ABSTRACT

'Lazere's [book] is heaven-sent and will provide a crucial link in the chain of understanding how conflicts are structured and, most importantly, how they can be rationally addressed - a healthy antidote to the scepticism that has become so pervasive in academic life.' Alan Hausman, Hunter College This innovative book addresses the need for college students to develop critical reading, writing, and thinking skills for self-defence in the contentious arena of American civic rhetoric. In a groundbreaking reconception of composition theory, it presents a comprehensive critical perspective on American public discourse and practical methods for its analysis. Exercises following the text sections and readings help students understand the ideological positions and rhetorical patterns that underlie opposing viewpoints in current controversies - such as the growing inequality of wealth in America and its impact on the finances of college students - as expressed in paired sets of readings from the political left and right. Widely debated issues of whether objectivity is possible and whether there is a liberal or conservative bias in news and entertainment media, as well as in education itself, are foregrounded as topics for rhetorical analysis.

part I|1 pages

Preliminaries

chapter Chapter 1|39 pages

An Appeal to Students

chapter Chapter 2|21 pages

What Is an Argument? What Is a Good Argument?

chapter Chapter 3|26 pages

Definitions and Criteria of Critical Thinking

chapter Chapter 4|34 pages

Writing Argumentative Papers

part II|1 pages

Attaining an Open Mind: Critical Thinking and Argumentative Rhetoric

chapter Chapter 9|22 pages

Semantics in Rhetoric and Critical Thinking

chapter Chapter 11|28 pages

Some Key Terms in Logic and Argumentation

chapter Chapter 12|10 pages

Logical and Rhetorical Fallacies

chapter Chapter 13|26 pages

Causal Analysis

chapter Chapter 14|24 pages

Uses and Misuses of Emotional Appeal

part III|1 pages

Thinking Critically About the Rhetoric of Politics and Mass Media

chapter Chapter 15|40 pages

Thinking Critically about Political Rhetoric

chapter Chapter 16|32 pages

Thinking Critically about Mass Media

part IV|1 pages

Deception Detection

chapter Chapter 18|24 pages

Varieties of Propaganda

chapter Chapter 19|15 pages

Advertising and Hype

part V|1 pages

Putting It All Together in a Long Paper

chapter Chapter 22|3 pages

Documentation

chapter Chapter 23|8 pages

Using Research Resources