Critical Questions in Persuasion Research

The Boster and Carpenter approach is very unique in that they have chosen topics and organized them in such a way that it walks the reader through the natural progression of a persuasive attempt addressing important issues along the way ... The organization and integrative approach to presenting/teaching persuasion is fantastic and a vast improvement on other persuasion textbooks ... This text presents persuasion in an entirely refreshing and new way that I think will be very attractive to students." -Michael R. Kotowski, Associate Professor, School of Communication Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

"The premise of the book is clever. I appreciate that the theory is clearly central to the book. What is novel is that the authors deliver theory in the context of a broader organizing framework that will make is easy for students to see connections. Rather than a laundry list of theories, students get a sense of the broader questions that theories address and how individual theories fit together in a broader framework. This is a clear strength and distinguishing feature of this text ... This text has very good potential to help students have a more meaningful and informative experience in a persuasion course." -Stephen Rains, Professor of Communication, University of Arizona

"In addition to the organization around central questions, a strength of the chapters is their adherence to actual studies and the treatment of central questions as open, rather than closed debates. This is a good textbook for faculty interest in connecting theoretical conclusions more closely to the evidence. In addition, the authors have well contextualized the communicative study of persuasion in other (non-communication) perspectives." -Ryan Goei, Direct of University Honors, Associate Professor of Communication, University of Minnesota Duluth