The Aims of Argument, a comprehensive text for teaching argument, recognizes that people argue with a range of purposes in mind: to inquire, to convince, to persuade, and to negotiate. It offers a clear, logical learning sequence rather than merely a collection of assignments: inquiry is the search for truth, what we call an earned opinion, which then becomes the basis of efforts to convince others to accept our earned opinions. Case-making, the essence of convincing, is then carried over into learning how to persuade, which, requires explicit attention to appeals to character, emotion, and style. Finally, the previous three aims all play roles in negotiation, which amounts to finding and defending positions capable of appealing to all sides in a dispute or controversy. Connect Composition supports instruction across multiple semesters and courses with interactive exercises, online learning videos, enriched ebook materials, annotation and writing tools, and much more!
-LearnSmart Achieve - a continuously adaptive learning system that pinpoints students' individual strengths and weaknesses and provides personalized support to help them master key topics and material. LearnSmartAchieve provides foundational support on key course areas such as the writing process, critical reading, the research process, reasoning and argument, grammar and common sentence problems, punctuation and mechanics, style and word choice, and multilingual writer support.
- Power of Process - a critical reading and writing tool that guides students through instructor-chosen strategies and helps them engage directly with a text through highlighting, annotation, and short answer questions.
-Analytics - Progress dashboards that quickly show how you are performing on your assignments and tips for improvement.