Inventing Arguments, 2009 MLA Update

Organized around common rhetorical situations that occur all around us, INVENTING ARGUMENTS, Second Edition, shows you that argument is a living process rather than a form to be modeled. Through the text's prominent focus on invention, you will learn to recognize the rhetorical elements of any argumentative situation and apply the tools of argument effectively in your own writing. The basic layers of argument are introduced 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 you finish Chapter 4, you will have a thorough understanding of argument?which you can then apply not just to the invention projects in Chapters 6-11 but also to your writing for other college courses and beyond. This edition has been updated to reflect guidelines from the 2009 MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Seventh Edition.

John Mauk has a Ph.D. in rhetoric and writing from Bowling Green State University and a Masters in language and literature from the University of Toledo. Scholarship includes an article on critical geography and composition (COLLEGE ENGLISH, March 2003). Mauk now teaches composition and rhetoric courses at Northwestern Michigan College. In 2007, he served on the NCTE Nominating Committee.

John Metz has a B.A. in English from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania (1983) and an M.A. in English from the University of Toledo (1985). He has taught first-year writing for over 20 years and currently teaches at Kent State University at Geauga in Twinsburg, Ohio.