Perspectives on Argument
5th Edition
Published on 15. September 2006
Book
Paperback/Softback
752 pages
978-0-13-172999-5 (ISBN)
Description
For Freshman Composition Courses and Argumentative Writing Courses.
Nancy Wood's Perspectives on Argument offers the most complete coverage of the research paper available in an argument writing text.
This argument book explains argument theory clearly and applies it to written, visual, and oral argument. It presents complete instructions on how to write a research paper that makes an argument. It encourages students to find multiple perspectives on issues before they decide on their own perspective, and it provides strategies for finding common ground. A classroom-tested assignment sequence allows students to progress from easy to more difficult writing tasks and to integrate classroom reading, thinking, and writing at every stage as they complete them. Also, the readings provide thought-provoking essays that help students form their own opinions about modern issues.
Nancy Wood's Perspectives on Argument offers the most complete coverage of the research paper available in an argument writing text.
This argument book explains argument theory clearly and applies it to written, visual, and oral argument. It presents complete instructions on how to write a research paper that makes an argument. It encourages students to find multiple perspectives on issues before they decide on their own perspective, and it provides strategies for finding common ground. A classroom-tested assignment sequence allows students to progress from easy to more difficult writing tasks and to integrate classroom reading, thinking, and writing at every stage as they complete them. Also, the readings provide thought-provoking essays that help students form their own opinions about modern issues.
More details
Edition
5th edition
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Pearson Education (US)
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 241 mm
Width: 181 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
1088 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-13-172999-5 (9780131729995)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Nancy V. Wood
Perspectives on Argument
Book
12/2008
6th Edition
Pearson
€75.67
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Previous edition
Nancy V. Wood
Perspectives on Argument
Book
08/2003
4th Edition
Pearson
€38.35
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Content
(NOTE: Each chapter includes Review Questions, Exercises and Activities, and Essays for Analysis).
Alternate Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
I. Engaging with Argument for Reading and Writing
1. A Perspective on Argument
What Is Your Current Perspective on Argument?
A Definition of Argument
Recognizing Traditional and Consensual Argument
Under What Conditions Does Argument Work Best?
Under What Conditions Does Argument Fail?
Engaging with Issues
How Should You Engage with Issues?
Audrey Rock-Richardson I Pay Your Own Way! (Then Thank Mom)
A student extols the benefits of paying one's own way in college.
Abby Ellin/The Laptop Ate My Attention Span
Students, according to this author, often misuse their laptops when they bring them to their classes.
Prisna Virasin/The Barbie Controversy
This student issue proposal examines a psychological issue.
2. Identifying Your Preferred Argument Style
The Adversarial and Consensual Styles of Argument.
Individual Styles of Argument
Influence of Background, Experience, and Role Models
Influence of Gender
Influence of Culture
A Study of the Influence of Students' Gender and Culture on Their Argument Style
Influence of Nationality
Shirlee Taylor Haizlip/We Knew What Glory Was
The daughter of a black Baptist minister describes her churchgoing experiences as a child and contrasts them now with the effects of church burnings in the South.
Randall Hamud / We're Fighting Terror, But Killing Freedom
An Arab-American lawyer claims it is difficult to uphold the rule of law since 9/11.
Chang-Lin Tien/A View from Berkeley
A former chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley expresses his views on affirmative action.
Ernest Martinez / Giving People a Second Chance
The author, a prison vocational trainer, claims that prisoners who have been rehabilitated and who have had vocational training deserve a job when they leave prison.
Suzette Brewer / One of Our Own: Training Native Teachers for the 21st Century
According to this author, Native American children should be taught by native teachers.
Judy Brady / Why I Want a Wife
Brady suggests that anyone would want a wife so long as the wife's job is to do all of the chores no one else wants to do.
Reiko Hatsumi / A Simple "Hai" Won't Do
Hai, or "yes," in Japan means different things depending on the context.
3. The Rhetorical Situation: Understanding Audience and Context
Analyze the Rhetorical Situation When You Read an Argument
Text
Reader
Author
Constraints
Exigence
Example of an Analysis of a Rhetorical Situation from the Reader's Point of View
Use the Rhetorical Situation When You Write Argument
What Is the Exigence?
Who Is the Reader or Audience?
What Are Some of the Constraints?
Who is the Author?
How Should the Text Be Developed to Fit the Situation?
Example of an Analysis of a Rhetorical Situation When You Are the Writer
Conducting an Audience Analysis
Determine the Audience's Initial Position and Consider How it Might Change
Analyze the Audience's Discourse Community
Analyze and Adapt to a Familiar Audience
Construct an Unfamiliar Audience
Chris Piper/`A' Is for `Absent'
A student argues that the absence policy in one of his classes is unfair.
Brent Staples/Driving Down the Highway, Mourning the Death of American Radio
The author argues that corporate radio stations have deteriorated in quality compared with pre-corporate stations.
4. Reading, Thinking, and Writing About Issues
Getting Started on a Writing Assignment
Analyze the Assignment and Allocate Time
Identify an Issue, Narrow It, and Test It
Do Some Initial Writing, Reading, and Thinking
Talk It Through
Read to Develop Arguments for Your Paper
Recognizing Written Argument
Academic Argument
Read While Continuing to Think and Write
Survey and Skim to Save Time
Identify and Read the Information in the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion
Look for Claims, Subclaims, Support, and Transitions
Read with an Open Mind and Analyze the Common Ground between You and the Author
Understand the Key Words
Underline, Annotate, and Summarize Ideas
Write Outlines or Maps
Take Notes and Avoid Plagiarism
Write Your Paper, Read It, Think About It, and Revise It
Refocus Your Issue and Reconsider Your Audience
Make an Extended Outline to Guide Your Writing
Write the First Draft
Break Through Writer's Block
Revise the Draft
Organize Your Own Process for Reading, Thinking and Writing About Issues
Practice Your Process by Writing These Papers
The Summary-Response Paper
The Summary-Analysis-Response Paper
The Exploratory Paper
How to Write an Exploratory Paper
Submit Your Paper for Peer Review
Karen Breslau/Cloning Nine Lives + One
A California company is in the pet cloning business.
Kevin Fedarko/A Lifelong Activist's Last Fight
An 87-year-old man continues to fight to save the giant sequoias in California.
Lance Morrow/The Year That Changed Everything
Morrow argues that 1948 was a pivotal year that changed the world.
Jeff D. Opdyke/Kids and Chores: All Work and No Pay?
This author considers different perspectives on how to pay children for doing the chores.
Prisna Virasin/The Controversy Behind Barbie.
This student-written exploratory paper explains different perspectives on the Barbie doll controversy.
II. Understanding the Nature of Argument for Reading and Writing
5. The Essential Parts of an Argument: The Toulmin Model
The Outcomes of Argument: Probability versus Certainty
The Parts of an Argument according to the Toulmin Model
Claim
Support
Warrants
Backing
Rebuttal
Qualifiers
Value of the Toulmin Model for Reading and Writing Argument.
Sense of Community Advertisement
Practice finding the claim, support, and warrants in an advertisement for joining the military
John Evans /What's Happened to Disney Films?
