Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy
The Critical Citizen's Guide to Argumentative Rhetoric, Brief Edition
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Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy: The Critical Citizen's Guide to Argumentative Rhetoric, Brief Edition
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Book Description
This rhetoric-and-reader textbook teaches college students to develop critical reading, writing, and thinking skills for self-defense in the contentious arena of American civic rhetoric. This edition is substantially updated for an era of renewed tensions over race, gender, and economic inequality—all compounded by the escalating decibel level and polarization of public rhetoric.
Readings include civil rights advocate Michelle Alexander on "the new Jim Crow," recent reconsiderations of socialism versus capitalism, Naomi Wolf’s and Christine Hoff Sommers’ opposing views on "the beauty myth," a section on the rhetoric of war, and debates on identity politics, abortion, and student debt.
Designed for first-year or more advanced composition and critical thinking courses, the book trains students in a wealth of techniques to locate fallacies and other weaknesses in argumentation in their prose and the writings of others. Exercises also help students understand the ideological positions and rhetorical patterns that underlie opposing views, from Ann Coulter to Bernie Sanders. Widely debated issues of whether objectivity is possible and whether there is a liberal or conservative bias in news and entertainment media, as well as in education itself, are foregrounded as topics for rhetorical analysis.
Table of Contents
Contents
Preface to Teachers and Students
Acknowledgments
Part I: Introduction
Chapter 1: An Appeal to Students
English as a Survival Skill
The Tradition of Education for Critical Citizenship
Mario Savio, "An End to History" / Young America Foundation Website
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Chapter 2: Good Arguments
A Good Argument is Well-Supported
A Good Argument Verifies Facts and Expresses Informed Opinions
A Good Argument Questions Hidden Premises
A Good Argument is Relevant, Consistent, and Avoids Fallacies
A Good Argument Effectively Refutes Opposing Arguments but is Fair-Minded and Qualified
Analysis, Synthesis, and Judgments
Style and Tone, Eloquence and Moral Force
Conclusion
Argument Analysis Checklist
Bryan W. Van Nord, "The Ignorant Do Not Have a Right to an Audience"
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Chapter 3: Definitions and Criteria of Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking and Cultural Literacy
Making Connections and Creating Dialogue in Critical Thinking and Literature
Walt Whitman, "A Noiseless, Patient Spider."
Recursion, Cumulation, and Levels of Meaning
Drawing the Line and Establishing Proportion
Recognizing Complexity and Reading Between the Lines
Irony and Paradox
James Baldwin, "My Dungeon Shook"
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Chapter 4: Semantics in Rhetoric and Critical Thinking
Denotation and Connotation
Definition and Denotation in Argument
Connotation in Argument: "Cleans" And "Dirties"
Euphemism
Abstract and Concrete Language
Unconcretized Abstractions
Literal and Figurative Language
Summary: Applying Semantic Analysis
A Semantic Calculator for Bias in Rhetoric
George Lakoff, "Framing the Issues." Mary Ann Glendon, "When Words Cheapen Life."
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Chapter 5: Writing Argumentative Papers
Prewriting
Writing
Postwriting
Locating and Evaluating Sources
A Model of The Writing Process In A Student Paper
Naomi Wolf, from The Beauty Myth / Christina Hoff Sommers, "The Backlash Myth"
Part II: Attaining an Open Mind: Overcoming Psychological Blocks to Critical Thinking
Chapter 6: From Cocksure Ignorance to Thoughtful Uncertainty: Viewpoint, Bias, and Culturally Conditioned Assumptions
Relativism and Commitment
Biased and Unbiased Viewpoints
Acknowledge Your Own and Opposing Viewpoints
Rogerian Argument, Believers and Doubters
Culturally Conditioned Assumptions and Centrisms
Totems and Taboos
Ethnocentrism
American Ethnocentrism
Phallocentrism
Other—Centrisms
Virginia Woolf, from A Room of One’s Own, Pamela Druckerman "The Perpetual Panic of American Parenthood" / Rebecca Traister, "Fury is a Political Weapon. And Women Need to Wield It"
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Chapter 7: Overgeneralization, Stereotyping, and Prejudice
Prejudice
Class Prejudice
The Role of Corporations
Reverse Prejudice
Stephanie Salter, "An Unexpected Education at St. Anthony’s" / Michelle Alexander, "Introduction to The New Jim Crow" / Donald Barlett and James Steele, "Life on the Expense Account"/Robert Jensen, "Anti-Capitalism in Five Minutes"
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Chapter 8: Authoritarianism and Conformity, Rationalization
and Compartmentalization
Paddy Chayevsky, from Network
Rationalization and Compartmentalized Thinking
Double Standards and Selective Vision
Other Defense Mechanisms
George Orwell, from 1984 / Katha Pollitt, "On the Merits"/ David French, "End the Double Standards in Reporting Political Violence"
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Part III: Elements of Argumentative Rhetoric
Chapter 9: Some Key Terms in Logic and Argumentation
Deductive and Inductive Arguments
Implications and Inferences
Setting the Agenda
Tone and Style
Polemics
Ground Rules for Polemicists
P. J. O’Rourke, "Closing the Wealth Gap" / "Opposing Arguments on Abortion"
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Chapter 10: Fallacies
Glossary of Fallacies
Mark Lilla, Interviewed by Sean Illing. ‘This Professor Set Off a War of Words over ‘Identity Politics.’ We Debated Him.
