The Shape of Reason: Argumentative Writing in College (4th Edition)

This brief rhetoric of argument teaches critical reading, informal reasoning, and writing as reasoned inquiry, and now features a mini-anthology of arguments on civic issues. The Shape of Reason emphasizes the enthymeme as the central basis for the invention and structure of arguments. This approach blends classical insights into rhetorical reasoning with contemporary understandings of the composing process as generative and organic, situated within discourse communities. The book helps to understand argument as inquiry, stressing the responsibility that writers have - to their audience and to their own ideas - in structuring arguments that earn their conclusions and in considering opposing arguments. For anyone interested in argumentative writing.John T. Gage is the author of 'The Shape of Reason: Argumentative Writing in College (4th Edition)', published 2005 under ISBN 9780321320773 and ISBN 0321320778.