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This
innovative and affordable textbook for first-year English and more
advanced composition and critical thinking courses addresses the need for
college students to develop critical reading, writing, and thinking skills
for self-defense in the contentious arena of American civic rhetoric. In a
groundbreaking reconception of composition theory, it presents a
comprehensive critical perspective on the discourse of American politics
and media and practical methods for its analysis. Exercises
and readings cover opposing viewpoints in current controversies—such as
the growing inequality of wealth in America and its impact on the finances
of college students – as expressed in paired sets of readings from the
political left and right. Widely
debated issues of whether objectivity is possible and whether there is a
liberal or conservative bias in news and entertainment media, as well as
in education itself, are foregrounded as topics for rhetorical analysis.
Reviews “Lazere has given us a thoughtful, beautifully organized, and eminently user-friendly book that enables teachers to [give] their students a way in to some of the most important and contentious public controversies of our time.” —Gerald Graff, Professor of English and Education, University of Illinois at Chicago “Don Lazere has produced one of the most intelligent, relevant, and important books in composition studies in the last decade. Give this to every student, adult, and citizen who believes that learning, writing, and democracy mutually inform each other.” —Henry A. Giroux, Professor of Education, Pennsylvania State University “What a smart book! Here is an intelligent rhetoric text that honestly faces the politics of our times. Writing teachers will benefit from the tools Lazere provides and students will benefit by becoming better writers and more informed readers of their society.” —Ira Shor, Professor of Education, CUNY Graduate Center “Lazere's [text] is heaven-sent, and will provide a crucial link in the chain of understanding how conflicts are structured and, most important, how they can be rationally addressed—a healthy antidote to the skepticism that has become so pervasive in academic life.” —Alan
Hausman, Professor of
Philosophy, Hunter
College
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