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Chapter 11: Causal Analysis
Causal Fallacies
What’s the Matter with Higher Education?
Wayne Davis, "UT Knoxville’s $1.7 Billion Impact Only a Fraction of Our Contribution"/Laurence Biemiller, "Over 20 years, State Support for Public Higher Education Fell More than 25 Percent"/ Adolph Reed, Jr., From "Majoring in Debt"/ Joseph Palermo, "Starving the Beast: The Battle to Disrupt and Reform America’s Public Universities. A Film Written and Directed by Steve Mims"/ Rick Lowry, "Where’s the Misery?"/ Richard Vedder, "Student Loan Debt: Time for Radical Reform"
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Chapter 12: Uses and Misuses of Emotional Appeal
Appeals to "Cleans" and "Dirties"
Puff Pieces and Hatchet Jobs
Predictable Patterns of Wartime Rhetoric: Appeals to Fear and Pity
Mark Twain, "The War Prayer" / Paul Fussell, "The Real War 1939–1945"/ Nora Okja Keller, From "Comfort Women"/ "War Is the Supreme Drug," An Interview with Author Chris Hedges
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Part IV: Thinking Critically about the Rhetoric of Politics and Mass Media
Chapter 13: Thinking Critically about Political Rhetoric
Prestudy Exercises
Political Semantics
Liberal, Conservative, Democrat, Republican
Left Wing, Right Wing
Political Versus Economic Systems; Capitalism, Socialism
Marxism
Fascism
Social Class and Political Attitudes
Rhetoric in The Culture Wars: Think Tanks Versus Universities
Beverley Gage, "Americans Can Never Sort Out Whether ‘Socialism’ is Marginal or Rising"/ Michael Schuman, "Marx’s Revenge: How Class Struggle is Shaping the World"/ Lawrence Britt, "Fascism Anyone?"/ Lewis F. Powell, "Attack on American Free Enterprise System"
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Chapter 14: Thinking Critically about Mass Media
Objectivity and Bias in the Media
The Debate Over Political Bias in Media
Who’s Where in American Media: The Spectrum of Viewpoints, Left to Right
Matt Wilstein, "Ann Coulter Smears Immigrant Children as ‘Child Actors’"/ Bernie Sanders, "How Corporate Media Threatens Our Democracy"/ Ben Shapiro, "Media Dishonesty on Immigration Contributes to Gridlock"/ David Swanson, "PR Firm Says it Ghost-Wrote Thousands of Op-Eds in Major US Papers"/
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Chapter 15: Deception Detection: Varieties of Special Interests and Propaganda
Special Interests, Conflict of Interest, and Special Pleading
Lobbying and Public Relations
Varieties of Propaganda
Invective and Smearing
Government Public Relations; The Military-Industrial-Media Complex
Bruce J. Schulman, "The Historic Power of Special Interests"/ Sixty Minutes, "Ex-DEA Agent: Opioid Crisis Fueled by Drug Industry and Congress"/ Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., "Elon Musk and the Corporate Controlled Media"
Topics for Discussion and Writing
Chapter 16: From Reaganomics to Trumponomics: Opposing Views on Taxation and the Wealth Gap
Buzzflash Versus National Review on the Wealth Gap
Mike Mozart, "Walmart Heir Does Not Deserve Assets It Would Take a Worker a Million Years to Earn"/ Kevin D. Williamson, "The Happiest Census: What the Forbes Billionaires List Tells Us about How to Get Rich in America
Goldberg Versus Chait on Taxes
Jonah Goldberg, "The Rich Aren’t Made of Money"/ Jonathan Chait, "A Very Special Kind of Math"
Summary of Specious Statistical Arguments
An Outline of Conservative and Leftist Arguments on the Rich, the Poor, and the Middle Class
Topics for Discussion and Writing (further topics at www.routledge/cw/lazere)
Index
Works Cited
Additional Rhetorical Analyses by Donald Lazere
www.routledge.com/cw/lazere
Chapter 1: Analysis of Savio and YAF
Chapter 2: Historical-Causal Analysis of "The White Problem"
Chapter 11: Analysis of Readings on College Costs
Chapter 13: Analysis of The Powell Memo
Chapter 16: Analysis of Goldberg and Chait
Appendix to Chapter 16: Analyzing Arguments about Reaganomics and the Wealth Gap, after President Trump’s Tax Reform Act of 2017
Author(s)
Biography
Donald Lazere is Professor Emeritus of English at Cal Poly State U, San Luis Obispo. He has written or edited six other scholarly and text books on argumentative rhetoric and the politics of education, media, and literature. He has also published widely on these topics in scholarly journals as well as in opinion columns and book reviews for journalistic periodicals such as the Washington Post, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times.
Anne-Marie Womack is a Professor of Practice and former Director of Writing at Tulane University. She’s the creator of the award-winning AccessibleSyllabus.com, a guide to universally designing educational documents. Her articles appear in College Composition and Communication, Composition Forum, Pedagogy, and Hybrid Pedagogy, among others. Currently, she is co-authoring a book on inclusive college classrooms with Lauren Cardon.
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