This author claims that modem Disney films for children lack decency and are often offensive.
Beth Brunk /Toulmin Analysts of "What's Happened to Disney Films?
This is a representative student example of a Toulmin analysis of an essay.
Richard D. Rieke and Malcolm O. Sillars / American Value Systems
The authors argue that individuals have value systems that can be categorized and characterized and, thus, help with an understanding of value warrants.
6. Types of Claims
Getting a Sense of the Purpose and Parts of an Argument
Five Types of Claims
Claims of Fact
Claims of Definition
Claims of Cause
Claims of Value
Claims of Policy
Claims and Argument in Real Life
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions for Reading and Writing Argument
Robert Samuelson / Debunking the Digital Divide
The prediction that computer use would become unequally divided between the rich and the poor has not been borne out.
Michael S. Gazzaniga / Zygotes and People Aren't Quite the Same
A scientist provides some definitions that are essential for the cloning debate.
Susan Dentzer/Paying the Price of Female Neglect
The author argues in favor of better treatment of women in developing nations.
Ted Sizer/What's Wrong with Standard Tests?
This author claims that standardized test scores do not correlate with long-term success or failure.
Doctors Call for Fair Competition
An author at the Associated Press writes about athletes and steroids.
Michael Crichton / Let's Stop Scaring Ourselves
The author claims that our worst fears are not usually realized.
Jim Holt / Unintelligent Design
This author examines the theory of intelligent design as an alternative to the theory of evolution and discovers some problems with it.
Barry Schwartz / When It's All Too Much
Do people have too many material possessions, and too much choice when they select them?
Louis Uchitelle / Devising New Math to Define Poverty
The Census Bureau has set new thresholds for poverty that have new implications.
Ian Urgina / No Need to Stew: A Few Tips to Cope with Life's Annoyance.
This author claims that even though we may not be able to solve the big problems, there are things we can do about some of the smaller ones.
Peg Tyre / Bringing Up Adultolescents
When should adult children start paying their own way?
7. Types of Proof
The Traditional Categories of Proof
Types of Logical Proof: Logos
A Mnemonic Device
Argument from Sign
Argument from Induction
Argument from Cause
Argument from Deduction
Argument from Historical, Literal, or Figurative Analogy
Argument from Definition
Argument from Statistics
Proof That Builds Credibility: Ethos
Argument from Authority
Types of Emotional Proof: Pathos
Motivational Proofs
Value Proofs
A Mnemonic Device
Logos, Ethos, and Pathos Communicated through Language and Style
Language That Appeals to Logic
Language That DevelopsEthos
Language That Appeals to Emotion
Ethics and Morality in Argument
Value of the Proofs for Reading and Writing Argument
Meet the Philip Morris Generation, Advertisement
Evaluate how proofs are used in an advertisement.
Katie Roiphe / Campus Climate Control
This article addresses the issue of adult supervision of college students.
Anna Quindlen / The Good Enough Mother
This author argues about what it takes to be a good mother.
Thomas Jefferson/The Declaration of Independence
Reasons are given for severing ties with England and establishing a new country.
8. The Fallacies or Pseudoproofs
Fallacies in Logic
Fallacies That Affect Character or Ethos
Emotional Fallacies
Vitamin Advertisement
Practice finding the fallacies in an advertisement.
Rush Limbaugh / The Latest from the Feminist "Front"
The author claims that feminism was established so that unattractive women could have better access to mainstream society.
Kelly Dickerson / Minor Problems?
A student-written position paper illustrates bow the Toulmin model, the claim questions, the proof questions, and the questions to evaluate support and eliminate fallacies can be
used to plan and write argument papers.
9. Rogerian Argument and Common Ground
Achieving Common Ground in Rogerian Argument
Rogerian Argument as Strategy
Writing Rogerian Argument
Variations of Rogerian Argument
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Rogerian Argument
Marykate Morse / We Won't Let This War Pull Us Apart
The author attempts to resolve the conflict in a family where some members fight in the military and others are pacifists.
Angela A. Boatwright / Human Cloning: Is It a Viable Option?
A student Rogerian argument attempts to reconcile conflicting ideas about cloning human beings.
Eric Hartman / Let Those Who Ride Decide
A student Rogerian argument addresses the issue of mandatory helmet laws for motorcyclists.
Elizabeth Nabhan / Dear Boss
A student writes a Rogerian letter to appeal to her boss to make some changes in her work assignments.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 9: REVIEW AND SYNTHESIS OF THE STRATEGIES FOR READING AND WRITING ARGUMENT
Rhetorical Situation for Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
Reading the Letters and Reporting to the Class
Letters for Analysis
A Call for Unity: A Letter from Eight White Clergymen
This letter, written by eight white clergymen to Alabama, prompted Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous response.
Martin Luther King Jr. / Letter from BirminghamJail
This is the letter King wrote in jail, justifying his participation in the civil rights movement.
III. Writing a Research Paper That Presents an Argument
10. The Research Paper: Clarifying Purpose and Understanding the Audience
Understanding the Assignment and Getting Started
Writing a Claim and Clarifying Your Purpose
The Rhetorical Situation
Questions to Plan Claim and Purpose
Some Preliminary Questions to Help You Develop Your Claim
Developing a Research Plan
Understanding the Audience
Analyzing Your Class as Your Audience
Constructing an Unfamiliar Audience
Using Information about Your Audience
New Yorker Cartoon
11. The Research Paper: Research and Invention
Get Organized for Research
Locating Sources for Research
Learn to Use the Library's Online Catalog
Learn to Find a Library Book
Use Library Subscription Services to Find Articles
Learn to Use Research Navigator
Learn to Find a Printed Journal or Magazine Article
Learn to Find Newspaper Articles
Learn to Find Reference Materials and Government Documents
Make Appropriate Use of the World Wide Web
Evaluate Both Print and Online Sources
Analyze the Author's Purpose
Analyze the Rhetorical Situation of Your Sources
Evaluate the Credibility of Your Sources
Create a Bibliography
Survey, Skim, and Read Selectively
Develop a System for Taking and Organizing Your Notes
Two Invention Strategies to Help You Think Creatively about Your Research and Expand Your Own Ideas
Use Burke's Pentad to Get the Big Picture and Establish Cause
Use Chains of Reasons to Develop Lines of Argument
Angela A. Boatwright / Human Cloning: An Annotated Bibliography.
This is a student-written annotated bibliography about human cloning.
12. The Research Paper Organizing, Writing, and Revising
Classical Organization of Arguments
The Six Parts of Classical Organization
Classical and Modern Organization
Use Organizational Patterns to Help You Think and Organize
Claim with Reasons (or Reasons Followed by Claim)
Cause and Effect (or Effect and Cause)
Applied Criteria
Problem-Solution
Chronology or Narrative
Deduction
Induction
Comparison and Contrast
Incorporate Ideas from Your Exploratory Paper
How to Match Patterns and Support to Claims
Outline Your Paper and Cross-Reference Your Notes
Incorporating Research into Your First Draft
Clearly Identify Words and Ideas from Outside Sources to Avoid Plagiarism
Document Your Sources
Make Revisions and Prepare the Final Copy
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 12: HOW TO DOCUMENT SOURCES USING MLA AND APA STYLES
MLA: How to Cite Sources in the Body of the Text
MLA: How to Cite Sources in the "Works Cited" Page
MLA: Student Paper in MLA Style
Prisna Virasin / The Big Barbie Controversy
A researched position paper in MLA style that claims Barbie is neither good nor bad, only a scapegoat.
