Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy: The Critical Citizen's Guide to Argumentative Rhetoric

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'Lazere's [book] is heaven-sent and will provide a crucial link in the chain of understanding how conflicts are structured and, most importantly, how they can be rationally addressed - a healthy antidote to the scepticism that has become so pervasive in academic life.' Alan Hausman, Hunter College This innovative book addresses the need for college students to develop critical reading, writing, and thinking skills for self-defence in the contentious arena of American civic rhetoric. In a groundbreaking reconception of composition theory, it presents a comprehensive critical perspective on American public discourse and practical methods for its analysis. Exercises following the text sections and readings help students understand the ideological positions and rhetorical patterns that underlie opposing viewpoints in current controversies - such as the growing inequality of wealth in America and its impact on the finances of college students - as expressed in paired sets of readings from the political left and right. 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. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgments Preface to Teachers (and Curious Students) Part I: Preliminaries Chapter 1: An Appeal to Students English as a Survival Skill Critical Education in Historical Perspective “An End to History” “Majoring in Debt” “Students Stand Up for Workers’ Rights” “The Abandoned Generation: Democracy Beyond the Culture of Fear” Young America’s Foundation Website A Preview Case: September 11, 2001 “The Voices of Dissent” “Thoughts on September 11” “Faced With Evil on a Grand Scale, Nothing Is Relative” Chapter 2: What Is an Argument? What Is a Good Argument? What Is a Good Argument? “The Intellectual Free Lunch” Analysis, Synthesis, and Judgments Style and Tone, Eloquence and Moral Force Conclusion Rhetoric: A Checklist for Analyzing Your Own and Others’ Arguments A Historical-Causal Analysis of “The White Problem” Chapter 3: Definitions and Criteria of Critical Thinking Critical Thinking and Cultural Literacy Making Connections Dialogue in Critical Thinking and Literature Recursiveness, Cumulativeness, and Levels of Meaning Drawing the Line and Establishing Proportion from The American Scholar “A Noiseless Patient Spider” “Can Patriotism Be Compassionate?” “Multiculturalism” Chapter 4: Writing Argumentative Papers Prewriting Writing Postwriting Locating and Evaluating Sources A Model of the Writing Process in a Student Paper from The Beauty Myth The Backlash Myth” Part II: Attaining an Open Mind: Critical Thinking and Argumentative Rhetoric Chapter 5: Viewpoint, Bias, and Fairness: From Cocksure Ignorance to Thoughtful Uncertainty Relativism and Commitment Biased and Unbiased Viewpoints: The ESBYODS Principle Acknowledge Your Own and Opposing Viewpoints Rogerian Argument, Believers and Doubters A Semantic Calculator for Bias in Rhetoric Case Study: Anita Hill versus Clarence Thomas “The Effort to Destroy Clarence Thomas” “Can I Get A Witness?” Thomas vs. Hill: Postscript 1, 2001 Thomas vs. Hill: Postscript 2, 2004 “Strange Lies” Chapter 6: Questioning Culturally Conditioned Assumptions and Ethnocentrism Totems and Taboos Ethnocentrism American Ethnocentrism “Battle over Patriotism Curriculum” Questioning Capitalism Phallocentrism Other—centrisms from A Room of One’s Own “Rescue Me, Please” “Objectivity in Connected Thinking” “The Campus Anti-Sweatshop Movement” “In Defense of Sweatshops” “Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America” Chapter 7: Overgeneralization, Stereotyping, and Prejudice Prejudice Class Prejudice Reverse Prejudice “Will Sex Stereotypes Never End?” “An Unexpected Education at St. Anthony’s” “Life on the Expense Account” “Beverly Hills vs. the South Bronx” “How to Slash Corporate Welfare” “Corporations: Underworld, U.S.A.” Chapter 8: Authoritarianism and Conformity, Rationalization and Compartmentalization Paddy Chayevsky, from Network Rationalization, Compartmentalized Thinking, and Double Standards Double Standards and Selective Vision Other Defense Mechanisms from “An Interview with Adrienne Rich” “On the Merits” “Greens Dodge Links to Unabomber” Chapter 9: Semantics in Rhetoric and Critical Thinking Denotation and Connotation Definition and Denotation in Argument Connotation in Argument: “Cleans” and “Dirties” “Language as a Key Mechanism of Control” Euphemism