For Teachers: Recommended Texts for English 2000

The following document is an annotated bibliography of textbooks recommended for English 2000 by the University Writing Program. The texts listed here are all rhetorics, which provide strategies for composing arguments in a variety of sub-genres. Several of them listed also include supplementary readers with sample texts as models, and some include handbooks for teaching mechanics, style, and conventions. Stand alone readers and handbooks are not listed here; you will find a range of samples in the English department’s textbook library; you will also find a number of excellent handbooks on websites such as Purdue's OWL. 

• Alfano, Christine L. and Alyssa J. O’Brien. Envision: Writing and Researching Arguments. 3rd ed. Boston: Longman, 2011. This short text begins with a rhetoric that introduces the rhetorical appeals and kairos as well as the canons of invention, arrangement, and style. A section on working with sources and document design follow. Annotated student essays and a few other readings are offered for analysis, and visual arguments are emphasized throughout. Sample assignments include argument analysis, position paper, research proposal, annotated bibliography, academic abstract, visual argument, and presentation.
• Barnet, Sylvan and Hugo Bedau. Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing: A Brief Guide to Argument. 7th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010. 
  This text moves from strategies for critical reading into methods for critical writing, emphasizing an analysis of arguments. Specific methods include the Toulmin Model, the Rogerian Argument, and civic/ethical literacy. Each section is supported by readings, including images and student samples. The same rhetoric is available with fewer readings as From Critical Thinking to Argument: A Portable Guide (3rd ed. 2011).
• Bauknight, Lee and Brooke Rollins. Present Tense: Contemporary Themes for Writers. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth, 2010. This text develops proficiency in argument by bridging classical rhetoric with contemporary topics. Readings focus on topics such as online literacy, body image, global warming, and modern love. Assignments are based on Aristotelian appeals (logos, ethos, pathos) and stasis theory (conjecture, definition, quality, policy).
• Crusius, Timothy W. and Carolyn E. Channell. The Aims of Argument: A Brief Guide. 7th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2009. This text is organized around various aims of argument: arguing to critique, arguing to inquire, to convince, to persuade, and to mediate. Readings are focused on consumer society, romantic relationships, and contemporary issues. Assignments include Toulmin analysis, critique of an argument, visual argument, researched argument, argument inquiry, persuasive essay, and mediatory essay.
• Faigley, Lester. Backpack Writing. 3rd ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 
  Divided into three sections—the writer as explorer, guide, and researcher—this text devotes four chapters to argument: causal arguments, evaluation arguments, position arguments, and proposal arguments. It also includes a chapter on rhetorical analysis and five chapters on research.
• Faigley, Lester and Jack Selzer. A Little Argument. 2nd ed. Boston: Longman, 2013. 
  This short text (just under 200 pages) begins with rhetorical analysis, then walks students through a process of composing arguments. It provides writing guides for visual, causal, evaluation, rebuttal, and proposal arguments. It includes a very limited number of short sample readings and student examples.
• Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. 2nd ed. 2012. New York: W. W. Norton, 2009. 
  This text operates under the assumption that academic writing has its own stylistic tropes, which should be made explicit to students for the sake of imitation and adaptation. Reading and writing are portrayed as a conversation and students are taught how to enter into that conversation by using templates. “They Say” focuses on explanatory prose; “I Say” focuses on argumentative prose. While They Say/I Say provides useful templates for incorporating quotes, it is fairly limited in its scope in terms of teaching argument and must be coupled with a rhetoric, a guide for composing argument essays. The publisher has a deal in which They Say/I Say can be coupled with Andrea Lunsford’s book, Everyone’s an Author for an additional $6.25 for the student.
• Hirschberg, Stuart. Arguing Across the Disciplines. New York: Longman, 2007. 
  This text is a combination rhetoric and reader. The first half of the book surveys varieties of arguments, including discipline-specific styles, visual arguments, and evidence. The second half is an anthology divided by discipline: liberal arts, social sciences, and natural sciences. Each discipline is subdivided into majors, and each major is represented by a model text.
• Kirszner, Laurie G. and Stephen R. Mandell. Practical Argument: A Text and Anthology. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. Each section in this text centers around a different question at issue and includes readings addressing that topic. Assignments include definitional, causal, evaluation, proposal, and ethical arguments as well as arguments by analogy. The final chapter contains debates and casebooks with readings on contemporary issues as well as “classic arguments” from Plato, Machiavelli, and Jefferson. Topics include media violence, counterfeit designer merchandise, distance learning, and social networks.
• Lunsford, Andrea, Lisa Ede, Beverly Moss, Carole Clark Papper, and Keith Walters. Everyone’s an Author. New York: Norton, 2013. 
