Herrick, Argumentation, 4th ed.

description

comments

pedagogy

contents

the author

isbn:
9781891136269
IM: 9781891136276
2011
325 pages
paperback
photos and illustrations

suggested list price: $87.50
price to college bookstores:
$70.00

New edition!

Argumentation
Understanding and Shaping Arguments

fourth edition

James A. Herrick
Hope College

PREFACE

My goal in this new edition of Argumentation: Understanding and Shaping Arguments, as in the previous editions, has been to provide an accessible, thorough, ethically grounded and audience-centered guide to arguments as they occur in public and private settings. For my own courses, which I have taught for the past twenty-five years, I wanted a textbook that would be informed by contemporary and classical theory, and that would provide a practical guide to understanding and evaluating the vast amount of persuasive writing and speaking we all encounter. In conversations with colleagues, I learned that they, also, wanted a textbook that would provide helpful guidance in constructing arguments, while nurturing the values central to constructive democratic discourse. I have tried to keep these concerns in mind in revising Argumentation for the twenty-first century classroom.

Writing in response to my own teaching needs, feedback to earlier editions, and the actual contemporary practice of public discourse, my purpose in this edition has been to maintain the essential nature of the book and build on existing strengths, while also updating examples and developing new sections to reflect current issues and theory. I hope you will find the result to be an intellectually rigorous yet highly accessible aid to teaching courses such as argumentation, critical thinking, advanced public speaking, or expositional writing.

I have sought always to keep the actual practice of everyday argumentation in view in revising Argumentation, and to focus on the various ways in which we actually reason in public and private settings. The guidelines for evaluating arguments are presented as flexible and suggestive rather than rigid and prescriptive, as issues and concepts that should be considered in terms of audience and context. This approach not only acknowledges how we reason, it also encourages students to become “rational judges” of arguments rather than to simply apply rules.

The settings and methods of argumentation are not static; they change over time. Recent developments in how we communicate — social networks, blogs, reader comment sections in online newspapers — have expanded opportunities for citizens to develop and present their points of view. The rise of digital media has made available new and innovative forums for presenting and exploring a wide range of views. Nevertheless, the basic components of a sound case, such as good evidence, clear claims, and unequivocal language, remain constant. Thus, I have tried to develop an approach to argumentation that is grounded in tested principles of sound reasoning, but flexible enough to accommodate change.

As any classroom instructor knows, relevant and timely examples are crucial to successful teaching. In keeping with my focus on marketplace argument, in the fourth edition of Argumentation: Understanding and Shaping Arguments I have continued to make a diligent effort to provide examples that are contemporary, pertinent to students’ concerns, and derived from the actual practice of public discourse. Examples are thus drawn from debates about business, sports, medicine, politics, interpersonal relationships, religion, the environment, personal decisions, and many other issues.

Emphasizing the everyday practice of argumentation also means that the audience and ethics continue to play important roles in Argumentation: Understanding and Shaping Arguments. Everyday arguments always emerge in a context that includes an audience and an advocate, both of whom possess personal values and moral responsibilities. Thus, the book discusses advocacy ethics in some depth in an early chapter and maintains a focus on ethics throughout. Students are asked to consider the ethical obligations they incur any time they enter the public arena as advocates, including respect for both the audience and the settings in which arguments develop.

My goal throughout the revision of this book has been to refine and update the accessible, ethically grounded, and audience-centered approach to marketplace argument that has characterized earlier editions. Issues perennially central to good public discourse — clarity, validity, support, ethics — remain at the heart of the book. This new edition also introduces a discussion of narrative as a component in constructing argument, an exploration of visual elements as important components in many contemporary arguments, and an expanded discussion of the Internet as a source of evidence and an arena for expanded public discourse. Examples and exercises have also been updated throughout.

