This blog is dedicated to discussing and expanding upon the ideas I first presented in my book, Reading Argumentative Texts: Analytic Tools to Improve Understanding (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021).
Some of you have found your way to this blog because you want to become a better reader of nonfiction texts that assert arguments and need no pep talk from me on that subject. You just need the tools to help you accomplish that.
Some of you may still need to be convinced that becoming a better reader of argumentative texts is worth the time and effort you will put into it. For those of you in this camp, consider this:
- Dogs have a sense of smell that is 10,000 to 100,000 times better than the human sense of smell.
- Bears have a sense of smell that is about 2500 times better than the human sense.
- Eagles have about four times better distance vision than humans.
- Bees can see infrared light, but we humans can’t.
If you were one of those kinds of animals, your perceptions of the world would be hugely different than your current perceptions. You would smell and see things that you – as a natural-born human (without any technical aids) – can never sense and can’t even imagine.
We humans, every day, are missing out on huge slices of reality – the parts of reality we can’t see or smell. And, unless we have access to very sophisticated technology, we are pretty much stuck with that. We can’t change our eyes or nose to improve our senses by many orders of magnitude to acquire the senses of these animals or insects.
What does any of that have to do with becoming a better reader?
If you can’t analyze an argumentative text thoughtfully you are missing huge quantities and kinds of meaning in your life compared to someone who can do this. You are intellectually limited, just like humans have a limited sense of smell and eyesight, compared to dogs, bears, eagles, and bees.
So, why is that a big deal for you? After all, many of us can’t speak a second language, and so we can’t hold a conversation with a Frenchman or a Russian, let alone read a book in one of those languages. Most of us don’t think that is a reason to sign up for online lessons to learn one of those languages, as if we just can’t live another day without that skill. By the same token, many of us don’t have a good grasp of music theory or the fine points of Renaissance art, and so we are missing out on all of the meaning that those disciplines provide. Even when we are aware of those gaps in our education and understanding of our culture, that doesn’t cause us to start studying those subjects.
Here’s the difference. Critical reading of argumentative texts is different from learning Russian, music theory, or genres of art because it is essential to living a full and engaged life in our modern democracy. It is empowering, and without it, your control over your life and over the society of which you are a part is reduced immensely. You need to be able to read, and to understand, arguments and the intellectual contexts in which they are found in order to control your life and those you care about in a society in which arguments and debates determine outcomes.
The American philosopher William James made this point in a memorable metaphor:
“We may be in the universe as dogs and cats are in our libraries, seeing the books and hearing the conversation, but having no inkling of the meaning of it all.” A Pluralistic Universe, Lecture VIII (Duke Classics, 1909, 2013)
Unlike the dogs and cats in James’ image, each of us has a choice. We can choose to be a dog or a cat in the library of life or we can choose to learn to analyze argumentative texts – and be more fully human and be more empowered. My book is designed to give you the tools you need to make that choice successfully.
Reading Argumentative Texts 