The Well-Crafted Argument: A Guide and Reader

This argument rhetoric/reader equips students with a complete set of skills for developing and writing argumentative essays in a wide variety of settings. In addition to guidance on drafting arguments, writing openings and closings, and revising, a variety of composing strategies are covered as they apply to writing arguments, including free-writing, outlining, and organizing materials.

After exploring the foundations of writing persuasively in Part 1, the second part of the book provides 75 readings organized thematically in reading clusters. Eight of the nine reading clusters in Section 2 present opposing and contrasting viewpoints on such controversial subjects as Internet privacy, media violence, and standardized testing. The ninth reading cluster features classic arguments, including Plato's "Allegory of the Cave."

Fred D. White received his Ph.D. in English (with a concentration in Rhetorical Theory and Composition Studies) in 1980 from The University of Iowa and began teaching at Santa Clara University that same year. He has taught expository writing and literature courses at both the community college and university level. A professor of English at Santa Clara University, White offers courses in first-year composition, argumentation, nature writing, and an introduction to poetry. In 1997 he received the Louis and Dorina Brutocao Award for Teaching Excellence. He is the author, most recently, of The Daily Reader: 366 Selections from Great Prose and Poetry to Stimulate Great Writing (Writer's Digest Books, fall 2009), Approaching Emily Dickinson: Critical Currents and Crosscurrents since 1960 (Camden House, 2008), and also of The Daily Writer: 366 Meditations to Cultivate a Productive and Meaningful Writing Life (Writer's Digest Books, 2008; A Quality Paperback Book Club Featured Selection). Others of his titles include Essential Muir: A Selection of John Muir's Best Writings (Heyday Books, 2006) and Lifewriting (Quill Driver Books, 2004). His articles have been published in such journals as Arizona Quarterly, College Literature, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Cambridge Companion to Emily Dickinson, North Dakota Quarterly, Pleiades, San Jose Studies, South Dakota Review, Walt Whitman Review, and The Writing Instructor.