Customer Reviews for Classical Academic Press The Argument Builder
Classical Academic Press The Argument Builder
Seeking to give students the tools and knowledge to build strong arguments, this book teaches the argument-discovery method called "Common Topics", which presents a list of lines of argument that allows you to discover the possible arguments for your subject. Terms and concepts from the study of logic and rhetoric are explored, as well as the ancient Greeks and Romans who came up with them. Exercises feature room to answer, explain, describe, list, practice, brainstorm, identify, and follow-up on a variety of questions that will keep students engaged and using their brains! 185 page, softcover, with glossary.
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Customer Reviews for The Argument Builder
Review 1 for The Argument Builder
Overall Rating:
Excellent Resource for Logic Studies
Date:November 14, 2010
1bassoon
Location:Birmingham, AL
Age:35-44
Gender:female
Quality:
5
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5
Value:
5
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5
Meets Expectations:
5
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5
From the forward, the purpose of The Argument Builder is “to train you in the art of building a strong argument”. Using the Common Topics method, developed by Aristotle, the text takes you through all five of these common topics (Definitions, Testimony, Comparison, Relationship, Circumstance) while developing a hypothetical argument about curfew.
The text is comprised of 25 chapters, with an appendix on debate techniques. Each of the first 22 chapters includes a exercises not only in defining terms and answering basic questions about the topics introduced, but also in analyzing and identifying arguments from a wide variety of authors, scholars, and statesmen. The final 3 chapters of the book cover a cumulative review, a brief introduction to logical fallacies, and instructions on how to hold a debate. The Teacher’s Edition - a necessary component - includes not only the answers to the text exercises, but suggestions and recommendations for extending the material. For further support, CAP also offers an online class taught by the author.
I am particularly thrilled to find this text - we’ll be adding it in for our high school students, as a component of their logic/philosophy studies. Especially attractive to me is the author’s inclusion of primary source documents from history as a source of analytical exercises. The Argument Builder is easy to understand, clearly laid out and provides great training in analyzing and building arguments. As a high school course, this could be done in one semester by an ambitious student, but might be best spread out over the course of a year, especially if you intend to include the debate component.
(Note: author was provided a copy for review)
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