FEATURES

This new edition of Argumentation: Understanding and Shaping Arguments retains the central features that characterized earlier editions, and that instructors have told me worked well in their classrooms. These include:

An emphasis on the importance of sound and open public discourse to rational decision-making in a healthy democracy.
A clear, accessible theory of argument, rooted in classical and contemporary concepts, that is introduced early in the text and that informs subsequent discussions.
Clear explanations, examples, and exercises that help students see how various types of arguments — from formal syllogisms to simple comparisons — develop in diverse public and private settings.
An accessible approach to developing and evaluating arguments that is easily adaptable to a range of professional, academic, and interpersonal settings.
A focus on argument ethics, with an early chapter on ethical advocacy (Chapter 4) and attention throughout the book to the ethical responsibilities of advocates.
Emphasis throughout on preparing students to be skilled practitioners of written and spoken public discourse, as well as fully equipped critics of the arguments they encounter.

FEATURES OF THE NEW EDITION

The fourth edition adds several features that are intended to enhance its content and clarity. These features, which arose from my own classroom experiences with the book and suggestions from a number of colleagues, include:

A substantive new section on narrative argument that shows students how stories often are incorporated in persuasive cases, and that guides them in evaluating stories that are used to support a claim.
New explanations of visual evidence and visual arguments, reflecting increased recognition of a visual component in public discourse and acknowledging the increasingly prominent role that images play in public argument.
Many new, updated examples and exercises, drawn from a wide range of student interests and endeavors, to help students develop their mastery of important skills and concepts.
Expanded discussion of the Internet as a source of evidence, with additional suggestions on how to use and evaluate Internet sources, and as a medium that dramatically expands participation in the public sphere.
A new section on the argument from sign, expanding the discussion of causal reasoning.
More detailed discussion of the Toulmin model and its value to advocates and critics, with new examples that illustrate how this model can be used to evaluate public arguments.

PEDAGOGICAL FEATURES

Several pedagogical features are designed to engage student interest, enhance understanding, and emphasize salient points:

Key terms at the beginning of each chapter, with an extensive glossary of terms that enhance students' ability to make, understand, and respond to arguments. A highly developed and practical vocabulary of more than two hundred terms provides students with categories and concepts useful for both composing and evaluating arguments.
Extensive exercises at the end of each chapter that allow students to hone newly acquired skills by practicing what they have learned. These exercises, updated in this edition, encourage students to explore concepts and applications in a variety of contexts.
Epigrams to engage student interest at the beginning of each chapter.
Pull quotes and boxed figures that underscore key points and help engage students visually.
Photographs introducing each part, adding visual interest and underscoring the pervasiveness of argument in everyday life.
Numerous and varied examples drawn from a wide range of interests and endeavors important to students—politics, business, health, sports, the environment, education, interpersonal interactions, international relations, and other arenas of public life.
An Instructor’s Manual with additional exercises and other teaching resources, available to instructors who adopt the book.

ORGANIZATION OF THE BOOK

This fourth edition of Argumentation: Understanding and Shaping Arguments, like the previous edition, consists of twenty chapters organized in seven parts that reflect the central concerns of the book.

Part I, “Goals, Skills, and Functions of Argumentation,” consists of three chapters that introduce the basic vocabulary and theory of argument, as well as several analytic tools that help students grasp how particular arguments have been crafted.

Chapter 1, “An Introduction to Argumentation,” explores the ways in which argumentation functions in the deliberation and decision-making of a democratic society. This chapter also considers the crucial roles of values and agreements in argumentation, countering the idea that argumentation is simply a matter of contention or competition.

Chapter 2, “The Elements of Arguments,” sets out a foundational theory of argument and shows how interpretations of evidence vary based on the values that individuals bring to the argumentative situation.

Chapter 3, “Tools for Analyzing Arguments,” presents students with a highly practical set of analytic tools for grasping the structure and content of any argument. These include a method for marking claims and reasons, as well as an approach to sorting out the various statements in an argument through diagramming and recasting the argument in standard form. The Toulmin Model is introduced and discussed as an important tool of argument analysis that can help us to recognize the place of values and assumptions in any argument.

Part II, “The Conditions of Constructive Argumentation,” includes two chapters that examine the qualities of sound arguments and the characteristics of ethical advocates.

