本书是为英语专业高年级学生和研究生编写的写作教材。本书主要以Toulmin的论辩理论为框架,在参照美国大学文科学生写作课程的同时,兼顾了中国学生的思维特点。本书的基本内容有:定义、命题、命题类型、如何支持、驳斥命题以及如何引用等。本书旨在帮助读者掌握英语论说文的写作方法,提高独立和批判性思维的能力,使读者能对一般的议题展开有效、合理、较深入的讨论。本书还可以作为训练GRE写作的教材,也可以为赴英语**留学的人士提供写作上的指导。

Chpter One
Introducing Theories
1.1 Two Theoretical Sources
1.2 Stephen Toulmin’S Theory
1.3 Carl Rogers’Theory.
Tasks.
Critical thinking activities
A.The Pattern of an Argument:Data and Warrants(Excerpts)
B.Communication:Its Blocking and Its Facilitation.
Chpter Two
Basic Concepts.
2.1 Defining Argumentation and Argument
2.2 Argumentation and Communication
2.3 Argumentation and Persuasion
2.4 Argumentation and Explanation
2.5 Work Ethic for Argumentation
Tasks,
I.Critical thinking activities
A.Where Is Argument?
B.Argumentation,Speaker and Audience(Excerpts)
C.Persusasion(Excerpts)
II.Writing tasks.
A.Freeway Sparks Development Dilemma
B.China Finds Its Shangri.La in Tourism
Chpter three
Definition (1)
3.1 Defining Definition
3.2 The Need for a Proper Definition in Argumentation
3.3 Functions of Definition
Tasks
I. Critical thinking activities:
A. Choice, Presence, and Presentation
B. Persuasive Definition (Excerpts)
Ⅱ. Writing tasks:
A. Text of Bush's Speech
B. On Freedom
Chpter Four
Definition (2)
4.1 The Basic Structure of a Definition
4.2 First-level Definition
4.3 Common Ways of First-level Defining
4.4 Second-level Elaboration
Tasks
I. Critical thinking activities:
A. Marriage
B. Defining Abortion Is a Tricky Business
II. Writing tasks:
A. Selection from Plato's Phaedra
B. "Equal" Does Not Mean "Same".
C. Gay Marriage and the Right to Vote
Chpter Five
Claims
5.1 The Nature of a Claim
5.2 The Function of a Claim
5.3 The Structure of a Claim
Tasks
I. Critical thinking activities:
A. Fact and Value (Excerpts)
B. Bush, Kerry Trade Barbs Over Jobs
II. Writing tasks:
A. Ten Reasons Not to Hit Your Kids
B. Stephen Ambrose and the Rights of Passage .
C. Should Stephen Ambrose Be Pardoned?
Chpter Six
Claims of Fact
6.1 Defining a Claim of Fact
6.2 Presenting Facts in a Claim of Fact
6.3 Relativity of Certainty in a Claim of Fact
6.4 Supporting a Claim of Fact
6.5 Challenging a Claim of Fact
6.6 A Case Study
Tasks
I. Critical thinking activities:
A. Truth and Power (Excerpts)
B. Leader: Show Us the Proof
II. Writing tasks:
A. Loving the Little Emperor
B. Little Emperors, Little Brats
Chpter Seven
Claims of Value
7.1 Defining a Claim of Value
7.2 Supporting a Claim of Value
7.3 Challenging a Claim of Value
Tasks
I. Critical thinking activities:
A. Is Ethics a Science? (Excerpts)
B. What Is Noble? (Excerpts)
II. Writing tasks:
A. Assisted Suicide: The Philosophers' Brief
B. Last Rights
C. In Response to Assisted Suicide: The Philosophers'Brief
Chpter Eight
Claims of Policy
8.1 Defining a Claim of Policy
8.2 Establishing a Problem
8.3 Matching the Problem with the Course of Action
Tasks
I. Critical thinking activities:
The Analysis of the Problem (Excerpts)
II. Writing tasks:
A. What We Owe to Parents (Excerpts)
B. A Right to Care
C. Worst of Both Worlds Nine
Chpter Nine
Support
9.1 Defining Support
9.2 Evidential Support
9.3 Motivational Support
9.4 Measuring the Strength of Support
Tasks
I. Critical thinking activities:Field Dependence (Excerpts)
II. Writing tasks:
A. The Answer to Terrorism? Colonialism
B. Freedom in a Time of Terrorism
C. John Kerry's Speech to the National Congress of the American Indians
Cltpter Ten
10.1 Quoting for a Purpose
10.2 Factors That Constrain Quoting
10.3 Ways of Quoting
10.4 System of Quotation
Tasks
I. Critical thinking activities:
Fullness of Argumentation
II. Writing tasks:
A. Whatever Happened to the University?
B. A Proposal to Abolish Grading
Chpter Eleven
Warrant
11.1 Defining Warrant
11.2 Types of Warrants
Tasks
I. Critical thinking activities:
A. The Ideological Problem of Social Science (Excerpts)
B. The Notion of Formal Validity (Excerpts)
II. Writing tasks:
A. Teach Them the Real America
B. In Defense of Multiculturalism
C. Against Multiculturalism
D. The Bottom of Multiculturalism's Barrel
Chpter Twelve
Congluding Remarks. Critical Reading
12.1 Critical Reading
12.2 A Critical Approach
A Sample Task for the Final Examination .
Worksheet for Argumentation
Main References
Essential Glossary of Argument
Common Fallacies