Mastering the Four Arguments: The Classical Technique That Will Help You Write Persuasively

by Gregory Roper

Overview

Learning to think well means learning to argue well. But it’s not easy: Teachers often say they spend more time teaching students how to write than covering their subject, and students often wonder what all the fuss is about. What’s the point when AI has all the answers anyway?

The truth is that writing persuasively has never been more important. In Mastering the Four Arguments, Dr. Gregory Roper makes it simple for teachers and students alike, revealing that underneath every broiling debate of our time, there are actually only four kinds of arguments. 

These arguments are the core of stasis theory, devised two thousand years ago in ancient Rome to help lawyers and political orators cut past rhetorical distraction and identify the real point of controversy in any debate. Master the four arguments, and you’ll find writing papers and winning debates with friends much easier. And you’ll find that learning to argue well is a great first step toward something much bigger: By pursuing the truth, you’ll be on your way to learning to live well, too.

With its clear, straightforward approach, helpful exercises and examples, and notes for students and teachers alike, this book will make you the master of any argument.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781641774468
Publisher:	Encounter Books
Publication date:	02/24/2026
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	0.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Dr. Gregory Roper is Associate Professor of English and, since 2021, Dean of Students at the University of Dallas. He is a specialist in Middle English literature, having published on Chaucer and the Gawain—poet. His previous book, The Writer's Workshop, kicked off a renewed interest in teaching writing through the ancient, medieval, and Renaissance technique of imitation.

Editorial Reviews

Not only does Gregory Roper’s Mastering the Four Arguments teach us practical principles for thought and debate, but in doing so, this seemingly simple book provides hopeful grounds for restoring an ethic of civil discourse in an age of rage and unreason.

—Matthew Mehan, author, professor, and associate dean, Hillsdale College in Washington D.C.

What an amazing book! What Strunk and White did for style Gregory Roper has done for argument: a short, brilliant, clear, and witty guide to everything you need to know, for the term paper and for life. But the book is ultimately about love—love of truth and love of neighbor. The goal is not to beat others in argument but to better understand them and to find ways to fruitfully confront important problems, together.

—Matthew Post, professor of philosophy, politics, and economics, Universidad de las Hespérides

Writing shapes thought. Gregory Roper masterfully explores this in what will become an indispensable book for both students and teachers. And as a master teacher himself, his own writing is an eloquent demonstration of the very principle. Roper is, using Quintilian’s definition of rhetoric, a good man speaking well.

—Jake Tawney, chief academic officer, Great Hearts Academies and author of Another Sort of Mathematics

For those who have come to knowledge of classical rhetoric through figures like Aristotle, stasis theory—not yet fully developed at Aristotle’s time—can remain an enigma, tough to understand and even more difficult to apply as a speaker, writer, or teacher. Thus, we owe Gregory Roper much thanks. In Mastering the Four Arguments, he has adapted some key insights of ancient stasis theory in a manner that makes them accessible and relevant for contemporary students of rhetoric and their teachers as well.

—Benjamin V. Beier, chair and associate professor of education, Hillsdale College

Mastering the Four Arguments is just what high school and college students need at the present time: a handy, reliable guide to better prose and sharper thinking. 

—Mark Baurlein, professor emeritus of English, Emory University

In Mastering the Four Arguments, Gregory Roper offers a winsome, expert tour of a powerful approach to writing used by the greatest writers across the ages. Based on classical stasis theory, Roper’s Four Arguments draw from his decades of teaching composition to undergraduates. Any teacher who has students writing will bless Roper for having cracked the code that leads to clarity and coherence in student compositions. Roper’s explanation of the intuitive, straightforward principles of stasis theory is easy to grasp for any writer—making your next business proposal, marketing pitch, or letter to the editor much clearer and more persuasive. Once you’ve grasped the Four Arguments and put them into action, you’ll discover how effectively these rhetorical levers can move your audience.

—Robert Jackson, founding partner of Classical Commons

This book will inspire teachers and students to discover and rediscover the classic resources of argumentation, not only as techniques but as ways of seeking, understanding, and communicating what is true. Without dogmatizing, it encourages engagement with other seekers as well as audiences that might shy away from argument or rely habitually upon unexamined assumptions. It does all this economically and often cheerfully, with the rare competence and inviting humility of a true teacher.

—John Briggs, professor emeritus of English, the University of California, Riverside, and founding director of the UCR UniversityWriting Program

From the Publisher