Chapter 4, “Ethical Advocacy,” introduces the ethical obligations of public advocates and provides the foundation for subsequent discussions of public advocacy in the text.

Chapter 5, “Reasonable Arguments, Reasonable People,” sets out three considerations relevant to assessing any argument, which involve evaluating an argument's evidence, structure, and use of language. The chapter also examines characteristics of reasonable people, such as an attitude of openness to the views of others.

Part III, “Support: The Content of Arguments,” addresses the crucial topic of evidence in argument. In the new edition, I have made a particular effort to accommodate the fact that much research today is done online, while also offering detailed information about using traditional sources such as books and periodicals.

Chapter 6, “Evaluating Evidence,” provides a handy guide to assessing the quality of evidence, including tests such as accessibility and recency. A new section on visual evidence reflects current research on its use in augmenting argumentative cases.

Chapter 7, “Locating and Evaluating Sources of Evidence,” explores methods of evaluating sources of evidence, ranging from books and magazines to interviews and online sources. The Internet is discussed as a source of information and as a major contributor to the expansion of the public sphere and public discourse.

Chapter 8, “Using Statistics as Evidence,” considers the issues and mechanics of generalizing from a sample. It also discusses how statistical evidence may be used well—or employed carelessly to mislead an audience.

Chapter 9, “Using Testimony as Evidence,” sets out basic types and accessible tests to assist students in evaluating and employing testimonial evidence.

Part IV, “Validity: The Structure of Arguments,” considers important issues of argument structure.

Chapter 10, “Validity in Conditional and Enumeration Arguments,” examines the structure of arguments that develop around necessary and sufficient conditions, as well as arguments that follow an enumeration or partition pattern.

Chapter 11, “Validity in Categorical Arguments,” examines the structure of arguments that manage categories or definitions, and introduces a set of validity tests to help students navigate a sometimes complex process.

Part V, “Linguistic Consistency: Language in Argument,” is made up of two chapters that explore issues ranging from definition and ambiguity to common problems such as redundancy and mixed metaphor.

Chapter 12, “Definition in Argument,” takes up the fascinating role played by different types of definition in argumentative settings. Sources of definitions as well as their various uses are considered.

Chapter 13, “Ambiguity, Equivocation, and Other Language Considerations,” helps students avoid common mistakes that cloud the clarity of thinking, writing, and speaking.

Part VI, “Types and Tests of Arguments,” covers major types of arguments encountered in public and private settings, and presents methods of evaluating these arguments.

Chapter 14, “Analogies, Examples, and Narratives,” examines reasoning from one or a limited set of cases, as well as reasoning by comparison of cases. This edition includes a new section on the role of narrative in argument.

Chapter 15, “Reasoning about Causes,” develops an accessible guide to the difficult issue of proving cause of individual occurrences or classes of events. A new section on the argument from sign has been added to this chapter.

Chapter 16, “Moral and Practical Arguments,” covers four arguments that are often found in advertising and political discourse, and that engage our moral commitments or pragmatic concerns.

Chapter 17, “Essential Nature Arguments,” addresses a set of arguments often overlooked in texts of this type—arguments built around claims about the essence and interpretation of institutions, individuals, and documents. In this new edition, the chapter also discusses how images and other visual media are often used to sum up the essential nature of an institution, situation, or movement.

Chapter 18, “Fallacies and Appeals,” is devoted to erroneous reasoning. The chapter also includes a careful discussion of the difficult issue of appeals to the emotions and to authority, as well as reductio ad absurdum.

Part VII, “Developing and Adapting Your Case,” discusses the issues of and provides students with guidelines for developing a case and presenting it to an audience.

Chapter 19, “Policy Case Construction,” discusses the elements of an effective case in support of a proposal and covers the basic vocabulary of policy debate.

Chapter 20, “Adapting Arguments to an Audience,” provides students with a highly practical guide to audience adaptation. Questions about demographic concerns are highlighted. The audience’s moral commitments and relationship to both the topic and the advocate are also addressed. A new case for analysis has been incorporated into this chapter, along with commentary on how the case was developed using principles discussed in the chapter.

