The Language of Argument

I. FORMS OF ARGUMENT. Persuasive Writing. Caleb Carr, "Identifying Jack the Ripper." "Help Wanted Immediately." Cal Thomas, "Can't Read? Can't Write? Break Education Monopoly." Redstone Wire Service, "Dr. Durant Demonstrates Psychokinesis." Mitchell Farnum, "Color Me Pro-Choice." Alice Kracke King, "Of Paul De Man and Deconstruction." Induction. Charles Van Deventer, "Im Proof: The War on Drugs is Working." Cynthia Tucker, "Capital Punishment? Not in a Just America." Dan Stein, "Why Don't Need Immigrants." Robert E. McAfee, "Ban Boxing." American Cancer Society, "Smoking Is Very Glamorous." Timothy Wheeler, "Fast Food Terror: A Tale of Two Cities." Deduction. Bill Cosby, "Ebonics Be a Complex Issue." Strom Thurmond, "Death Penalty Deters Violent Crime." John Leo, "Justice Department Detects Discrimination Against Native Americans." Jerry Derring, "A Broader Approach to Respect for Life." Dr. Usala, "Case Against Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research." Fallacies. Roger L. Guffey, "Left-Handers (Those Sickos) Got No Reason to Live!" Quin Hillyer, "The Campaign Trail: Onward, Christian Soldiers." Planned Parenthood, "How Would You Like the Police to Investigate Your Miscarraige?" Sally E. Smith, "Sizims: One of the last Safe Prejudices." Ed Anger, "Pave the Stupid Rainforest." S.L. Varnado, "Women Priests? Never!" Argument by Authority. National Rifle Association, "Americas Founding Fathers on the Right to Keep and Bear Arms." Fred A. Dobson, "Tracking the Werewolf." Tonya Kowalsky, "How Prozac Saved my Marriage." Dignity/USA, "What Jesus Said about Homosexuality." Jim Aucoin, "Who Killed Martin Luther King, Jr.?" Robert C. Noble, "There is no Safe Sex." Semantic Arguments. Dave Barry, "How to Win Arguments." David St. Clair, "Psychometry: Getting the Vibrations." Jud Blakely, "How I learned Not to Worry and Love the NCAA." Sugar Association, "Which Would you Rather Put on Your Kids' Cereal?" Randall Hayes, "Greed and Overconsumption Are Killing the Rainforest." Judy Jarvis, "Women Can Dump Jerks Without Help of Lawyers." Statistics. Michael L. Rothschild, "Terrorism and You: The Real Odds." Anheuser-Busch, "100,000 Beer Commercials." William R. Mattox, Jr., "Is It Sports, the Weather or Love of God That Keeps Us Married." New York Times, "Growing Inmate Population: The Costs." Handgun Control, Inc., "God Bless America." Bruce Handy, "No, Virginia, There Isn't a Santa Claus." II. ARGUMENT FOR ANALYSIS. Mona Charen, "Here She Is, Miss Divorced America." Faye Girsh, "Would You Take a House Call from Dr. Kevorkian?" Ellen Goodman, "Supersizing of America." ASPRS, "I Had Liposuction Instead." John DeRosier, "The Baby Grew Up to Be a Monster." USA TODAY, "Bilingual Education Fails Test, Exposing Deeper Problem." Delia Pompa, "Bilingual Education Works." Annie Laurie Gaylor, "Give Hotel Guests a Bible-Free Room." Peterson, "Let's Not Blame Wrestling for All the Violence." Biteen, "The Supreme Court Also Legalized Slavery." Carol Jago, "Entrance to High School Should Not Be Automatic." Ed Anger, "Women Don't Belong in the Cockpit." Jerome P. Kassirer, "Federal Foolishness and Marijuana." Santa Monica Hospital, "A Lot of Campus Rapes Start Here." Timothy Backous, "Making Sheep: Possible, But Right?" Health After 50, "The Whole Scoop on Coffee." PETA, "Impotence: Ever Since Brad Went Vegetarian..." Lawrence A. Bullis, "Let's Do Away With Safety." John Leo, "In Defense of Lies." Dexter Martin, "Asking God to Cheat in