Cover: Everything's an Argument with Readings, 10th Edition by Andrea A. Lunsford; John J. Ruszkiewicz; Keith Walters

Everything's an Argument with Readings

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Tenth  Edition©2026  Andrea A. Lunsford; John J. Ruszkiewicz; Keith Walters

ISBN:9781319594480

ISBN:9781319594527

ISBN:9781319474454

ISBN:9781319617097

ISBN:9781319617110

About

Everything’s an Argument with Readings helps you make sense of the arguments all around you—on social media, in class, and in daily life. With real examples and clear explanations, you’ll learn how to build strong arguments, spot weak ones, and think critically—even in the age of AI, thanks to a brand-new chapter on AI literacy. 


You’ll get practical tips for writing and analyzing arguments in any format—essays, podcasts, posters, and more—plus diverse readings on topics like pop culture, free speech, and cancel culture. Each reading comes with helpful context and strategies you can use right away. 

Pair it with Achieve for interactive tools, quizzes, and assignments that make learning flexible and fun.

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Table of Contents

*New to this edition
Preface

PART 1: Reading and Understanding Arguments

1. Understanding Arguments and Reading Them Critically

Everything Is an Argument

Reading Arguments Rhetorically and Critically

Listening to Arguments Rhetorically and Respectfully

Why We Make Arguments

Occasions for Argument

Kinds of Argument

Appealing to Audiences
CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT: Considering What’s "Normal"


2. Arguments Based on Emotion: Pathos

Reading Critically for Pathos

Using Emotions to Build Bridges

Using Emotions to Sustain an Argument

Using Humor

Using Arguments Based on Emotion


3. Arguments Based on Character: Ethos

Thinking Critically about Arguments Based on Character

Establishing Trustworthiness and Credibility

Claiming Authority

*Examining Motives and Assumptions

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT: Ethos


4. Arguments Based on Facts and Reason: Logos

*Dealing with Fake News and Deep Fakes

Thinking Critically about Facts and Reason

Providing Logical Structures for Argument

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT: Logos


5. Fallacies of Argument

Fallacies of Emotional Argument

Fallacies of Ethical Argument

Fallacies of Logical Argument


*6. Argument Meets AI

Just Exactly What is Generative Artificial Intelligence?

What Can Generative Artificial Intelligence Do?

Prompting Artificial Intelligence

What Can’t Generative Artificial Intelligence Do?

Ethics and Artificial Intelligence

So What’s New about Artificial Intelligence and Argument?

Artificial Intelligence, Argument, and Multimodality


7. Rhetorical Analysis

Composing a Rhetorical Analysis: Reading and Viewing Critically

Understanding the Purpose of Arguments You Are Analyzing

Understanding Who Makes an Argument

Identifying and Appealing to Audiences

Examining Arguments Based on Emotion: Pathos

Examining Arguments Based on Character: Ethos

Examining Arguments Based on Facts and Reason: Logos

Examining the Arrangement and Media of Arguments

Looking at Style

Examining a Rhetorical Analysis

Kevin Garcia, Can You Lose a Language You Never Knew?

Marielys Diaz, The Loss of a Language Kevin Garcia Never Knew: A Rhetorical Analysis

*Examining an AI Rhetorical Analysis

GUIDE TO WRITING A RHETORICAL ANALYSIS


PART 2: Writing Arguments


8. Structuring Arguments

The Classical Oration

Rogerian Argument

A Sample Rogerian Argument

*Jeannie Suk Gersen, What if Trigger Warnings Don’t Work?

Invitational Argument

Toulmin Argument

A Toulmin Analysis

Stephen L. Carter, Offensive Speech Is Free Speech. If Only We’d Listen.

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT: Organization


9. Arguments of Fact

Understanding Arguments of Fact

Characterizing Factual Arguments

Developing a Factual Argument

GUIDE TO WRITING AN ARGUMENT OF FACT

Two Sample Factual Arguments

*Ahlan Filstrup, The Negative Influence of Social Media Advertisements on Children’s Nutritional Habits (student essay)

*Chris Stokel-Walker, Do Phone Bans Help Students Perform Better in School?


