For many arguments you make in college, the format you’ve used since grade school is still a sensible choice — a traditional paper with double spacing, correct margins, MLA- or APA-style notes, and so on. Printed texts like these offer a methodical way to explain abstract ideas or to set down complicated chains of reasoning. Even spruced up with images or presented online (to enable color, media, and Web links), such conventional arguments — whether configured as essays, newsletters, or brochures — are cheap to create and easy to reproduce and share. You will find examples of printed texts throughout this book and especially in Part 4 on “Research and Arguments.”

But print isn’t your only medium for advancing arguments. Sometimes, you’ll need to make a case orally, drawing on the visual or multimedia strategies discussed in previous chapters. Like Lawrence Lessig above, speaking about Internet gambling, you might need slides and Web tools to back up points in a lecture; or like Josette Sheeran, a panelist at a conference on world food security, you may find yourself engaged in serious discussions; or maybe like fellow student George Chidiac, you just need to deliver a first-rate oral report in class. Knowing how to speak eloquently to a point is a basic rhetorical skill.