On using Stasis Theory

While I don't agree 100% with Fulkerson's article, he has made me reconsider the value of teaching logic in a composition course, and his suggestion of teaching Stasis Theory intrigues me enough that I want to check out some composition textbooks that suggest this approach (are the ones he mentioned in his article--Fahnestock's A Rhetoric of Argument and Beale's Real Writing-- still used, or are there other texts that have come along since which may be better?

There were a few points that Fulkerson made, while valid, seemed to sell the students short. When he talked about the treatment of material fallacies in comp-logic, he suggested that to focus on fallacies tells the student that as long as they avoid fallacies, they will have a good argument. I don't think students assume this at all, as long as the instructor makes clear that the goal of looking at logical fallacies is simply to make them aware that a logical fallacy can destroy their argument. A good instructor will spend relatively little time going over logical fallacies, and spend more time going over how to make a good argument. He is correct, however, when he says that logical fallacies are tricky to teach because the definitions given in most textbooks overlap. If you give the common exercise to students of looking at a list of ten logical fallacies and categorizing them, there are going to be many examples that will fit more than one definition. I always saw this as just proving that a statement which is logically invalid can fit more than one definition, and is therefore even more important to avoid.

I think that stasis theory can be very useful when looking at my first assignment, or any of my assignments for that matter. For example, my first essay involves looking at an article in the reader and analyzing the writer's argument and using that as a springboard to the student's own take on the topic. Whatever the topic is, they could begin with a definition question which looks at what the topic entails, which would lead to fact questions and ultimately evaluation. It seems questions on value could be particularly helpful in finding a thesis statement for a paper such as this one. If the student was asked to put aside the article for a second and just consider these stasis questions based on his/her own knowledge of the topic, it could help them to realize that the paper needs to be more than just a summary of the article they are reading.