  This text builds on the literacy skills that students have already developed by teaching them how to move from the genres of social media to academic writing. In addition to teaching academic writing as a style, genre, and process, the book devotes a section to analyzing and developing arguments. The book also provides a section on research so that the text could be used to teach the Annotated Bibliography and Research Proposal as well as Arguments that use strategies of analogy, classification, comparison/contrast, definition, and problem/solution. The expanded edition includes readings on issues relating to media, communication, cultures, and communities.
• Lunsford, Andrea, John Ruszkiewicz, and Keith Walters. Everything’s an Argument. 6th ed. 2013. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010. 
  Each chapter in this text focuses on a different kind of argument: those based on emotion, character, reason, analysis, fact, and definition. Genres include evaluation, definition, causal, visual, oral, academic, and proposal arguments. The expanded edition provides extensive sample readings from contemporary culture.
• Machin, Anne M. and Russ Ward. Mirror Images: Reading and Writing Arguments. New York: Pearson Longman, 2008. 
  The text begins with a section on analyzing arguments, relying on what it calls “the argument concept:” focus, reader, and purpose. It guides students through invention, research, prewriting, drafting, and revising as well as documenting sources. Guidance on using sources is incorporated into each chapter. The text includes sample readings and some student texts on topics including business ethics, body image, poverty, and work.
• Mauk, John and John Metz. Inventing Arguments. Boston: Thompson Wadsworth, 2006. 
  As the title suggests, this text places emphasis on the invention process. The first part comprises nine sections, organized by rhetorical stasis theory, each of which begins with invention before proceeding to arrangement, audience and voice, peer review, and revision. It also includes a handbook that introduces students to the tools of argument and a research section that includes guidance on evaluating and integrating sources. Each section includes readings.
• Messenger, Erica, John Gooch and Dorothy U. Seyler. Argument!: America in the Age of Obama. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011. 
  This text is designed in the visual style of a glossy magazine. The rhetoric is centered on rhetorical decisions based on audience and purpose, and readings come from a variety of media, organized into ten themes that include the image in consumer culture, life in a multimedia world, education in the 21st century, marriage, science and economics. Sample assignments include refutation, position, casual, problem/solution essays, and researched argument.
• Phillips, Harry and Patricia Bostian. The Purposeful Argument: A Practical Guide. Brief Ed. Boston: Wadsworth, 2012. 
  This text urges students to write about global issues in a local context. The chapters walk students through steps in the process of researching and writing an argument. Assignments include exploratory essay, audience analysis, middle ground argument, Rogerian and Toulmin argument, microhistory, and researched argument. It includes a style guide as well as an appendix on MLA documentation.
• Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. Writing Arguments. 9th ed. New York: Longman, 2012. 
  This text teaches classical, Toulmin, and Rogerian models of argumentative discourse. Sample assignments include definitional, causal, resemblance, ethical, evaluation, and proposal arguments. Appendices provide a brief overview of argumentative fallacies and documentation. The UWP highly recommends this book.
• Rottenberg, Annette T and Donna Haisty Winchell. The Structure of Argument. 7th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s 2012. 
  This text, and each chapter, takes analytical reading and writing as a precursor to argument. It guides students through the elements of argument—definition, claims, support, warrants, logic, and language—and includes annotated sample essays, readings for analysis, and debate casebooks for each element. Sample assignments include definition essay, argument analysis, proposal argument, inductive and deductive arguments, rhetorical analysis, and visual argument. Readings address issues such as the word “retard,” gay marriage, the social responsibility of business, citizen journalism, and stem cell research.
• Wilhoit, Stephen. A Brief Guide to Writing Academic Arguments. New York: Longman, 2009.
  The text emphasizes the qualities of specifically academic arguments, including rhetorical appeals, working with sources, and qualifying as well as supporting claims. Sample assignments include definition, causal, proposal, and evaluation arguments. A few sample readings are included for each assignment.
• Wood, Nancy V. Essentials of Argument. 3rd ed. Boston: Prentice Hall, 2011. 
  This text begins by contrasting adversarial and consensual styles of argument. It contains a short section on research methods. Assignments include exploratory paper, argument analysis, Rogerian argument, visual argument, and researched position paper. Limited sample readings are provided as models. An appendix covers MLA and APA documentation styles.
• Yagelski, Robert P. and Robert K. Miller. The Informed Argument. 8th ed. Belmont, MA: Wadsworth, 2012. 
  The first part of this text addresses the purposes, contexts, media, and strategies for argument. It includes a section on research and documentation as well as readings clustered by themes and essential questions, such as ownership: “Who owns words and ideas?” “Who owns music?” And “What should we own?” Other themes include education, American national identity, relationships, and environment. Assignments include argument analysis, Rogerian argument, visual argument, and researched argument.