This Workbook is a collection of exercises and case studies
designed to serve as a companion to Reading Argumentative Texts:
Analytic Tools to Improve Understanding. The exercises and case
studies track each of the chapters of Reading and provide
opportunities for students to hone their skills at using the
analytic tools presented in Reading, and to acquire additional
analytic tools and concepts. These tools are illustrated through
the analysis of complete essays from the mass media, speeches, a
sermon, and passages from academic works. The approach is flexible
and practical and avoids academic jargon and specific theories of
argumentation. As is the case with Reading, this Workbook is
grounded in two principles. First, that the meaning of an
argumentative text is to be found in the statements that constitute
the argument itself, in other statements that are more or less
directly related to the argument, and in the structure and context
of the text. Accordingly, while this book discusses the analysis of
arguments, argument-types, and errors in argumentation (fallacies),
it focuses equally on the other sources of meaning of a text.
Second, there is no single, authoritative reading of an
argumentative text. The interplay of these two premises informs the
view that analyzing and understanding an argumentative text is an
art and that, within certain well-defined parameters, there are
"better" and "worse" readings of a text and not "right" or "wrong"
readings. The principal sources of meaning discussed include: (1)
the structure of the text (and so the book examines six types of
introductions and teaches how to outline and summarize), (2) key
sentences, phrases, and words in a text (so the book discusses
ambiguity, the difference between factual and normative statements,
irony, and rhetoric), (3) context (intellectual, social, political,
cultural, and physical context), and (4) the logical connections
between terms in an argument (including the four different types of
arguments, fallacies, and the distinction between necessary and
sufficient conditions). The book is designed to be used in late
high school or early college critical reading, critical thinking,
rhetoric, or writing courses.
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