Sports." Jack Valenti, "Young Children Need Moral Instruction in School." Michigan Right to Life, "They're Forgetting Someone." OUR SUNDAY VISITOR, "Dying Is Not a Solely Private Decision." Council for Responsible Nutrition, "So I Have A Vitamin Gap, Big Deal." Ann Victoria, "Vitamin C Will Help You Win the Lottery." Herbert London, "Our Youth Aren't Learning Our History." Deborah Mathis, "Little Girls Shouldn't Count Calories." Michael S. Brown, "Handgun Freedom: Where Have All the Feminists Gone?" National Dairy Board, "Butter: Now More Than Ever the Natural Choice." USA TODAY, "Equal Treatment Is Real Issue--Not Same-Sex Marriage." Dean Ornish, "For a Better Life, Don't Eat Any Beef." Mobile Register, "Chief Justice Should Obey Federal Court." Mike Ramirez, "Thats Racial Profiling." Jim Watts, "Step 1 Toward Greatness: Win Powerball." John Sledge, "Simple Tradeoff Is Key to Finding Time to Read." "Diary of an Unborn Child." Art Levine, Roswell: "A Little Less Balance, Please." American Red Cross, "When You Give Blood..." Bob Dole, "America Needs a Flag-Protection Amendment." Luke Thompson, "Blame It on Dr. Jekyll." Brian J. Axsmith, "Biologist: Creationism Is 'Bad Religion'." Mitch Albom, "Does Hollywood Market Violence to Children?" Martin Ridgeway, "Should Priests Marry?" PETA, "Animal Experiments and Human Health." Cynthia Tucker, "NAACP Should Back Less TV Viewing" Dakin, "Is It Any Wonder the Prisons Are Full?" Phillip D. Harvey, "Reasonable Rate of Divorce Can Be Good for America." III. LITERARY ARGUMENT. William Shakespeare, "My Mistress Eyes" Sonnet CXXX. William Shakespeare, "From Henry V, St. Crispins Day." Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress." John Donne, "Death, Be Not Proud." John Milton, "From Paradise Lost, Book IX." Mary Wollstonecraft, "A Vindication of the Rights of Women." Jonathan Swift, "A Modest Proposal." Jane Austen, "From Nothanger Abbey--Oh! It is Only a Novel." Robert Browning, "My Last Duchess." W.S. Gilbert, "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General." The Declaration of Independence. William Wordsworth, "The World is Too Much With Us." Irene B. McDonald, "Do We Really Need Another Biography of Jane Austen?" IV. EIGHT RULES FOR GOOD WRITING. Rule 1: Find a Subject You Can Work With. Exercises. Rule 2: Get Your Facts. Visit the Library. Use Your Telephone. Use New Technology. Write For Facts You Need. Exercises. Alternate Exercises. Rule 3: Limit Your Topic to Manageable Size. Exercises. Rule 4: Organize Your Material. The Introduction. The Body. The Conclusion. Exercises. Rule 5: Make Your Writing Interesting. Truisms. Cliches. Generalized Language. Inflated Language. Exercises. Rule 6: Make Your Writing Emphatic. Avoid Wordiness. Write in the Active Voice. Express Your Main Idea in the Subject-Verb of your Sentence. Do Not Waste the Ends of Your Sentences. Keep Your Sentences Relatively Short. Keep Your Document As Short As Possible. Exercises. Rule 7: Avoid Language That Draws Attention to Itself. Sexist Language. Repetition. Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers. Elaborate Figures of Speech. Faulty Parallelism. Awkward Constructions. Abrupt Changes in Tone. Exercises. Rule 8: Avoid Mechanical Error. Punctuation. Apostrophes, Quotation Marks, Italics, and Capital Letters. Abbreviations. Numbers. Spelling. Exercises. Final Reminders. Credit Your Sources. Use Your Speaking Voice. Get Help From Friends. Make it Neat. Remember Your Audience. Remember Your Purpose. Be Smart. Index.