Rhetoric and Argumentation.

• Author: Bjork, Rebecca S.

Instructors of argumentation courses and coaches of competitive intercollegiate debate have a plethora of textbooks available to aid them in their endeavors. These two new additions to the amalgam of choices differ in several ways, but primarily in the purposes to which they are suited. Austin J. Freeley's eighth edition of his book, Argumentation and Debate, seems to be oriented primarily toward competitive academic debating, while David L. Vancil's treatise, Rhetoric and Argumentation, appears to be designed for lower division introductory argumentation courses offered at many universities nationwide. Despite their differences in orientation, these new books exhibit some similarities that allow for important comparisons. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses as well and provide important new contributions to the pedagogical literature in argumentation and debate.

Both books share a common underlying theme, one that is important to instill in students, whether they are involved in intercollegiate debate or enrolled in argumentation classes. Both texts exhibit a concern with what might be called the creative, problem-solving orientation of argumentation and debate. In a representative society which requires an informed and articulate citizenry, skills in critical thinking and reasoned discussion are vital to manage social conflict in these times of cultural and political transformation. Framing his text in the national movement to promote critical thinking skills, Freeley offers strong and compelling justifications for intercollegiate debate programs, ones that should be heeded by administrators who find debate to be an easy target of budget axes in austere fiscal times. Vancil's discussion of argumentation and social conflict offers a slightly different perspective on this issue, but similarly attempts to place training in argumentation and debate in the forefront of creative problem solving. In this way, both of these textbooks underscore the essentially humane impulses embodied in argumentation, ones that seek peaceful, informed, and critically engaged alternatives to violence as a method of problem solving.

Additionally, Freeley and Vancil both provide detailed explanations of the issues one expects to find in textbooks concerned with argumentation and debate; namely, types of reasoning, types and tests of evidence, fallacies, types of propositions, methods for analyzing key issues in various types of propositions, and so on...