A Rulebook for Arguments

I'm currently working on collecting some pieces of writing, hopefully to be placed in a book. I didn't begin this book with the idea that it would contribute to this project, but it ended up being an invaluable compliment to the book on writing I was reading at the same time.

I didn't have any knowledge of arguments before going into this book. (Though I do remember the mention of modus tollens, possibly from grade school?) I now plan to apply some of the practices presented in this book to my writing, by dissecting each and every piece and applying some of the principles. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in learning the basics of forming arguments- whether verbally or in writing.

Great little "rulebook". Easy to read and understand, and to the point. May still purchase a full-blown text book as I would actually enjoy reading about reason and logic in addition to having this succinct and useful reference spelling out the hows and whys.

I bought these for my boyfriend's birthday because he is absolutely a die hard Star Wars fan and knowing him, I knew this was the perfect gift. When he opened the present he was so excited and he uses them everytime we go to Pei Wei. The lights are very bright in the chopsticks, especially in the dark. I highly recommend this chopsticks if you love Asian food and a Star Wars fanatic!

Where can I find a book about logic and arguments that is devoid of the authors' biases? Weston not-so-subtly puts his political two-cents in, disregarding his own rules about dealing with weak premises. If I wanted this kind of crap, I would have scraped it out of his mouth

Where can I find a book about logic and arguments that is devoid of the authors' biases? Weston not-so-subtly puts his political two-cents in, disregarding his own rules about dealing with weak premises. If I wanted this kind of crap, I would have scraped it out of his mouth

Not a bad introduction to persuasive writing. Less responsible and objective as a primer on worldview. It is just annoying when attacks on the truth claims of one's faith are perpetrated under the guise of objectivity. That gets old.

"A Rulebook for Beginners" is made up of 45 discrete rules which have been categorised into nine chapters of general arguing techniques.
Not only does the author give positive rules for arguing, but he also lists about two dozen "Common Fallacies" in a glossary format at the end of the book.

The rulebook is written in an easy to read, and easy to reference layout. While you would definitely read it from front to back the first time, it has been specifically designed so that an engaged beginner can easily refer back to this rulebook when constructing arguments.
While it is clearly focused at the beginner, an intermediate `debater' will certainly glean some helpful hints from it.

Because it is only a concise rulebook, it doesn't do into detailed arguing techniques at all. So if you are interested in more advanced arguing methods, then you should definitely look elsewhere.

Overall this is a superb text for what it was designer for; A Rulebook for Beginners.

Four and a half stars

This was a required book for my philosophy class, and I'm glad we had to get it. This book is short, easy to read, and right to the point with the right amount of examples to make sure you get it. It's very no nonsense and perhaps there is something better out there, but this is perfect as a rulebook. It's not meant to be a textbook and that's part of it's charm. A good buy for students! I'll refer back to this book for classes to come.