This study attempted to scrutinize the disciplinary and cross-disciplinary generic variations of textbook introductions in humanities and basic sciences with reference to the onion model. The data included a sample of 60 introductions (i.e. ten each from applied linguistics, sociology, and psychology within humanities, and ten each from biology,…

This paper explores the challenges of using the Toulmin model to analyze students' dialogical argumentation. The paper presents a theoretical exposition of what is involved in an empirical study of real dialogic argumentation. Dialogic argumentation embodies dialectical features--i.e. the features that are operative when students collaboratively…

The goal of this article is threefold: First, the theoretical background for a model-based framework of argumentation to describe and evaluate argumentative processes in science education is presented. Based on the general model-based perspective in cognitive science and the philosophy of science, it is proposed to understand arguments as reasons…

Examines distinctions and assumptions underlying methods of argument analysis and criticism and defends descriptive diagrams such as the Toulmin model as illuminating methodological tools. Discusses defining characteristics of argument, presents an application of the Toulmin system, and details the presuppositions associated with context-sensitive…

The representations and mechanisms guiding everyday routine sequential action remain incompletely understood. In recent work, the authors proposed a computational model of routine sequential behavior that took the form of a recurrent neural network (M. Botvinick & D. C. Plaut, 2004). Subsequently, R. P. Cooper and T. Shallice (2006) put forth a…

The purpose of this paper is to extend Gage Chapel's application of Kenneth Burke's dramatistic pentad to the persuasive aspects of television programs and to examine its relevance to television criticism. The five concepts underlying a Burkeian analysis are discussed: act, scene, agent, agency, and purpose, and the elements within Burke's…

Analyzes a fable current in the discourse of the nuclear freeze movement in the 1980s, that of the "Hundredth Monkey." Shows that Aristotle's classification of the fable as a type of exemplary proof is inadequate to an understanding of its persuasive force. (MS)

Examines Thomas M. Sawyer's proposed legalistic model for ethical argumentation. Argues that Sawyer's model is inadequate because ethical rules are all too plentiful and because the model invites uncritical appeals to ethical rules. Illustrates how argument from analogy is better than Sawyer's approach for discovering and presenting well-defended…

Suggests that inherency is a composite of several distinct factors operating to block the solution of particular policy dysfunctions and offers a rhetorical model as an alternative to the single-definition approach to the concept of inherency. (MH)

With the advent of the process approach to teaching writing, the use of products or models in the composition classroom has declined, replaced by heuristic exploration of the rhetorical situation, with special emphasis on audience analysis. Some researchers have emphasized the difference between internal audiences and audiences external to the…

Responds to a paper by Brant Burleson and continues the dispute regarding whether argument-as-product or argument-as-interaction should be regarded as the paradigm case or exemplar of argument. Defends the primacy of the interactional view by reference to the shortcomings of the serial predicative view. (JMF)

Fleshes out a model of hysterical discourse, and applies it to an analysis of the charges and countercharges of "environmentalist hysteria." Gives special attention to the book that drew the earliest accusations of hysteria, Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring." (SR)

A study developed an analytical tool for the critiquing of FCC legal arguments in the dimensions of purpose and quality. The supposition of the study was that law is an inherently rhetorical activity. The model elaborated was a situational matrix created out of the classical typologies of rhetorical occasions and oratory: the forensic,…

Outlines a political campaign strategy employed by incumbents using three stages of development: legitimacy, identification, and reinforcement. A case study demonstrates the effectiveness of the strategy. (JMF)

Instead of adopting or developing a theoretical or methodological approach to social movement study, researchers might benefit from gathering an understanding of a particular movement's history by narrowing the focus of the study for rhetorical analysis. Convention papers and journal articles should identify a specific stage, sub-group, person, or…