Customer Reviews

Persuasion: Reception and Responsibility

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4 star:		(1)
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2 star:		(4)
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I can not believe, based on how much I needed to spend on this book, that many of the definitions cited in the chapters are from wikipedia. Wikipedia! I can't name a single professor who would accept that on a paper, but somehow, that's perfectly acceptable in the textbook publishing world. And some of the sources aren't even cited at all! And don't get me started on the perspective bias that is in there. One incident of a man who murdered five people was insinuated to be due to a miscommunication/bad persuasion issue, but when I found information outside of the book on the incident, there was no such causation mentioned...and the author had the death count off.

Bottom-line is, although there is certainly useful information in here, but the book is constructed rather poorly, and based upon that alone, it's incredibly hard to trust the text. Certainly not worth the money spent.

The author is so very opinionated about politics that reading it is difficult. In addition the entire book is mostly on how to be a good listener, what to listen for, etc. Only the last few chapters have any reference to how to persuade people and it's very unremarkable information. Suggested my university drop this book from their line-up.

This book is, as stated in another review, incredibly unprofessional. If I were to present this book as my written work to one of my English professors, they would laugh me off campus for making a claim founded in Wikipedia and then supporting it with more Wikipedia articles. This is not to mention the grammatical and syntax disasters throughout the book. On page 9, the author defines advocacy according to Wikipedia and then says, "Propaganda is a related word that we hear quite often." Who is 'we'? Then, he grounds that claim in Wikipedia! On the same page, he makes reference to two movies that I have never heard of and cites them without documentation telling me how I can find them to ground his argument. Someone clearly needs an APA style manual!

I think that when discussing technology in this book, since it is the 12th edition, they could have cut out 90% of technological media definitions. I feel like he is undermining the reader in telling what these devices are used for.

The style of writing in this text is relatively elementary. The author is constantly opening sections of the texts by telling us what the previous section discussed and what we are going to learn in another chapter.

The author slaps us in the face on page 17 by writing a paragraph beginning, " College students today are urged to take more core subjects and courses in computer technology." He then ends that same paragraph with, " Students are urged to take more core subjects and courses in computer technology at college." For a published text with several editions and editors, I am greatly disappointed in the redundancy and lack of argumentative support for claims.

In chapter 6, the author discuses syntax, adverbs and sentence structure. I feel greatly let down as an English major. You cant discuss half of English sentence structure and then throw in only the parts you feel like, unless you want to confuse someone. But if the person reading the text were smart enough to figure out this chapter, then they feel offended by the repetition throughout the book.

I thought that I would have seen the book earlier than it had arrived since I bought the best shipping option. This text out of all my purchases was the last to arrive. Many had come the next day, this took almost a week. But, when it had arrived, it was in perfect condition.

this book was described as "almost new", but when i received it there was a huge coffee stain on it, and the cover was frayed. I understand that it is a used book and i don't expect it to be in perfect condition but the description should have been a little more accurate.

The book was listed as very good but was full of orange highlighter marks. I've bought many used books over the years but ones listed as "very good" typically are not so marked up. I will not buy from this person again.