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Argument, Evidence, and Engagement: Training Students As Critical Investigators and Interpreters of Rhetoric and Culture

Argument, Evidence, and Engagement: Training Students As Critical Investigators and Interpreters... Fr om the Classr oom Argument, Evidence, and Engagement: Training Students As Critical Investigators and Interpreters of Rhetoric and Culture Allyson D. Polsky When students first arrive on campus, even at academically elite institutions, it is highly unlikely that they come with the recognition that all academic writ- ing is argument-based and that all knowledge claims require substantia- tion. They have often been educationally and culturally conditioned to grant authors too much authority, and for the most part they are quite aware of their position in the knowledge hierarchy. While harshly critical of their own logic leaps, sloppy support, organization flaws, and other cardinal sins, most stu- dents are reluctant to acknowledge similar failings in any established author, particularly one assigned by their professor. It is rare, then, that they see themselves as the audience being addressed or as an audience even worth addressing, much less as one that an author is actively attempting to persuade to believe or to act in a certain way. Pedagogically, I have been hesitant to organize argument courses around familiar public debates (capital punishment, drug policy, etc.) for two main reasons. First, these debates tend to produce sides too sharply drawn and arguments http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Pedagogy Duke University Press

Argument, Evidence, and Engagement: Training Students As Critical Investigators and Interpreters of Rhetoric and Culture

Pedagogy , Volume 3 (3) – Oct 1, 2003

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References (11)

Copyright
© 2003 Duke University Press
ISSN
1531-4200
eISSN
1533-6255
DOI
10.1215/15314200-3-3-427
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Fr om the Classr oom Argument, Evidence, and Engagement: Training Students As Critical Investigators and Interpreters of Rhetoric and Culture Allyson D. Polsky When students first arrive on campus, even at academically elite institutions, it is highly unlikely that they come with the recognition that all academic writ- ing is argument-based and that all knowledge claims require substantia- tion. They have often been educationally and culturally conditioned to grant authors too much authority, and for the most part they are quite aware of their position in the knowledge hierarchy. While harshly critical of their own logic leaps, sloppy support, organization flaws, and other cardinal sins, most stu- dents are reluctant to acknowledge similar failings in any established author, particularly one assigned by their professor. It is rare, then, that they see themselves as the audience being addressed or as an audience even worth addressing, much less as one that an author is actively attempting to persuade to believe or to act in a certain way. Pedagogically, I have been hesitant to organize argument courses around familiar public debates (capital punishment, drug policy, etc.) for two main reasons. First, these debates tend to produce sides too sharply drawn and arguments

Journal

PedagogyDuke University Press

Published: Oct 1, 2003

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