Questions on the Researched Position Paper, MLA Style
APA: How to Cite Sources in the Body of the Text
APA: How to Cite Soruces in the "References" Page
APA: Student Paper in APA Style
Darrell D. Greer / Alaskan Wolf Management
A researched position paper in APA style that argues in favor of exterminating wolves to preserve the caribou and moose herds.
Questions on the Researched Position Paper, APA Style
IV. Further Applications: Visual and Oral Argument/Argument and Literature
13. Visual and Oral Argument
Recognizing Visual and Oral Arugument
Why Visual Argument Is Convincing: Eight Special Features
Why Oral Argument Is Convincing: Four Special Features
Using Argument Theory to Critique Visual and Oral Argument
Sample Analysis of a Visual Argument
Add Visual Argument to Support Written and Oral Argument
Create Visual Arguments That Stand Alone
EduGene Cloning Kit
This visual argument expresses a point of view on modern technology.
Martin Luther King Jr. / I Have a Dream
This classic speech was given in Washington D.C., during the civil rights movement.
Color Portfolio of Visual Arguments and Questions for Discussion and Writing
Plate 1: The West Bank Barrier Built by Israel
Plate 2: Buzz Aldrin on the Moon
Plate 3: Bringing Up Adultolescents
Plate 4: The Creation of Adam
Plate 5: Play Ball
Plate 6: Robot with Grappler Holding a Wounded Palestinian
Plate 7: Hands
Plate 8: Tree near El Paso, Texas
Plate 9: Will the Human Soul Be Next?
Plate 10: Art (student example of visual argument)
14. Argument and Literature
Finding and Analyzing Arguments in Literature
What Is at Issue? What Is the Claim?
Characters Making Arguments
Writing Arguments about Literature
Poem: Langstom Hughes / Theme for English B.
A young black student in Harlem is assigned an English paper.
Poem. Taylor Mali / Totally like whatever, you know?
This poet argues in favor of speaking with conviction.
Poem: Robert Frost / Mending Wall
Whether walls are good or bad is the issue in this poem.
Short Story: Ursula K. Le Guin / The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Everyone in this town seems very happy, but are they?
Argument in a Literary Essay: Jonathan Swift / A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Irelandfrom Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country
Think about how you should interpret this unusual proposal for helping the poor in Ireland in the eighteenth century.
Synthesis of Chapters 1-14: Summary Charts
TRACE: The Rhetorical Situation
The Process: Reading and Writing
The Toulmin Model
Types of Claims
Types of Proof and Tests of Validity
V. The Reader
Introduction to "The Reader": Reading and Writing about Issue Areas
Purpose of "The Reader"
How to Use "The Reader"
Questions to Help You Read Critically and Analytically
Questions to Help You Read Creatively and Move from Reading to Writing
Section I: Issues concerning Families and Personal Relationships
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE TRADITIONAL AMERICAN FAMILY? HOW FAR ARE WE WILLING TO GO TO ESTABLISH ALTERNATIVES?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Stephanie Coontz / Nostalgia as Ideology
Coontz summarizes the problems often identified with families and proposes a solution to support marriage.
James C. Dobson / Arguments Against Same-Sex Marriage
This author argues that same-sex marriage will threaten traditional marriage.
Chris Glaser / Marriage As We See It
Glaser describes the transformation he experienced in a same-sex union and argues in favor of such unions.
Madelyn Cain / The Childless Revolution
Cain makes an argument in favor of career and marriage without children.
B. WHAT CAUSES PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS TO SUCCEED OR FAIL?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Harville Hendrix / The Mystery of Attraction
This author thinks he knows why people are attracted to each other.
Benoit Denizet-Lewis / Whatever Happened to Teen Romance?
This author spends time with teenagers to try to understand the effect of the Internet on their relationships.
Jennifer 8. Lee / The Man Date
Lee writes about the difficulties straight men often have in establishing relationships with each other.
Jay Walljasper / State of the Union
This author believes he has the answer to successful long term relationships.
Sylvia Ann Hewlett / The Second Shift
The latest research shows who takes the main responsibility for the household chores, men or women.
Questions to Help You Think and Write about Families and Personal Relationships
Section II: Issues concerning Modern Technology
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. HOW DO COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET AFFECT THE PEOPLE WHO USE THEM?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Martha Irvine / Youths Adopt, Drive Technological Advances
Irvine describes how young users make creative use of the Internet and are quick to embrace new technologies.
Brent Staples / What Adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow Up in Cyberspace
Staples compares his real life relationships when he was an adolescent with those of modern adolescents who spend much of their time on the computer.
Ellen Ullman / The Boss in the Machine
Ullman doesn't like it when her computer interrupts her thoughts and tells her what to do.
B. WHAT POLICIES SHOULD GOVERN THE USE OF HUMAN STEM CELLS IN RESEARCH AND MEDICINE?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Jamie Shreeve / The Other Stem-Cell Debate.
Shreeve writes about ethical issues in creating chimeras, or half-human, half-animal creatures, to help scientists find cures for human diseases.
Amy Laura Hall / Price to Pay: The Misuse of Embryos
This author served on a task force, sponsored by the Methodist Church, to establish policy on embryonic stem cell research.
Nicholas Wade / Bioethics Panel Suggests Stem Cell Alternatives
Wade explains the stem cell technologies recommended as acceptable by the President's Council on Bioethics.
Claudia Wallis / Ethics of a New Science
Wallis explains the stem cell technologies recommended as acceptable by the National Academy of Sciences.
D. WHAT POLICIES SHOULD GOVERN GENETIC ENGINEERING OF HUMANS?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Lee M. Silver / Reprogenetics: A Glimpse of Things to Come
With reprogenetics, Silver claims, parents could have complete control over determining the characteristics of their future children.
Jeremy Rifkin / Ultimate Therapy: Commercial Eugenics in the 21st Century.
The author writes about the many changes, both good and bad, that the biotech revolution could bring about in this century.
James Wood / Better Living through Genetics
Wood sees some dangers in the development of technologies that could change the nature of the human race.
Questions to Help You Think and Write about Modern Technology
Section III: Issues Concerning Crime and the Treatment of Criminals
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. HOW SHOULD WE TREAT CONVICTED CRIMINALS?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
James Gilligan / Reflections from a Life Behind Bars: Build Colleges, Not Prisons.
A former director of mental health for a prison system describes the horrible conditions in prisons and suggests other ways of dealing with prisoners.
Ian Buruma / Uncaptive Minds: What Teaching a College-Level Class at a Maximum Security Correctional Facility Did for the Inmates-And for Me
Buruma takes a position on the issue of whether people who are incarcerated should have access to a free college education while they are in prison.