Abstract and Concrete Language Unconcretized Abstractions Literal and Figurative Language Literal and Figurative Language in Literature A Semantic Analysis of Rush Limbaugh Summary: Applying Semantic Analysis from Where I Lived and What I Lived For “When Words Cheapen Life” “Framing the Issues” “Look Behind Statistics for Changing Definitions” Chapter 10: Avoiding Oversimplification and Recognizing Complexity Recognizing Complexity Reading Between the Lines Irony “My Dungeon Shook” Chapter 11: 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 “Vouchers, Choice: Opposing Views” “Chicken Little Calling Out, ‘Global Warning’” “Lies, Damn Lies and Racial Statistics” “White Racism: The Seductive Lure of an Unproved Theory” “Closing the Wealth Gap” Chapter 12: Logical and Rhetorical Fallacies Glossary of Logical and Rhetorical Fallacies Chapter 13: Causal Analysis “Ya Got Trouble” “Other People’s Children: North Lawndale and the South Side of Chicago” “Crisis in American Education” “Post-Feminist Swill Redux” “Equality: A Grand Fallacy” Chapter 14: Uses and Misuses of Emotional Appeal Appeals to “Cleans” and “Dirties” Puff Pieces and Hatchet Jobs “Bunker Hunt’s Greatest Investment” Predictable Patterns of Wartime Rhetoric: Appeals to Fear and Pity “The War Prayer” “The Real War 1939–1945” “War Is the Supreme Drug,” An Interview with Author Chris Hedges Part III: Thinking Critically About the Rhetoric of Politics and Mass Media Chapter 15: Thinking Critically About Political Rhetoric Prestudy Exercises Political Semantics Liberalism, Conservatism, Democrat, Republican Socialism, Communism, Marxism The World Political Spectrum The American Political Spectrum A Guide to Political Terms and Positions Notes on the Guide to Political Terms and Positions Predictable Patterns of Political Rhetoric A Note on Twenty-first Century Modifications to Table 15.1 Political Viewpoints in Sources “Political Party Statements of Purpose” “If We Decided to Tax the Rich” “The Intellectual Class War” “Ventura: Act Got Old, but the Message Prevails” “Fascism Anyone?” Chapter 16: Thinking Critically about Mass Media Do the Media Give People What They Want? “A Professor Challenges the Press” Are News Media Objective? What Are Their Biases? The Debate over Political Bias in Media Conclusion “The Illiberal Media” “Networks Need a Reality Check” “Liberal Hate-Speech” “My Sports Right or Left” “Outfoxed Tweaks Rupert Murdoch’s Mayhemosphere” Assignment for a Paper Part IV: Deception Detection Chapter 17: Special Interests, Conflict of Interest, Special Pleading “‘Iron Triangle’ Would Quash Competitiveness” “Quayle Group Meddles With Our Safeguards” “Letter to Dr. David Kessler” “Corporate Funding Taints Public Debate” “The Historic Power of Special Interests” “When Money Talks” “Secrecy and Financial Conflicts in University-Industry Research Must Get Closer Scrutiny” “Fat and Happy in D.C.” Chapter 18: Varieties of Propaganda Invective, Smearing, Disinformation Lobbying and Public Relations Government Public Relations; The Military-Industrial Complex “Propaganda Under a Dictatorship” “How to Watch the Next War” “Flack Attack” “Confessions of a Tobacco Lobbyist” “Truth, Moore or Less: Fahrenheit 9/11” Chapter 19: Advertising and Hype Are You Taken In by Ads? Advertising Sells More than Products Political Advertising Hype “Extravagant Expectations” “Ten Food Secrets You Should Know” “Children Now Facing Adult Heath Issues” “Road to Ruin: Sport Utility Vehicles and the Greening of Environmental Destruction” Part V: Putting It All Together in a Long Paper Chapter 20: A Case Study: The Rich, the Poor, and the Middle Class Sklar versus Weicher “Let Them Eat Cake” Wealth-Gap Claptrap” “George Bush’s Tax Return” Applications in Student Papers Summary of Suspicious Statistical Arguments An Outline of Conservative and Leftist Arguments on the Rich, the Poor, and the Middle Class “The CEO Makes What? Return of a Fair-Pay Debate” Left Watch: Why Try Holly Sklar’s Socialist Plans for Economy When United States Is Doing Just Fine? “What’s Behind Income Disparity?” Chapter 21: Collecting and Evaluating Opposing Sources: Writing the Research Paper Assignment for an Annotated Bibliography and Working Outline Sample Working Outline, Annotated Bibliography Entry, and Term Paper A Model Student Research Paper (Using MLA Style) Chapter 22: Documentation Citations in Your Text Works Cited Section Chapter 23: Research Resources Sources in Print Online Resources Glossary of Rhetorical and Critical Thinking Terms Works Cited Index