Customer Reviews

Everything's an Argument

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After teaching a college-level argumentation course for eight years from a traditional text, student comments and my own motivations led me to search for a text that focused on the variety of forms of argument we hear daily. In "everything's an argument" I found this text. Teaching the argumentation around the question "Is everything and argument?" is a fresh idea that promotes our constant critical thinking as we look for arguments around us. This book provides a variety of excellent examples to illustrate how argument does appear in virtually every aspect of our lives. Exercises at the back of the chapters lead students to analyze arguments they find. I am adopting this text, with some supplementary readings on debate and dialogue, for my Fall 2000 argumentation course. Thank you for a practical, easy-to-read text.

Everything's An Argument is based on Aristotelian methods of examining the writer's assumptions. It focuses a lot on the needs of the audience and sticks to the traditional modes of composition. The text itself is very "readable," but the frequent use of quotes excerpted without much context can be frustrating. Very skimpy on readings (thus its affordability). Would work well as a rhetoric with your own course pack, but, on its own, is easily outdone by the many rhetoric/reader combinations available.

Our class was assigned to read the entire book.... It examines a copious amount of arguements and covers a variety of techniques. The chapter questions (back to highschool homework) are long and tedious. The questions lack interest and are time consuming. I found it to be a huge waste of my time and money. I advise no one to buy this ridiculous book. It actually covers the Toulman method of arguementation, but obviously not as clear as my professor taught. This book should be banned.