Richard Taylor Getting Tough on Crime
Taylor advises against the death penalty and other "tough" measures to discourage crime since they never seem to work.
Jennifer Gonnerman / A Beaten Path Back to Prison.
This article is about the problems inherent in the current parole system.
B. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE WITH YOUNG OFFENDERS?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Aristotle / The Characteristics of Youth
Aristotle describes the youths of 2400 years ago as surprisingly similar to those of today.
Claudia Wallis / Too Young to Die
This author describes the effects of the changes in the juvenile death penalty made by the Supreme Court in 2005.
Daniel R. Weinberger / A Brain Too Young for Good Judgment
Brains need to be physiologically mature in order to exhibit rational behavior, according to this author.
Gerand Jones / Not So Alone
What influence do violent video games and other media have on young people? This author's answers may surprise you.
Alan Feuer / Out of Jail, into Temptation: A Day in a Life
A report on the first day out of prison for a convict from New York City. What are his chances for success?
Questions to Help You Think and Write about Crime and the Treatment of Criminals.
Section IV: Issues concerning Race, Culture, and Identify
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. HOW DO RACE AND CULTURE CONTRIBUTE TO AN INDIVIDUAL'S SENSE OF IDENTITY?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Richard Dyer / The Matter of Whiteness
Dyer suggests that white people should be considered as members of a race just as members of other races are.
Emma Daly / DNA Test Gives Students Ethnic Shocks
Have you ever wondered about your ethnic makeup? Would you take a DNA test to find out?
Guillermo Gomez-Pena / Documented / Undocumented
The author describes some of the cultural conflicts he has experienced living on the Mexico-United States border.
Dorinne K. Kondo / On Being a Conceptual Anomaly.
A Japanese American describes her conflict in returning to Japan, where she is expected to observe Japanese cultural traditions.
B. TO WHAT EXTENT SHOULD INDIVIDUALS ALLOW THEIR CULTURAL HERITAGE TO BE ASSIMILATED?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Yahlin Chang / Asian Identity Crisis
In this evaluation of two Asians who relocate to America, one gives up his original culture, and the other does not. Which route is better?
Anouar Majid / Educating Ourselves into Coexistence
This author argues that students can learn to heal the wounds between Islam and America because of what they hold in common.
Edward S. Shapiro / American Jews and the Problem of Identity
This author asks whether being Jewish is a result of religion, culture, race, history, or some combination of these.
Questions to Help You Think and Write about Race, Culture, and Identity
Section V: Issues Associated with Civic Responsibility
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WELFARE OF DISADVANTAGED INDIVIDUALS: GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS CHURCHES AND CHARITIES, OR THE DISADVANTAGED THEMSELVES?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Jim Wright / Between Hammers and Anvils
Wright claims that some of the entitlements Americans have come to depend on are being curtailed by the current administration.
David Tarrant / Report Finds AmeriCorps Fosters Greater Sense of Civic Responsibility
This is a report on a five-year study that tracked 2,000 Americorps members since 1998 to understand the effects this service has on their lives.
David Neff / For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility
This position paper, put out by the National Association of Evangelicals, presents the goals and responsibilities of that group for civic responsibility.
Robert E. Litan / September 11, 2001: The Case for Universal Service
Litan calls for a universal service program that everyone would participate in during the year following high school.
Barack Obama / Becoming a Community Organizer
Obama describes how his youthful dreams of organizing the disadvantaged were changed by the people he wanted to organize.
B. TO WHAT EXTENT IS THE INDIVIDUAL CITIZEN RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTRIBUTING TO THE LARGER SOCIETY?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
John F. Kennedy / Inaugural Address
In his 1961 inaugural address as President of the United States, Kennedy sets out his agenda for civic responsibility.
William Graham Sumner / The Absurd Effort to Make the World Over
Writing at the end of the nineteenth century, Sumner presents the position of the Social Darwinists and urges that reformers leave the social process alone.
Tracy Kidder / Because We Can, We Do
Kidder writes about medical doctors who have left the United States to work with the world's poor in developing countries.
Norman Lear / Love of Country: Patriotism Born of a Grandfather's Inspiration
Television writer and producer Lear traces his civic responsibility to the example set by his Russian immigrant grandfather.
Nelson Mandela / From Long Walk to Freedom
Mandela writes about his life of public service including what he had to give up as well as what he gained.
David Brankey and Dianna Ball / The Americorps Experience: Two Students' Perspectives
Two AmeriCorps members describe the experiences as members of Americorps.
Questions to Help You Think and Write about Civic Responsibility
Section VI: Issues Associated with Poverty
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. CAN WORLD POVERTY BE ELIMINATED? WHAT MAY BE EFFECTIVE?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Jeffrey D. Sachs / The End of Poverty
The Director of the United Nations Millennium Project to cut world poverty in half by 2015 lays out the plan and describes what it will take to implement it.
U. N. Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
All 191 United Nations member states have pledged to meet these goals to cut world poverty in half by 2015.
A Better Wayto Fight Poverty
An editorial writer describes the success the Millennium Project is experiencing in a village in Africa.
C. K. Pranahad and Allen L. Hammond / Four Billion New Consumers
These business leaders propose that technology companies target the poor people of the world as their next customers in a plan they claim will benefit both consumers and companies.
Andy Goldberg / The Progression from Poverty to Profit-for All; How Can the Impoverished Many, Who Need a Hand Up, Help the Rich Corporate Few, Who Have Reached a Profit Plateau in the Developed World.
Goldberg presents various perspectives on the ideas expressed in the preceding article by Pranahad and Hammond.
B. CAN INDIVIDUALS IN THE UNITED STATES WORK THEIR WAY OUT OF POVERTY IF THEY WANT TO DO SO?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
James Patterson and Peter Kim / Poverty: The Forgotten Crusade
These authors present the results of a survey that explores the attitudes of Americans toward the poor people in their country.
David K. Shipler / At the Edge of Poverty
Shipler explores the causes of poverty in the United States and also defines it.
Anthony DePalma / Fifteen Years on the Bottom Rung
The author describes the differing experiences of two immigrants in America.
Class and the American Dream
An editorial writer comments on the widening gap between the rich and the poor in America and claims it is very difficult to go from "rags to riches."
Marilyn Gardner / Bankruptcy Reform Hits Women Hard
Gardner claims that new legislation to make it more difficult to declare bankruptcy will have a particularly negative effect women.
Questions to Help You Think and Write about Poverty
Section VII: Issues concerning War and Peace
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. IS WAR INEVITABLE?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
William James / The Moral Equivalent of War
Some people may be drawn to fighting wars, according to this well-known psychologist, but there are other ways to channel such energy.
Margaret Mead / Warfare: An Invention-Not a Biological Necessity
This cultural anthropologist says war is not part of people's natural makeup; instead, it is a learned behavior.
Chris Hedges / War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
The author, a war correspondent with 15 years' experience in war zones, claims that war is addictive and difficult to give up.
B. HOW DO PEOPLE JUSTIFY WAR?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Haim Watzman / At War with Themselves
Watzman writes about the problem of compromising one's own moral code in order to obey orders during combat.
