The market-leading guide to arguments, Writing Arguments ,8/e has proven highly successful in teaching readers to read arguments critically and to produce effective arguments of their own.

Argument is a part of our daily lives. Whether we use or are confronted by it through the written or the spoken word, we rely on and encounter it often. Yet what exactly constitutes an effective argument? How do we construct one? And how are we able to recognize an ineffective argument? These topics, and many more, are the focus of this book on writing arguments. This book presents four approaches to argument: the enthymeme, Toulmin's system of analyzing arguments, stasis theory on categories of claims, and the three classical appeals of logos, pathos and ethos.

With a strong focus on the argument as a social act, the book treats the argument as a means of clarification, truth-seeking and persuasion, thereby highlighting the power of debate and dialectic. Writers, teachers, debaters, lawyers, and others using argument.