Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

2/19/31 Bri

ARGUMENTATION

AND DEBATING

BY

WILLIAM TRUFANT FOSTER

Professor of English and Argumentation
in Bowdoin College

[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

PREFACE

THE aim of this book is to present the essentials of Argumentation and Debating as simply as possible, following the order in which the difficulties arise in actual practice. The point of view is that of the student rather than that of the instructor. The amount of practical material, therefore, in proportion to the amount of theoretical material, is larger than is usual in manuals on this subject. The chapter on brief-drawing, for example, starts with a familiar proposition and takes the student step by step through the development of a complete working brief. The chapter on fallacies deals not only with the common sources of fallacies, but as well with the most effective methods of exposing fallacies; the chapter on evidence deals not only with the tests of evidence, but as well with the sources and the methods of using evidence. In short, the book aims throughout to show the student how to go to work. It deals with no imaginary difficulties; the necessity for every topic has been proved in many class-rooms for

many years.

Special care has been taken to present an abundance of striking illustrations, free from extraneous and exceptional elements, and always within the range of the student's information and experience, in order that he may direct his attention to the principles involved. In order that the first specimens of argument may not be discouragingly far above the beginner's possibilities, examples are presented from the recent work of students

« AnteriorContinuar »