The glossary at the end of the book lists more than two hundred terms and definitions that have been highlighted throughout the book.

Argumentation: Understanding and Shaping Arguments is designed to encourage students to assume the role of capable, responsible, and informed advocates who participate effectively and ethically in the public arena. The text’s tested approach should help students become better, more self-assured producers and consumers of public as well as private discourse. It is my hope that, as a result of our helping a new generation of students to understand and practice argumentation, the crucial reasoning processes that keep democracy vibrant will be enhanced. I offer this new edition of Argumentation in the belief that we all stand to gain when the citizens of our democracy are well equipped to read, think, write, listen, and speak with skill and confidence.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many individuals have had a hand in forming this new edition of Argumentation: Understanding and Shaping Arguments and the earlier editions. As the present book would not have been possible without their assistance, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge their help and to thank them.

Teaching at least one section of argumentation every semester provides me with continuous opportunity to test material and solicit the reactions of students to the text. I would like to thank the many students in my Analytic Skills course here at Hope College whose suggestions and comments have improved both topic presentation and the quality of exercises in each chapter.

A number of colleagues at colleges and universities across the country have also provided helpful feedback that contributed in important ways to enhancing every aspect of the fourth edition of Argumentation. My thanks to the adopters who responded to a survey concerning their experiences with earlier editions of the text. These include Beth Brunk-Chavez, University of Texas at El Paso; Martha S. Cheng, Rollins College; Larry Eby, Goldey-Beacom College; Michael Fleming, Mount San Jacinto College; Morgan Ginther, University of Memphis; Robert Greenstreet, East Central University; Erica Hollander, Metropolitan State College of Denver; Deborah L. Hoover, Tiffin University; Randall Iden, Northwestern University; Carl Isaacson, Bethany College; Lenore Langsdorf, Southern Illinois University; Cynthia Martin, James Madison University; Charles Lester, Palm Beach Atlantic University; Nancy Nichol Meyer, Metropolitan State College of Denver; Margaret M. Michels, Pennsylvania State University; David Moss, Crafton Hills and Mt. San Jacinto Colleges; Kevin Stein, Southern Utah University; Fred Sternhagen, Concordia College; David Worthington, DePauw University; and David Zarefsky, Northwestern University.

I am also deeply indebted to the reviewers whose insightful comments on early drafts of the manuscript strengthened and clarified the treatment of topics throughout the book. In this regard, special thanks are due to Diane M. Blair, California State University, Fresno; Beth L. Brunk-Chavez, University of Texas at El Paso; Treva Dean, University of Alabama; George N. Dionisopoulos, San Diego State University; James M. Farrell, University of New Hampshire; Douglas Fraleigh, California State University, Fresno; Robert Greenstreet, East Central University; Lisa M. Gring-Pemble, George Mason University; Ilon Lauer, Western Illinois University; Karen King Lee, University of Nebraska-Lincoln; Thomas M. Lessl, University of Georgia; Beth Innocenti Manolescu, University of Kansas; Margaret M. Michels, Pennsylvania State University; Carroll Ferguson Nardone, Sam Houston State University; Samuel Nelson, Cornell University; Frank O'Mara, State University of New York, College at Oneonta; Jennifer Reem, Nova Southeastern University; Phillip Voight, Gustavus Adolphus College; Dennis L. Wignall, Dixie State College; Joel Worden, Goldey-Beacom College; and David Zarefsky, Northwestern University.

Several other individuals have provided crucial support, assistance, and advice in the development of this fourth edition. Thanks are due to the Hope College Communication Departmental office manager Linda Koetje for her careful attention to various aspects of manuscript preparation and correspondence with the publisher. I also want to thank Kathleen Domenig of Strata Publishing for the extraordinary care and high level of professionalism she brought to every detail of production, and for a number of important recommendations regarding the text's structure, tone, and appearance. Finally, my deepest gratitude to my wife and daughters who, with typical good nature and patience, allowed me the time to complete what must have seemed at times an all-consuming task.