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，也可以为赴英语国家留学的人士提供写作上的指导。

写作教材的基本思路是：理论和练习有机结合，范文和练习相互依托。基本内容有：如何定义、如何提出论点、如何支持论点、如何驳斥论点、论说类型、不同类型的不同论辩手段，论说过程中的常见逻辑错误等。本教材的对象可以是大三、大四学生或研究生，使用时间为一年。

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