William J. Bennett / Why We Fight
This author explains the concept of a "just war' and suggests we should always be prepared to fight one.
Elie Wiesel / How Can We Understand Their Hatred?
This Nobel Prize winner explores religious fanaticism and finds some grounds for hope.
C. WHAT MIGHT HELP ESTABLISH PEACE?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
William L. Ury / Getting to Peace
The author gives suggestions for moving from conflict to compromise.
Richard Rhodes / The Atomic Bomb
This Pulitzer Prize winner describes the power of the atomic bomb and shows how it has been a force for peace since World War II.
Bruce Hoffman / All You Need Is Love
This author describes an unusual method for stopping terrorism.
Questions to Help You Think and Write about War and Peace
Credits
Topic Index
Author-Title Index
Alternate Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
I. Engaging with Argument for Reading and Writing
1. A Perspective on Argument
What Is Your Current Perspective on Argument?
A Definition of Argument
Recognizing Traditional and Consensual Argument
Under What Conditions Does Argument Work Best?
Under What Conditions Does Argument Fail?
Engaging with Issues
How Should You Engage with Issues?
Audrey Rock-Richardson I Pay Your Own Way! (Then Thank Mom)
A student extols the benefits of paying one's own way in college.
Abby Ellin/The Laptop Ate My Attention Span
Students, according to this author, often misuse their laptops when they bring them to their classes.
Prisna Virasin/The Barbie Controversy
This student issue proposal examines a psychological issue.
2. Identifying Your Preferred Argument Style
The Adversarial and Consensual Styles of Argument.
Individual Styles of Argument
Influence of Background, Experience, and Role Models
Influence of Gender
Influence of Culture
A Study of the Influence of Students' Gender and Culture on Their Argument Style
Influence of Nationality
Shirlee Taylor Haizlip/We Knew What Glory Was
The daughter of a black Baptist minister describes her churchgoing experiences as a child and contrasts them now with the effects of church burnings in the South.
Randall Hamud / We're Fighting Terror, But Killing Freedom
An Arab-American lawyer claims it is difficult to uphold the rule of law since 9/11.
Chang-Lin Tien/A View from Berkeley
A former chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley expresses his views on affirmative action.
Ernest Martinez / Giving People a Second Chance
The author, a prison vocational trainer, claims that prisoners who have been rehabilitated and who have had vocational training deserve a job when they leave prison.
Suzette Brewer / One of Our Own: Training Native Teachers for the 21st Century
According to this author, Native American children should be taught by native teachers.
Judy Brady / Why I Want a Wife
Brady suggests that anyone would want a wife so long as the wife's job is to do all of the chores no one else wants to do.
Reiko Hatsumi / A Simple "Hai" Won't Do
Hai, or "yes," in Japan means different things depending on the context.
3. The Rhetorical Situation: Understanding Audience and Context
Analyze the Rhetorical Situation When You Read an Argument
Text
Reader
Author
Constraints
Exigence
Example of an Analysis of a Rhetorical Situation from the Reader's Point of View
Use the Rhetorical Situation When You Write Argument
What Is the Exigence?
Who Is the Reader or Audience?
What Are Some of the Constraints?
Who is the Author?
How Should the Text Be Developed to Fit the Situation?
Example of an Analysis of a Rhetorical Situation When You Are the Writer
Conducting an Audience Analysis
Determine the Audience's Initial Position and Consider How it Might Change
Analyze the Audience's Discourse Community
Analyze and Adapt to a Familiar Audience
Construct an Unfamiliar Audience
Chris Piper/`A' Is for `Absent'
A student argues that the absence policy in one of his classes is unfair.
Brent Staples/Driving Down the Highway, Mourning the Death of American Radio
The author argues that corporate radio stations have deteriorated in quality compared with pre-corporate stations.
4. Reading, Thinking, and Writing About Issues
Getting Started on a Writing Assignment
Analyze the Assignment and Allocate Time
Identify an Issue, Narrow It, and Test It
Do Some Initial Writing, Reading, and Thinking
Talk It Through
Read to Develop Arguments for Your Paper
Recognizing Written Argument
Academic Argument
Read While Continuing to Think and Write
Survey and Skim to Save Time
Identify and Read the Information in the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion
Look for Claims, Subclaims, Support, and Transitions
Read with an Open Mind and Analyze the Common Ground between You and the Author
Understand the Key Words
Underline, Annotate, and Summarize Ideas
Write Outlines or Maps
Take Notes and Avoid Plagiarism
Write Your Paper, Read It, Think About It, and Revise It
Refocus Your Issue and Reconsider Your Audience
Make an Extended Outline to Guide Your Writing
Write the First Draft
Break Through Writer's Block
Revise the Draft
Organize Your Own Process for Reading, Thinking and Writing About Issues
Practice Your Process by Writing These Papers
The Summary-Response Paper
The Summary-Analysis-Response Paper
The Exploratory Paper
How to Write an Exploratory Paper
Submit Your Paper for Peer Review
Karen Breslau/Cloning Nine Lives + One
A California company is in the pet cloning business.
Kevin Fedarko/A Lifelong Activist's Last Fight
An 87-year-old man continues to fight to save the giant sequoias in California.
Lance Morrow/The Year That Changed Everything
Morrow argues that 1948 was a pivotal year that changed the world.
Jeff D. Opdyke/Kids and Chores: All Work and No Pay?
This author considers different perspectives on how to pay children for doing the chores.
Prisna Virasin/The Controversy Behind Barbie.
This student-written exploratory paper explains different perspectives on the Barbie doll controversy.
II. Understanding the Nature of Argument for Reading and Writing
5. The Essential Parts of an Argument: The Toulmin Model
The Outcomes of Argument: Probability versus Certainty
The Parts of an Argument according to the Toulmin Model
Claim
Support
Warrants
Backing
Rebuttal
Qualifiers
Value of the Toulmin Model for Reading and Writing Argument.
Sense of Community Advertisement
Practice finding the claim, support, and warrants in an advertisement for joining the military
John Evans /What's Happened to Disney Films?
This author claims that modem Disney films for children lack decency and are often offensive.
Beth Brunk /Toulmin Analysts of "What's Happened to Disney Films?
This is a representative student example of a Toulmin analysis of an essay.
Richard D. Rieke and Malcolm O. Sillars / American Value Systems
The authors argue that individuals have value systems that can be categorized and characterized and, thus, help with an understanding of value warrants.
6. Types of Claims
Getting a Sense of the Purpose and Parts of an Argument
Five Types of Claims
Claims of Fact
Claims of Definition
Claims of Cause
Claims of Value
Claims of Policy
Claims and Argument in Real Life
Value of the Claims and the Claim Questions for Reading and Writing Argument
Robert Samuelson / Debunking the Digital Divide
The prediction that computer use would become unequally divided between the rich and the poor has not been borne out.
Michael S. Gazzaniga / Zygotes and People Aren't Quite the Same
A scientist provides some definitions that are essential for the cloning debate.
Susan Dentzer/Paying the Price of Female Neglect
The author argues in favor of better treatment of women in developing nations.
Ted Sizer/What's Wrong with Standard Tests?
