Elements Of Arguments: A Text And Reader

ELEMENTS OF ARGUMENT was selected as a textbook for a second-semester English composition course that I instructed for our local state university in the waning days of 2006. More or less the first half of the 866-page book is an instructional textbook and the second half is a collection of essays from a wide variety of authors from classical to contemporary.Generally speaking, I found the textbook portion to be clearly and logically written, presenting in ten chapters most of the considerations involved in writing persuasive essays. These chapters include annotated essays that illustrate the processes of presenting a claim, supporting it, and being aware of the assumptions--the warrants--that affect both writer and reader. Additional short essays at the conclusion of each chapter are accompanied with generally good writing prompts for practice in writing short papers in response to the readings. Following these chapters are sections dealing with the writing of research papers and with citation formatting in both MLA and APA styles.The numerous essays that are anthologized in the second half of the book vary greatly in length, topic and style. Throughout the entire book, contemporary essays tend to address topics of importance and interest to today's audience: racial categorizations, cloning, church-state separation, terrorism, rising college costs, torture, divorce, and so forth. The editors do not shy away from contentious subjects, and for that they deserve applause.