the Formal Garden”

Ethics and Bioethics

Hans Ruesch, “Slaughter of the Innocent”

Philip Wheelwright, “The Meaning of Ethics”

History

Fred Kaplan, “The End of History”

Journalism

Lance Morrow, “Imprisoning Time in a Rectangle”

Language

Helen Keller

Literature

Ursula Le Guin, “American SF and the Other”

Music

Aaron Copland, “Film Music”

Philosophy and Religion

Jean Paul Sartre, “Existentialism”

SOCIAL SCIENCES

American Studies

Philip Slater, “Want-Creation Fuels Americans’ Addictiveness”

Business and Marketing

Robert F. Hartley, “The Edsel: Marketing, Planning and Research Gone Awry”

Communication

Neil Postman and Steve Powers, “TV News as Entertainment”

Cultural Anthropology

Harold Miner, “Body Rituals of the Nacirema”

Economics

Thomas Robert Malthus, “The Principle of Population”

Education

Nat Hentoff, “‘Speech Codes’ on the Campus and Problems of Free Speech"

Political Science

Daniela Deane, “The Little Emperors”

Martin Luther King, Jr., “I Have a Dream”

Psychology

Stanley Milgram, “The Perils of Obedience”

Philip G. Zimbardo, “The Stanford Prison Experiment”

Sociology

Gloria Steinem, “The Time Factor”

SCIENCE

Biology

Charles Darwin, “From on the Origin of Species”

Robert Sapolsky, “Bugs in the Brain”

Eric Scigliano, , “Through the Eye of an Octopus”

Ecology and Environmental Studies

Elizabeth Kolbert, “Shishmaref, Alaska”

Joseph K. Skinner, “Big Mac and the Tropical Forests”

Engineering

Donald A. Norman, “Emotional Robots”

Epidemiology

Gina Kolata, “An Incident in Hong Kong”

Zoology

Donald R. Griffin, “Wordy Apes”

Gunjan Sinha, “You Dirty Vole”

Genetics and Bioengineering

Carol Grunewald, “Monsters of the Brave New World”

Medicine

George E. Vaillant, “We Should Retain the Disease Concept of Alcoholism”

Oceanography

Thor Heyerdahl, “How to Kill an Ocean”

Physics

Charles H. Townes, “Harnessing Light”