This author claims that standardized test scores do not correlate with long-term success or failure.
Doctors Call for Fair Competition
An author at the Associated Press writes about athletes and steroids.
Michael Crichton / Let's Stop Scaring Ourselves
The author claims that our worst fears are not usually realized.
Jim Holt / Unintelligent Design
This author examines the theory of intelligent design as an alternative to the theory of evolution and discovers some problems with it.
Barry Schwartz / When It's All Too Much
Do people have too many material possessions, and too much choice when they select them?
Louis Uchitelle / Devising New Math to Define Poverty
The Census Bureau has set new thresholds for poverty that have new implications.
Ian Urgina / No Need to Stew: A Few Tips to Cope with Life's Annoyance.
This author claims that even though we may not be able to solve the big problems, there are things we can do about some of the smaller ones.
Peg Tyre / Bringing Up Adultolescents
When should adult children start paying their own way?
7. Types of Proof
The Traditional Categories of Proof
Types of Logical Proof: Logos
A Mnemonic Device
Argument from Sign
Argument from Induction
Argument from Cause
Argument from Deduction
Argument from Historical, Literal, or Figurative Analogy
Argument from Definition
Argument from Statistics
Proof That Builds Credibility: Ethos
Argument from Authority
Types of Emotional Proof: Pathos
Motivational Proofs
Value Proofs
A Mnemonic Device
Logos, Ethos, and Pathos Communicated through Language and Style
Language That Appeals to Logic
Language That DevelopsEthos
Language That Appeals to Emotion
Ethics and Morality in Argument
Value of the Proofs for Reading and Writing Argument
Meet the Philip Morris Generation, Advertisement
Evaluate how proofs are used in an advertisement.
Katie Roiphe / Campus Climate Control
This article addresses the issue of adult supervision of college students.
Anna Quindlen / The Good Enough Mother
This author argues about what it takes to be a good mother.
Thomas Jefferson/The Declaration of Independence
Reasons are given for severing ties with England and establishing a new country.
8. The Fallacies or Pseudoproofs
Fallacies in Logic
Fallacies That Affect Character or Ethos
Emotional Fallacies
Vitamin Advertisement
Practice finding the fallacies in an advertisement.
Rush Limbaugh / The Latest from the Feminist "Front"
The author claims that feminism was established so that unattractive women could have better access to mainstream society.
Kelly Dickerson / Minor Problems?
A student-written position paper illustrates bow the Toulmin model, the claim questions, the proof questions, and the questions to evaluate support and eliminate fallacies can be
used to plan and write argument papers.
9. Rogerian Argument and Common Ground
Achieving Common Ground in Rogerian Argument
Rogerian Argument as Strategy
Writing Rogerian Argument
Variations of Rogerian Argument
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Rogerian Argument
Marykate Morse / We Won't Let This War Pull Us Apart
The author attempts to resolve the conflict in a family where some members fight in the military and others are pacifists.
Angela A. Boatwright / Human Cloning: Is It a Viable Option?
A student Rogerian argument attempts to reconcile conflicting ideas about cloning human beings.
Eric Hartman / Let Those Who Ride Decide
A student Rogerian argument addresses the issue of mandatory helmet laws for motorcyclists.
Elizabeth Nabhan / Dear Boss
A student writes a Rogerian letter to appeal to her boss to make some changes in her work assignments.
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 9: REVIEW AND SYNTHESIS OF THE STRATEGIES FOR READING AND WRITING ARGUMENT
Rhetorical Situation for Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
Reading the Letters and Reporting to the Class
Letters for Analysis
A Call for Unity: A Letter from Eight White Clergymen
This letter, written by eight white clergymen to Alabama, prompted Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous response.
Martin Luther King Jr. / Letter from BirminghamJail
This is the letter King wrote in jail, justifying his participation in the civil rights movement.
III. Writing a Research Paper That Presents an Argument
10. The Research Paper: Clarifying Purpose and Understanding the Audience
Understanding the Assignment and Getting Started
Writing a Claim and Clarifying Your Purpose
The Rhetorical Situation
Questions to Plan Claim and Purpose
Some Preliminary Questions to Help You Develop Your Claim
Developing a Research Plan
Understanding the Audience
Analyzing Your Class as Your Audience
Constructing an Unfamiliar Audience
Using Information about Your Audience
New Yorker Cartoon
11. The Research Paper: Research and Invention
Get Organized for Research
Locating Sources for Research
Learn to Use the Library's Online Catalog
Learn to Find a Library Book
Use Library Subscription Services to Find Articles
Learn to Use Research Navigator
Learn to Find a Printed Journal or Magazine Article
Learn to Find Newspaper Articles
Learn to Find Reference Materials and Government Documents
Make Appropriate Use of the World Wide Web
Evaluate Both Print and Online Sources
Analyze the Author's Purpose
Analyze the Rhetorical Situation of Your Sources
Evaluate the Credibility of Your Sources
Create a Bibliography
Survey, Skim, and Read Selectively
Develop a System for Taking and Organizing Your Notes
Two Invention Strategies to Help You Think Creatively about Your Research and Expand Your Own Ideas
Use Burke's Pentad to Get the Big Picture and Establish Cause
Use Chains of Reasons to Develop Lines of Argument
Angela A. Boatwright / Human Cloning: An Annotated Bibliography.
This is a student-written annotated bibliography about human cloning.
12. The Research Paper Organizing, Writing, and Revising
Classical Organization of Arguments
The Six Parts of Classical Organization
Classical and Modern Organization
Use Organizational Patterns to Help You Think and Organize
Claim with Reasons (or Reasons Followed by Claim)
Cause and Effect (or Effect and Cause)
Applied Criteria
Problem-Solution
Chronology or Narrative
Deduction
Induction
Comparison and Contrast
Incorporate Ideas from Your Exploratory Paper
How to Match Patterns and Support to Claims
Outline Your Paper and Cross-Reference Your Notes
Incorporating Research into Your First Draft
Clearly Identify Words and Ideas from Outside Sources to Avoid Plagiarism
Document Your Sources
Make Revisions and Prepare the Final Copy
APPENDIX TO CHAPTER 12: HOW TO DOCUMENT SOURCES USING MLA AND APA STYLES
MLA: How to Cite Sources in the Body of the Text
MLA: How to Cite Sources in the "Works Cited" Page
MLA: Student Paper in MLA Style
Prisna Virasin / The Big Barbie Controversy
A researched position paper in MLA style that claims Barbie is neither good nor bad, only a scapegoat.
Questions on the Researched Position Paper, MLA Style
APA: How to Cite Sources in the Body of the Text
APA: How to Cite Soruces in the "References" Page
APA: Student Paper in APA Style
Darrell D. Greer / Alaskan Wolf Management
A researched position paper in APA style that argues in favor of exterminating wolves to preserve the caribou and moose herds.
