The Practice of Argumentation: Effective Reasoning in Communication

This book uses different perspectives on argumentation to show how we create arguments, test them, attack and defend them, and deploy them effectively to justify beliefs and influence others. David Zarefsky uses a range of contemporary examples to show how arguments work and how they can be put together, beginning with simple individual arguments, and proceeding to the construction and analysis of complex cases incorporating different structures. Special attention is given to evaluating evidence and reasoning, the building blocks of argumentation. Zarefsky provides clear guidelines and tests for different kinds of arguments, as well as exercises that show student readers how to apply theories to arguments in everyday and public life. His comprehensive and integrated approach toward argumentation theory and practice will help readers to become more adept at critically examining everyday arguments as well as constructing arguments that will convince others.

Table of Contents:
Preface; 1. The argumentative perspective; 2. What arguments look like; 3. The emergence of controversy; 4. Evidence in argumentation; 5. Argument schemes; 6. Fallacies; 7. Case construction; 8. Attack and defense; 9. Language, style, and presentation; 10. Where and why we argue; Appendix: learning argumentation through debate.

About the Author :
David Zarefsky is Owen L. Coon Professor Emeritus in the Department of Communication Studies at Northwestern University, Illinois, where he has taught for over forty years. Two of his many books won the Winans-Wichelns Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Rhetoric and Public Address, an award of the National Communication Association: President Johnson's War on Poverty: Rhetoric and History (1986) and Lincoln, Douglas, and Slavery: In the Crucible of Public Debate (1990).

Review :
'… Zarefsky (Northwestern Univ.) provides yet another thoroughly researched, well-written work on argumentation and persuasion … While reading through these chapters, readers are likely to feel as if they are being intellectually fed by a master teacher. One can find many well-written textbooks and secondary studies on this topic … What sets Zarefsky's book apart from other texts is his infusion of nuanced ideas, such as preemptive moves and intensity. Exercises at the end of each chapter are well suited for classroom discussions … The well-developed index will be a valuable resource.' K. L. Majocha, Choice