An easy-to-follow guide to argument techniques and theory.
A lawyer and professor draws on his legal training to teach readers the art of argument.
In this manual, Trachtman (Law/Tufts Univ.; The International Law of Economic Migration, 2009) moves legal argument out of the classroom and shares it with a general audience. Although the text is firmly grounded in the author’s legal background—the first chapter, for example, explores what the law is and why it matters—it also draws many parallels to other professional contexts and social situations: “In a broader social setting, you might acknowledge that competent and honest argument over the application of rules, principles, and policy will allow fair decisions to prevail.” The book is structured thematically, moving from a discussion of the procedures of argument to an explanation of facts and their uses. Later chapters cover various rhetorical techniques and fundamentals of legal theory. Trachtman acknowledges that lawyers traditionally use footnotes to support and develop arguments, and he makes frequent use of them here, both to cite evidence and to offer additional commentary. He defines many legal terms in the book, and they make frequent appearances (“Parents also often apply a rule of res judicata, as described in section 3.14: once a decision is made, it is final”). The author also often uses point-counterpoint examples to illustrate the techniques he describes, and occasionally even “counter-counter-counterpoint” items. The author’s wry asides add moments of humor, but they also reveal some of the techniques’ limited applicability outside the legal realm. For example, while explaining the technique of reductio ad absurdum (“the extension of a proposed principle to absurd or undesirable lengths”), the author writes, “Try this with your friends, and they will soon be ex-friends.” Overall, readers engaged in legal argument or persuasive writing and speaking will get the most value from this book.
An easy-to-follow guide to argument techniques and theory.Pub Date: July 25, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481246385
Page Count: 202
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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