Questions on the Researched Position Paper, APA Style
IV. Further Applications: Visual and Oral Argument/Argument and Literature
13. Visual and Oral Argument
Recognizing Visual and Oral Arugument
Why Visual Argument Is Convincing: Eight Special Features
Why Oral Argument Is Convincing: Four Special Features
Using Argument Theory to Critique Visual and Oral Argument
Sample Analysis of a Visual Argument
Add Visual Argument to Support Written and Oral Argument
Create Visual Arguments That Stand Alone
EduGene Cloning Kit
This visual argument expresses a point of view on modern technology.
Martin Luther King Jr. / I Have a Dream
This classic speech was given in Washington D.C., during the civil rights movement.
Color Portfolio of Visual Arguments and Questions for Discussion and Writing
Plate 1: The West Bank Barrier Built by Israel
Plate 2: Buzz Aldrin on the Moon
Plate 3: Bringing Up Adultolescents
Plate 4: The Creation of Adam
Plate 5: Play Ball
Plate 6: Robot with Grappler Holding a Wounded Palestinian
Plate 7: Hands
Plate 8: Tree near El Paso, Texas
Plate 9: Will the Human Soul Be Next?
Plate 10: Art (student example of visual argument)
14. Argument and Literature
Finding and Analyzing Arguments in Literature
What Is at Issue? What Is the Claim?
Characters Making Arguments
Writing Arguments about Literature
Poem: Langstom Hughes / Theme for English B.
A young black student in Harlem is assigned an English paper.
Poem. Taylor Mali / Totally like whatever, you know?
This poet argues in favor of speaking with conviction.
Poem: Robert Frost / Mending Wall
Whether walls are good or bad is the issue in this poem.
Short Story: Ursula K. Le Guin / The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Everyone in this town seems very happy, but are they?
Argument in a Literary Essay: Jonathan Swift / A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Irelandfrom Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country
Think about how you should interpret this unusual proposal for helping the poor in Ireland in the eighteenth century.
Synthesis of Chapters 1-14: Summary Charts
TRACE: The Rhetorical Situation
The Process: Reading and Writing
The Toulmin Model
Types of Claims
Types of Proof and Tests of Validity
V. The Reader
Introduction to "The Reader": Reading and Writing about Issue Areas
Purpose of "The Reader"
How to Use "The Reader"
Questions to Help You Read Critically and Analytically
Questions to Help You Read Creatively and Move from Reading to Writing
Section I: Issues concerning Families and Personal Relationships
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THE TRADITIONAL AMERICAN FAMILY? HOW FAR ARE WE WILLING TO GO TO ESTABLISH ALTERNATIVES?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Stephanie Coontz / Nostalgia as Ideology
Coontz summarizes the problems often identified with families and proposes a solution to support marriage.
James C. Dobson / Arguments Against Same-Sex Marriage
This author argues that same-sex marriage will threaten traditional marriage.
Chris Glaser / Marriage As We See It
Glaser describes the transformation he experienced in a same-sex union and argues in favor of such unions.
Madelyn Cain / The Childless Revolution
Cain makes an argument in favor of career and marriage without children.
B. WHAT CAUSES PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS TO SUCCEED OR FAIL?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Harville Hendrix / The Mystery of Attraction
This author thinks he knows why people are attracted to each other.
Benoit Denizet-Lewis / Whatever Happened to Teen Romance?
This author spends time with teenagers to try to understand the effect of the Internet on their relationships.
Jennifer 8. Lee / The Man Date
Lee writes about the difficulties straight men often have in establishing relationships with each other.
Jay Walljasper / State of the Union
This author believes he has the answer to successful long term relationships.
Sylvia Ann Hewlett / The Second Shift
The latest research shows who takes the main responsibility for the household chores, men or women.
Questions to Help You Think and Write about Families and Personal Relationships
Section II: Issues concerning Modern Technology
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. HOW DO COMPUTERS AND THE INTERNET AFFECT THE PEOPLE WHO USE THEM?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Martha Irvine / Youths Adopt, Drive Technological Advances
Irvine describes how young users make creative use of the Internet and are quick to embrace new technologies.
Brent Staples / What Adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow Up in Cyberspace
Staples compares his real life relationships when he was an adolescent with those of modern adolescents who spend much of their time on the computer.
Ellen Ullman / The Boss in the Machine
Ullman doesn't like it when her computer interrupts her thoughts and tells her what to do.
B. WHAT POLICIES SHOULD GOVERN THE USE OF HUMAN STEM CELLS IN RESEARCH AND MEDICINE?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Jamie Shreeve / The Other Stem-Cell Debate.
Shreeve writes about ethical issues in creating chimeras, or half-human, half-animal creatures, to help scientists find cures for human diseases.
Amy Laura Hall / Price to Pay: The Misuse of Embryos
This author served on a task force, sponsored by the Methodist Church, to establish policy on embryonic stem cell research.
Nicholas Wade / Bioethics Panel Suggests Stem Cell Alternatives
Wade explains the stem cell technologies recommended as acceptable by the President's Council on Bioethics.
Claudia Wallis / Ethics of a New Science
Wallis explains the stem cell technologies recommended as acceptable by the National Academy of Sciences.
D. WHAT POLICIES SHOULD GOVERN GENETIC ENGINEERING OF HUMANS?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Lee M. Silver / Reprogenetics: A Glimpse of Things to Come
With reprogenetics, Silver claims, parents could have complete control over determining the characteristics of their future children.
Jeremy Rifkin / Ultimate Therapy: Commercial Eugenics in the 21st Century.
The author writes about the many changes, both good and bad, that the biotech revolution could bring about in this century.
James Wood / Better Living through Genetics
Wood sees some dangers in the development of technologies that could change the nature of the human race.
Questions to Help You Think and Write about Modern Technology
Section III: Issues Concerning Crime and the Treatment of Criminals
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. HOW SHOULD WE TREAT CONVICTED CRIMINALS?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
James Gilligan / Reflections from a Life Behind Bars: Build Colleges, Not Prisons.
A former director of mental health for a prison system describes the horrible conditions in prisons and suggests other ways of dealing with prisoners.
Ian Buruma / Uncaptive Minds: What Teaching a College-Level Class at a Maximum Security Correctional Facility Did for the Inmates-And for Me
Buruma takes a position on the issue of whether people who are incarcerated should have access to a free college education while they are in prison.
Richard Taylor Getting Tough on Crime
Taylor advises against the death penalty and other "tough" measures to discourage crime since they never seem to work.
Jennifer Gonnerman / A Beaten Path Back to Prison.
This article is about the problems inherent in the current parole system.
B. WHAT SHOULD BE DONE WITH YOUNG OFFENDERS?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Aristotle / The Characteristics of Youth
Aristotle describes the youths of 2400 years ago as surprisingly similar to those of today.
Claudia Wallis / Too Young to Die
This author describes the effects of the changes in the juvenile death penalty made by the Supreme Court in 2005.
Daniel R. Weinberger / A Brain Too Young for Good Judgment
Brains need to be physiologically mature in order to exhibit rational behavior, according to this author.
Gerand Jones / Not So Alone
What influence do violent video games and other media have on young people? This author's answers may surprise you.
Alan Feuer / Out of Jail, into Temptation: A Day in a Life
A report on the first day out of prison for a convict from New York City. What are his chances for success?
Questions to Help You Think and Write about Crime and the Treatment of Criminals.
