This popular rhetoric/reader combines a brief, accessible introduction to argument with an anthology of provocative readings on contemporary issues.
By stressing the rhetorical situation and the audience, this rhetoric avoids complicated theories in favor of providing students with the practical means to find “good reasons” for their positions. Supporting the authors' instruction are numerous readings by professional and student writers on contemporary issues. The anthology features over 80 selections on interesting current issues such as body image, immigration, affirmative action, and the environment. Distinctive in its emphasis on visual rhetoric, the text includes a thorough discussion of how good document design can support good reasons, as well as a unique introduction to presenting arguments on the Web.
When Lester Faigley started college, he thought he was going to become an architect. Instead, he wound up majoring in English and teaching middle school English and history. Three years after he received a Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1976, he joined the faculty of the Department of English at the University of Texas at Austin, where he now holds the Robert Adger Law and Thos. H. Law Professorship in Humanities. He has also been a visiting professor at several universities in the United States and abroad, and he is past chair of College Composition and Communication. Faigley served as the founding Director of both the Division of Rhetoric and Composition and the concentration in Technology, Literacy, and Culture at the University of Texas. He teaches undergraduate writing courses on writing and technology and graduate courses on rhetorical theory, discourse analysis, and issues of literacy and technology. He and his wife Linda have been married for more than three decades, and they have two grown sons. His sports passion is kayaking ― both in rivers and on the ocean.