Gertrude Buck: Revisioning Argumentation and the Role of Women in a Participatory Democracy

Abstract

Examines Buck’s A Course in Argumentative Writing to show how this textbook emphasizes a more democratic approach to argumentation and reflects her organic concept of language and society and her involvement in the woman suffrage movement. Provides a more textured understanding of Buck’s approach to argumentation, by focusing not only on her textbook but also on other primary sources including student correspondence, articles, yearbooks, and other related materials. Claims such an analysis is significant because it contributes to the history of a feminist rhetoric by showing how Buck challenges the dominant approach of the late nineteenth century.