Sarah Becker is the fifth girl to be abducted by a homicidal maniac. Judging from the state of the bodies that have been found, her long hair will be hacked off and she will be tortured. She has about a week to live.

This book, written by a leading expert, and based on the latest research, shows how to apply methods of argumentation to a range of examples.

This book shows how research in linguistic pragmatics, philosophy of language, and rhetoric can be connected through argumentation to analyze a recognizably common strategy used in political and everyday conversation, namely the distortion of another’s words in an argumentative exchange. Straw man argumentation refers to the modification of a position by misquoting, misreporting or wrenching the original speaker’s statements from their context in order to attack them more easily or more effectively. Through 63 examples taken from different contexts (including political and forensic discourses and dialogs) and 20 legal cases, the book analyzes the explicit and implicit types of straw man, shows how to assess the correctness of a quote or a report, and illustrates the arguments that can be used for supporting an interpretation and defending against a distortion. The tools of argumentation theory, a discipline aimed at investigating the uses of arguments by combining insights from pragmatics, logic, and communication, are applied to provide an original account of interpretation and reporting, and to describe and illustrate tactics and procedures that can be used and implemented for practical purposes.. This book will appeal to scholars in the fields of political communication, communication in general, argumentation theory, rhetoric and pragmatics, as well as to people working in public speech, speech writing, and discourse analysis.

Nonsense is the best compilation and study of verbal logical fallacies available anywhere. It is a handbook of the myriad ways we go about being illogical--how we deceive others and ourselves, how we think and argue in ways that are disorderly, disorganized, or irrelevant. Nonsense is also a short course in nonmathematical logical thinking, especially important for students of philosophy and economics. A book of remarkable scholarship, Nonsense is unexpectedly relaxed, informal, and accessible.

As a small boy in Epping Forest, Jack Straw could never have imagined that one day he would become Britain's Lord Chancellor. As one of five children of divorced parents, he was bright enough to get a scholarship to a direct-grant school, but spent his holidays as a plumbers' mate for his uncles to bring in some much-needed extra income. Yet he spent 13 years and 11 days in government, including long and influential spells as Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary. This is the story of how he got there. His memoirs offer a unique insight into the complex, sometimes self-serving but always fascinating world of British politics and reveals the toll that high office takes, but , more importantly, the enormous satisfaction and extraordinary privilege of serving both your constituents and your country. Straw’s has been a very public life, but he reveals the private face, too and offers readers a vivid and authoritative insight into the Blair/Brown era and, indeed, the last forty years of British politics.

Jacob just wanted control. He felt as if he lacked the power to regulate his emotions and how his peers perceived him. When he discovered weight loss, Jacob thought that hed found what was missing. In Straw Man, author Jacob Roth shares his compelling battle with anorexia, a journey that would take him from perceptions of isolation as a young boy to recovering from the most challenging obstacle hed ever face. Anorexia was not just an illnessit was a lifestyle. Jacob cut calories to a point at which hed fast for days at a time. Anorexia nervosa was like a fanatical religious conviction to him, and hed undertake precise rituals that he had to perform correctly to avoid overwhelming fear. If Jacob consumed one too many calories, ate one too many grams of fat, or weighed one too many pounds, he thought that hed defied his religious obligation. In the pursuit of that elusive control, Jacob reduced himself to a man as fragile as one made of straw. Join Jacob as he shares not only how he indoctrinated himself into the lifestyle of an anorexic but how he was able to recover.

All the depravity and evil of man is found upon the stage. January, 1381. Guests of the Regent, John of Gaunt, Brother Athelstan and Sir John Cranston have been attending a mystery play performed by the Straw Men, Gaunt's personal acting troupe. The evening’s entertainment, however, is suddenly and brutally interrupted by the violent deaths of two of Gaunt's guests, their severed heads left on stage. The Regent orders Athelstan to find out who committed such a heinous act, leading him to tackle his most baffling and disturbing case yet... A taut and clever medieval murder mystery that won’t let go, perfect for fans of S G MacLean, S W Perry and Rory Clements.