Section IV: Issues concerning Race, Culture, and Identify
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. HOW DO RACE AND CULTURE CONTRIBUTE TO AN INDIVIDUAL'S SENSE OF IDENTITY?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Richard Dyer / The Matter of Whiteness
Dyer suggests that white people should be considered as members of a race just as members of other races are.
Emma Daly / DNA Test Gives Students Ethnic Shocks
Have you ever wondered about your ethnic makeup? Would you take a DNA test to find out?
Guillermo Gomez-Pena / Documented / Undocumented
The author describes some of the cultural conflicts he has experienced living on the Mexico-United States border.
Dorinne K. Kondo / On Being a Conceptual Anomaly.
A Japanese American describes her conflict in returning to Japan, where she is expected to observe Japanese cultural traditions.
B. TO WHAT EXTENT SHOULD INDIVIDUALS ALLOW THEIR CULTURAL HERITAGE TO BE ASSIMILATED?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Yahlin Chang / Asian Identity Crisis
In this evaluation of two Asians who relocate to America, one gives up his original culture, and the other does not. Which route is better?
Anouar Majid / Educating Ourselves into Coexistence
This author argues that students can learn to heal the wounds between Islam and America because of what they hold in common.
Edward S. Shapiro / American Jews and the Problem of Identity
This author asks whether being Jewish is a result of religion, culture, race, history, or some combination of these.
Questions to Help You Think and Write about Race, Culture, and Identity
Section V: Issues Associated with Civic Responsibility
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WELFARE OF DISADVANTAGED INDIVIDUALS: GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS CHURCHES AND CHARITIES, OR THE DISADVANTAGED THEMSELVES?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Jim Wright / Between Hammers and Anvils
Wright claims that some of the entitlements Americans have come to depend on are being curtailed by the current administration.
David Tarrant / Report Finds AmeriCorps Fosters Greater Sense of Civic Responsibility
This is a report on a five-year study that tracked 2,000 Americorps members since 1998 to understand the effects this service has on their lives.
David Neff / For the Health of the Nation: An Evangelical Call to Civic Responsibility
This position paper, put out by the National Association of Evangelicals, presents the goals and responsibilities of that group for civic responsibility.
Robert E. Litan / September 11, 2001: The Case for Universal Service
Litan calls for a universal service program that everyone would participate in during the year following high school.
Barack Obama / Becoming a Community Organizer
Obama describes how his youthful dreams of organizing the disadvantaged were changed by the people he wanted to organize.
B. TO WHAT EXTENT IS THE INDIVIDUAL CITIZEN RESPONSIBLE FOR CONTRIBUTING TO THE LARGER SOCIETY?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
John F. Kennedy / Inaugural Address
In his 1961 inaugural address as President of the United States, Kennedy sets out his agenda for civic responsibility.
William Graham Sumner / The Absurd Effort to Make the World Over
Writing at the end of the nineteenth century, Sumner presents the position of the Social Darwinists and urges that reformers leave the social process alone.
Tracy Kidder / Because We Can, We Do
Kidder writes about medical doctors who have left the United States to work with the world's poor in developing countries.
Norman Lear / Love of Country: Patriotism Born of a Grandfather's Inspiration
Television writer and producer Lear traces his civic responsibility to the example set by his Russian immigrant grandfather.
Nelson Mandela / From Long Walk to Freedom
Mandela writes about his life of public service including what he had to give up as well as what he gained.
David Brankey and Dianna Ball / The Americorps Experience: Two Students' Perspectives
Two AmeriCorps members describe the experiences as members of Americorps.
Questions to Help You Think and Write about Civic Responsibility
Section VI: Issues Associated with Poverty
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. CAN WORLD POVERTY BE ELIMINATED? WHAT MAY BE EFFECTIVE?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Jeffrey D. Sachs / The End of Poverty
The Director of the United Nations Millennium Project to cut world poverty in half by 2015 lays out the plan and describes what it will take to implement it.
U. N. Millennium Development Goals (MDG).
All 191 United Nations member states have pledged to meet these goals to cut world poverty in half by 2015.
A Better Wayto Fight Poverty
An editorial writer describes the success the Millennium Project is experiencing in a village in Africa.
C. K. Pranahad and Allen L. Hammond / Four Billion New Consumers
These business leaders propose that technology companies target the poor people of the world as their next customers in a plan they claim will benefit both consumers and companies.
Andy Goldberg / The Progression from Poverty to Profit-for All; How Can the Impoverished Many, Who Need a Hand Up, Help the Rich Corporate Few, Who Have Reached a Profit Plateau in the Developed World.
Goldberg presents various perspectives on the ideas expressed in the preceding article by Pranahad and Hammond.
B. CAN INDIVIDUALS IN THE UNITED STATES WORK THEIR WAY OUT OF POVERTY IF THEY WANT TO DO SO?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
James Patterson and Peter Kim / Poverty: The Forgotten Crusade
These authors present the results of a survey that explores the attitudes of Americans toward the poor people in their country.
David K. Shipler / At the Edge of Poverty
Shipler explores the causes of poverty in the United States and also defines it.
Anthony DePalma / Fifteen Years on the Bottom Rung
The author describes the differing experiences of two immigrants in America.
Class and the American Dream
An editorial writer comments on the widening gap between the rich and the poor in America and claims it is very difficult to go from "rags to riches."
Marilyn Gardner / Bankruptcy Reform Hits Women Hard
Gardner claims that new legislation to make it more difficult to declare bankruptcy will have a particularly negative effect women.
Questions to Help You Think and Write about Poverty
Section VII: Issues concerning War and Peace
The Issues
Web Sites for Further Exploration and Research
The Rhetorical Situation
A. IS WAR INEVITABLE?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
William James / The Moral Equivalent of War
Some people may be drawn to fighting wars, according to this well-known psychologist, but there are other ways to channel such energy.
Margaret Mead / Warfare: An Invention-Not a Biological Necessity
This cultural anthropologist says war is not part of people's natural makeup; instead, it is a learned behavior.
Chris Hedges / War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
The author, a war correspondent with 15 years' experience in war zones, claims that war is addictive and difficult to give up.
B. HOW DO PEOPLE JUSTIFY WAR?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
Haim Watzman / At War with Themselves
Watzman writes about the problem of compromising one's own moral code in order to obey orders during combat.
William J. Bennett / Why We Fight
This author explains the concept of a "just war' and suggests we should always be prepared to fight one.
Elie Wiesel / How Can We Understand Their Hatred?
This Nobel Prize winner explores religious fanaticism and finds some grounds for hope.
C. WHAT MIGHT HELP ESTABLISH PEACE?
Questions to Consider Before You Read
William L. Ury / Getting to Peace
The author gives suggestions for moving from conflict to compromise.
Richard Rhodes / The Atomic Bomb
This Pulitzer Prize winner describes the power of the atomic bomb and shows how it has been a force for peace since World War II.
Bruce Hoffman / All You Need Is Love
This author describes an unusual method for stopping terrorism.
Questions to Help You Think and Write about War and Peace
Credits
Topic Index
Author-Title Index