Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings, Concise Edition

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For courses in Argument and Research.

Argument through problem solving

Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings, Concise Edition, has sustained its reputation as a leader in argumentation through 10 editions, and that’s no coincidence. Authors Ramage, Bean, and Johnson present argument as a process of inquiry and a means of persuasion ― not as a pro/con debate with winners and losers. This, in turn, promotes the essential critical-thinking skills needed for writing effective arguments.

In the 8th Edition, you’ll continue to find all the signature strengths ― major assignment chapters that focus on one or two stases; discussion prompts and end-of-chapter writing assignments that reinforce concepts; comprehensive coverage of research and documentation; and a logical, yet flexible, approach. But now, you’ll also find a book that promises to increase understanding of the value of argument and help them negotiate the rhetorical divisiveness in today’s world.

John Ramage received his BA in philosophy from Whitman College and his PhD in English from Washington State University. He served for over thirty years on the faculties of Montana State University and Arizona State University. In addition to his teaching duties, which included both graduate and undergraduate courses in writing and rhetoric, literary theory and modern literature, Dr. Ramage served as a writing program administrator overseeing writing across the curriculum and composition programs and writing centers. At Arizona State university, he was the founding executive director of the university's Division of Undergraduate Academic Services, responsible for academic support services campus-wide.

In addition to The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing, Dr. Ramage was the co-author of the textbooks Form and Surprise in Composition, and Writing Arguments, currently in its 9th edition. He was also the lead author for Argument in Composition, and the sole author of Rhetoric: A User's Guide, and Twentieth Century American Success Rhetoric: How to Construct a Suitable Self. He is currently writing a book about political rhetoric.   

John C. Bean is an emeritus professor of English at Seattle University, where he held the title of “Consulting Professor of Writing and Assessment.” He has an undergraduate degree from Stanford (1965) and a PhD from the University of Washington (1972). He is the author of an internationally used book on writing across the curriculum – Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom, 2^nd Edition (Jossey-Bass, 2011). He is also the co-author of The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing as well as two other influential composition textbooks ― Writing Arguments and Reading Rhetorically. He has published numerous articles on writing and writing-across-the-curriculum as well as on literary subjects including Shakespeare and Spenser. 

His current research interests focus on pedagogical strategies for teaching undergraduate research including quantitative literacy, disciplinary methods of inquiry and argument, and the problem of “transfer of learning” as students move through and across a curriculum. A concomitant research interest is the development of institutional assessment strategies that promote productive faculty conversations about teaching and learning. In 2001, he presented a keynote address at the first annual conference of the European Association of Teachers of Academic Writing at the University of Groningen. He has delivered lectures and conducted workshops on writing-across-the-curriculum throughout the United States and Canada as well as for universities in Germany, Bangladesh, Ghana, and Zambia. In 2010 his article “Messy Problems and Lay Audiences: Teaching Critical Thinking within the Finance Curriculum” (co-authored with colleagues from finance and economics) won the 2009 McGraw-Hill – Magna Publications Award for the year’s best “scholarly work on teaching and learning.”

June Johnson is an associate professor of English, Director of Writing Studies, and Writing Consultant to the University Core at Seattle University. She has a BA in English and an MA in Education from Stanford and an MA in English from Mills College. After chairing the English department of a preparatory school in Los Angeles and working as a development editor in educational publishing, she earned her PhD from the University of Washington. At Seattle University, she supervises the teaching of first-year academic writing seminars as well as teaches these courses and advanced argument and composition theory in the Writing Studies minor. 

Her research areas include global studies, reflective writing, first-year composition, writing transfer, argumentation, and Rogerian communication ― subjects on which she conducts workshops at Seattle University and at institutions around the country. She has published articles in American Studies on women’s writing about the West in the nineteenth century. She is the co-author (with John Bean) of The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing, a text known for its foundation in writing-across-the-curriculum pedagogy and its useful introduction to academic writing, and co-author (also with John Bean) of Writing Arguments. She also authored Global Issues, Local Arguments, 3^rd Edition (Pearson, 2014), an argument reader and rhetoric with a civic literacy focus that provides a cross-curricular introduction to global problems.