The Structure of Argument

by Annette T. Rottenberg

Annette T. Rottenberg, formerly assistant director of the writing program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, has taught composition and literature at Chicago City College, SUNY at Buffalo, Duke University, and schools abroad.Donna Haisty Winchell has directed the Freshman Composition program and codirected Digital Portfolio Institutes at Clemson University, where she is Professor of English. She has edited several freshman writing anthologies and is a frequent presenter at professional conferences. John Solomon is one of America's premier investigative journalists whose award-winning stories over the last quarter-century have exposed scandals ranging from the use of foster children in AIDS drug experiments to what the Bush administration knew about terror threats in the days before September 11, 2001. His exposés have appeared in Newsweek, The Washington Post, The New York Times, on 60 Minutes, and in The Associated Press and countless other publications and news shows across the globe. A former executive editor of The Washington Times and director of news at Newsweek, Solomon currently runs the Washington Guardian investigative newspaper in the nation's capital and lives in Virginia. He is the author of The Scandal That Brought Down Dominique Strauss-Kahn.

Genres: Philosophy, Writing, College, Nonfiction

797 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 1993

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This textbook doesn't suck.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great, quick, and easy reference when writing a paper.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good as far as textbooks go.

[Cecilia Flores · Rating 3 out of 5]

reading this for an English course and there are some interesting articles in this textbook..

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a rhetoric textbook for first year composition courses. There's not that much else to say about it. It's better than some I've taught out of, but it also doesn't discuss somethings I wish it did (like personal narratives) and doesn't discuss somethings the way I wish it did (like the Toulmin model, which isn't just an enthymeme). But generally it's clear and accessible with good reading selections and examples.
https://youtu.be/VXokCeViDoo

[Michael Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mandatory read for one of my writing classes in college. Ok read for the art of argument and how to properly put an argument together and using logic to end up in a fair result. Decent for it's purpose but nothing to ARGUE about :)

[Nara]

A good read for everyone who doesn’t plan to become an American president

I wish I had come across with this book many years ago. The book , or better to say textbook, covers all subjects from how to start planning an argumentative essay to how to prepare a presentation, and it provides annotated samples almost for every topic. It is not a book for reading rather a reference book to have on the table.

Some statements during an American presidential debate can be a good example of how not to build your argument. This dialogue from the second presidential debate is particularly striking:

Cooper[an anchor]: For the record, are you saying that what you said on the bus 11 years ago, that you did not actually kiss women without consent or grope women without consent? […..]--Have you ever done those things?
Trump: -- And they[women] have respect for me. And I will tell you, no I have not. And I will tell you, that I’m going to make our country safe and we’re going to have borders which we don't have now. People are pouring into our country and they’re coming in from the Middle East and other places.

So, anyone who doesn’t plan to become a president of the USA definitely should have “The Structure of the Argument” on the table.