10. Arguments of Definition

Understanding Arguments of Definition

Kinds of Definition

Developing a Definitional Argument

GUIDE TO WRITING AN ARGUMENT OF DEFINITION

Two Sample Definitional Arguments

Natasha Rodriguez, Who Are You Calling Underprivileged? (student essay)

*Evgeny Morozov, The Problem with Artificial Intelligence? It’s Neither Artificial Nor Intelligent


11. Evaluations

Understanding Evaluations

Criteria of Evaluation

Characterizing Evaluation

Developing an Evaluative Argument

GUIDE TO WRITING AN EVALUATION

Two Sample Evaluations

Jenny Kim, The Toxicity in Learning (student essay)

*Kyle Smith, Barbie Review: Beyond Her Ken


12. Causal Arguments

Understanding Causal Arguments

Characterizing Causal Arguments

Developing Causal Arguments

GUIDE TO WRITING A CAUSAL ARGUMENT

Two Sample Causal Arguments

Laura Tarrant, Forever Alone (and Perfectly Fine) (student essay)

*Lauren A. Wright, How Liberal College Campuses Benefit Conservative Students


13. Proposals

Understanding and Categorizing Proposals

Characterizing Proposals

Developing Proposals

GUIDE TO WRITING A PROPOSAL

Two Sample Proposals

Caleb Wong, Addiction to Social Media: How to Overcome It (student essay)

*Melissa Nicolas, Eliminate the Required First-Year Writing Course


PART 3: Style and Presentation in Arguments


14. Style in Arguments

*Narrative and Argument

Word Choice and Argument

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT: Pronouns

Sentence Structure and Argument

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT: “Standard,” “Formal,” and Other Conventions

Punctuation and Argument

*Style and Artificial Intelligence

Special Effects: Figurative Language


15. Visual Rhetoric

The Power of Visual Arguments

Using Visuals in Your Own Arguments

Remember to Check for Copyrighted Material


*16. Multimodal Arguments

Class and Public Discussions

Oral-based Presentations

Assess the Rhetorical Situation

Deliver a Good Show

Poster Sessions

Podcasts

Text- and Image-based Presentations

Social Media and Arguments

Blogs and Newsletters

Comics


PART 4: Research and Arguments


17. Academic Arguments

Understanding What Academic Argument Is

Conventions in Academic Argument Are Not Static

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT: Considering English(es)

Developing an Academic Argument

Two Sample Academic Arguments

Charlotte Geaghan-Breiner, Where the Wild Things Should Be: Healing Nature Deficit Disorder through the Schoolyard (student essay)

Sidra Montgomery, The Emotion Work of “Thank You for Your Service”


18. Finding Evidence

Considering the Rhetorical Situation

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT: The Rhetorical Situation

Searching Effectively

SEARCHING ONLINE OR IN DATABASES

Collecting Data on Your Own

Draw Upon Narratives as Evidence


19. Evaluating Sources

Identifying Bias

Assessing Sources

Practicing Crap Detection

CASE STUDY: Lateral Reading

Assessing Field Research


20. Using Sources

*Information Overload

Building a Critical Mass

Synthesizing Information


21. Maintaining Academic Integrity and Crediting Sources

CULTURAL CONTEXTS FOR ARGUMENT: Intellectual Property and Remix Culture

Crediting Sources

WHAT COPYRIGHT DOESN’T PROTECT

Getting Permission for and Using Copyrighted Internet Sources

Acknowledging Your Sources Accurately and Appropriately

Crediting Collaborators


22. Documenting Sources

MLA Style

APA Style


PART 5: Arguments


23. How Does Popular Culture Stereotype You?

D.K., Shooting Guns: It’s Rather Fun, Actually

Ella Houston, Featuring Disabled Women in Advertisements: The Commodification of Diversity?

Abeer Yusuf, Finally, There’s a Bechdel Test for Muslim Representation

*Ashton Corsetti, Romancing the Avatar

Making a Visual Argument:

Gemma Correll, Let’s Play Feminist Social Media Bingo!

Viet Thanh Nguyen, Asian Americans Are Still Caught in the Trap of the “Model Minority” Stereotype. And It Creates Inequality for All.


24. How Does Language Influence Our World?

*Patrick Cox, Will climate change wipe out French in Louisiana?

Making a Visual Argument

*U.S. Census Bureau, What Languages Does the US Speak? A Geographic Analysis of the Languages Spoken at Home

John McWhorter, Thick of Tongue

*Anandi Mishra, Why Do I Write in My Colonizers’ Language

Roxane Gay, The Careless Language of Sexual Violence


*25. How Is Artificial Intelligence Changing Our Lives?

*Mascha Kurpicz-Briki, More than a Chatbot

Making a Visual Argument

*Claire Quigley, Machine Learning with Labeled Data and Machine Learning with Raw Data

*Evan Halper and Caroline O’Donovan, AI is Exhausting the Power Grid

*Madhumita Murgia, How Vulnerable Low-Wage Workers Power AI Algorithms

*Ethan Mollick, Centaurs and Cyborgs on the Jagged Frontier

*Mohana Ravindranath, This AI chatbot was trained on drag queens, and it wants to help protect your sexual health


26. How Free Should Speech on Campus Be?

*Ryan Coonerty, Pop Quiz: My Students Understand Free Speech. Do You?

