Inventing Arguments (with 2009 MLA Update Card)

Organized around common rhetorical situations that occur all around us, INVENTING ARGUMENTS, Fourth Edition, shows students that argument is a living process rather than a form to be modeled. The text's prominent focus on invention teaches students to recognize the rhetorical elements of any argumentative situation and apply the tools of argument effectively in their own writing. Students are introduced to the basic layers of argument in early chapters, with material arranged into increasingly sophisticated topics beginning with the most obvious or explicit layers (claims) and moving to more implied or "hidden" layers (values, beliefs, ideology). By the time they finish Chapter 4, your students will have a thorough understanding of argument--which they can then apply to the invention projects in chapters 6-11.