The authors' qualifications . Lester Faigley and Jack Selzer are disinguished rhetoricians. Such a tech writing background is an asset for the writer of any textbook, which is after all a kind of instruction manual. Their invocation of Aristotle . Their invocation of John Stuart Mill on causation .
Students have more trouble writing causal arguments than any others.
As with Aristotle, this theoretical affiliation implies dependability. Their style . The personae projected in Good Reasons are earnest but not priggish, informal but not presumptuous, good-humored but not ironic, and, above all, collegially helpful. This high-minded impression of tolerance and respect obviously models good argumentative writing, and also derives from the authors' choice of readings, for instance, two editorials on condom distribution in public high schools, one from the New York Times, the other from Commonweal.