Making a Visual Argument

*Knight Foundation (excerpt), College Student Views on Free Expression and Campus Speech 2024: A Look at Key Trends in Student Speech Views Since 2016

Ross Douthat, 10 Theses about Cancel Culture

*Nicholas C. Burbules, How Activist Speech Threatens Educational Values

*Walter Feinberg, Deliberative Speech and Activist Speech Both Have Value

*Danielle K. Brown, Media Coverage of Campus Protest Tends to Focus on the Spectacle, Rather than the Substance

*Stephen L. Carter, College is All About Curiosity. And That Requires Free Speech


*27. What is the Purpose of Narrative?

*Dinaw Mengestu, The Border is Not the Problem

*Julian Mark, He Never Saw Himself as Disadvantaged. Then the Government had Him Write an Essay

*Robert Jago and Angel Ellis, Pretendians: Indigenish

Making a Visual Argument

*Sarah Mirk and Archie Bongiovanni, Gender Isn’t Binary and Neither is Anatomy

*Melissa Febos, In Praise of Navel Gazing

*Dina Nayeri, from Who Gets Believed


Glossary

Index

Andrea Lunsford

Andrea Lunsford, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor of English emerita and former Director of the Program in Writing and Rhetoric at Stanford University, joined the Stanford faculty in 2000. Prior to this appointment, she was Distinguished Professor of English at The Ohio State University (1986-2000) and, before that, Associate Professor and Director of Writing at the University of British Columbia (1977-86) and Associate Professor of English at Hillsborough Community College. A frequent member of the faculty of the Bread Loaf School of English, Andrea earned her B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Florida and completed her Ph.D. in English at The Ohio State University (1977). She holds honorary degrees from Middlebury College and The University of Ôrebro.


Andrea’s scholarly interests include the contributions of women and people of color to rhetorical history, theory, and practice; collaboration and collaborative writing, comics/graphic narratives; translanguaging and style, and technologies of writing. She has written or coauthored/coedited many books, including Essays on Classical Rhetoric and Modern Discourse; Singular Texts/Plural Authors: Perspectives on Collaborative Writing; Reclaiming Rhetorica: Women in the History of Rhetoric, and The Norton Anthology of Rhetoric and Writing as well as numerous chapters and articles. For Bedford/St. Martin’s, she is the author of The St. Martins Handbook, The Everyday Writer, and EasyWriter; the co-author (with John Ruszkiewicz) of Everything’s an Argument and (with John Ruszkiewicz and Keith Walters) of Everything’s an Argument with Readings; and the co-author (with Lisa Ede) of Writing Together: Collaboration in Theory and Practice.


Andrea has given presentations and workshops on the changing nature and scope of writing and critical language awareness at scores of North American universities, served as Chair of the Conference on College Composition and Communication, as Chair of the Modern Language Association Division on Writing, and as a member of the MLA Executive Council. In her spare time, she serves on the Board of La Casa Roja’s Next Generation Leadership Network, as past Chair of the Kronos Quartet Performing Arts Association--and works diligently if not particularly well in her communal organic garden.

John Ruszkiewicz

John J. Ruszkiewicz is a professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin where he taught literature, rhetoric, and writing for forty years. A winner of the President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Award, he was instrumental in creating the Department of Rhetoric and Writing in 1993 and directed the unit from 2001-05. He has also served as president of the Conference of College Teachers of English (CCTE) of Texas, which gave him its Frances Hernández Teacher—Scholar Award in 2012. For Bedford/St. Martins, he is coauthor, with Andrea Lunsford, of Everything’s an Argument and the author of How to Write Anything. In retirement, he writes the mystery novels under the pen name J.J. Rusz; the most recent, The Mule Ears, published in 2023 on Amazon.

Keith Walters

Keith Walters is professor emeritus at the Portland State University, where he was a member of the Department of Applied Linguistics. He received his BA in English from Furman University (1975), his MA in applied linguistics from the University of South Carolina (1981), and his PhD in linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin (1989).


He served in the Peace Corps in Tunisia (1975-1977), where he taught English as a foreign language. Across his career, he later taught in the Department of English at the University of South Carolina, the Department of Foreign Languages at the Institut Polytechnique Gamel Abdel Nasser (Conakry, Guinea), the Department of English of the Ohio State University, the Linguistics Department at the University of Texas, the Department of Applied Linguistics at Portland State University, and the Department of English at Bethlehem University (Bethlehem, Palestinian Territories), where he was a Senior Fulbright Scholar. He is the recipient of research awards from Fulbright and the Social Science Research Council. Much of his research has focused on topics relating to questions of language and identity in the Arabic-speaking world.


An award-winning teacher, he has taught courses on a range of topics in linguistics, sociolinguistics, and composition including bi-/multilingualism; language, gender, and sexuality; language and the law; African Americans in their speech communities; language ideologies and language planning; language and nationalism in the Middle East; arguing about language; and writing for engineers. He has also served as an expert witness in over a dozen court cases.