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For courses in Argument.
Prepares students to communicate persuasively and collaboratively in academic, career, and other real-life settings
In the right circumstances, argumentation becomes a habit of mind that students can transfer to their other college courses, careers, and civic lives. Argument Today helps instructors convey to students how to listen carefully, critically analyze all sides of an issue, weigh the available evidence, figure out what they believe, and express their ideas clearly instead of training them to attack and defend. This approach is essential as virtual workplaces, social networking, and multimodality place us in continual conversations with others.
The genre-based approach of Argument Today promotes academic, career, and personal effectiveness through adaptable, common arguments like analyses, narratives, commentaries, evaluations, and proposals. Key concepts are presented visually to help students understand genre conventions and begin composing quickly and effectively. With concise, modular chapters and sections, individual instructors can adapt the book to their style with ease.
Part 1: Fundamentals of Argument
Starting an Argument
Generating Arguments
Persuading Others
Reading and Reflecting Critically
Part 2: Genres of Argument
Narrative Arguments: Arguing with Stories
Comparisons: Arguing by Comparing and Contrasting
Causal Analyses: Arguing about Causes and Effects
Visual Arguments: Arguing by Showing and Telling
Review Arguments: Arguing about Performance
Commentaries: Arguing about Current Issues and Events
Proposals: Arguing about the Future
Research Papers and Reports: Arguing Using Research
Part 3: The Research Project
Researching and Discovering
Crediting, Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
Using MLA Style
Using APA Style
Part 4: Style, Design and Medium
Editing to Strengthen Your Style
Designing Arguments
Presenting Your Argument
Arguing in Virtual Spaces
About our authors Richard Johnson-Sheehan is a professor of rhetoric and composition at Purdue University. At Purdue, he has directed the Introductory Composition program and he has mentored new teachers of composition for many years. He teaches a variety of courses in composition, professional writing and writing program administration, as well as classical rhetoric and the rhetoric of science. He has published widely in these areas. His prior books on writing include Writing Today, now in its 4th edition, Technical Communication Today, now in its 6th edition, and Writing Proposals, now in its 2nd edition. Professor Johnson-Sheehan was awarded 2008 Fellow of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing and has been an officer in the Council for Writing Program Administrators. He was also awarded the Jay R. Gould Award for Excellence in Teaching by the Society for Technical Communication in 2017.
Charles Paine is a professor of English at the University of New Mexico, where he teaches undergraduate courses in first-year, intermediate, and professional writing as well as graduate courses in writing pedagogy, the history of rhetoric and composition and other areas. At UNM, he is director of the Rhetoric and Writing Program and the First-Year Writing Program. He is an active member of the Council of Writing Program Administrators and has served on its Executive Board and other committees. His prior books on writing include The Resistant Writer, Writing Today (now in its 4th edition), and his coedited collection of essays, Teaching with Student Texts. He cofounded and coordinates the Consortium for the Study of Writing in College, a joint effort of the National Survey of Student Engagement and the Council of Writing Program Administrators.
