Argument 101

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ARGUMENT 101

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What do you think about when you

see the word argument?1. Argument attempts to resolve issues between

two or more parties.

2. Argument is rational disagreement, but it canget emotional

3. Argument can result in agreement orcompromise.

4. Argument is angry people yelling at each other.

5. Argument is standing up for your ideas,

defending them, and minimizing theopposition by being persuasive.

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What would happen if a society

decided to outlaw all forms of

argument?

1. Everyone would think the same thing

2. There would not be any progress3. There would be no new knowledge

4. Life would be boring

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Definition of Argument

TraditionalThe goal of argument is to bring about a change in an audiences

initial position on a controversial issue. Depending on the

situation and audience, at times this goal is achieved by an

arguer who presents a claim along with reasons and evidence

to convince an audience to agree with the position taken.

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Examples of Traditional Argument

Public Debate-candidates for public office who want toconvince their audiences to side with them and accept theirpoints of view.

Courtroom argument

Single perspective argument-one person develops aperspective and argues to convince a mass audience to agreewith it.

One-on-one everyday argument

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Definition of Argument

ConsensualAt other times arguers create the possibility of agreement by

acknowledging different points of view and working to identify

one view or a combination of views that are acceptable to

most or all audience members.

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Examples of Consensual Argument

Dialectic-two or more people participate as

equals in a dialogue to try and discover what

seems to be the best position on an issue.

Academic Inquiry-to discover through reading,discussion and writing, new views, new

knowledge, and new truths about complex

issues.

Negotiation and mediation

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Argument vs. Persuasion

ARGUMENT is to discover some version of the truth, using

evidence and reason.

The aim of PERSUASION is to change the point of view or to

move others from conviction to action.

In other words, writers or speakers argue to discover sometruth; they persuade when they think they know it.

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Argument vs. Persuasion

Argument (discover a truth) Conviction

Persuasion (know the truth) Action

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The basic method that argument of both types

employs can be described as:

Making a claimexpressing a point of view on an issue that iscommunicated by the arguer and

Supporting it with reasons and evidence to convince an audienceto change the way its participant think about the issue.

All forms of productive argument include these components.

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When Arguments Work Best

An Issue -an argument needs to have as its

central focus an issue that has not yet been

settled.

An Arguer -a person who is motivated to initiatethe argument, to take on the issue, to obtain and

consider information, and to communicate a

position to others.

An Audience -an audience willing to listen to or

read and consider new views or perspectives

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When Arguments Work Best

Common Ground -the establishment of somecommon ground between the audience andarguer that is relevant to the issue.

A Forum -People need forums for an argumentso they can feel creative and know they will beheard.

Audience Outcomes -successful arguments

should produce changes in the audience.

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When Argument Fails

No disagreement or reason to argue -noarguments can take place when there is no realdisagreement.

Risky or trivial issues -Big or risky problems thatmay call for radical change are difficult to argue.

Difficulty in establishing common ground

Standoffs or fights which result in negative

outcomes

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Review

1. What did you think when you encountered theword argument? Has your opinion changed?

2. What are 3 examples to illustrate the

statement: Argument is everywhere3. Describe a traditional argument and aconsensual argument.

4. What are some conditions necessary for

argument to work best?5. What are some conditions that may cause

argument to fail?

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Activity

In pairs discuss and record characteristics and interests you

have in common. (5 min)

Combine pairs (4) discuss and record interests all have in

common (5 min)

Each group gives one minute report on what they have incommon.

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RHETORICALSITUATION

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Rhetorical Situation

Text-the written argument, which has thecharacteristics you can analyze.

Reader or audience-for the text must care enough toread and pay attention.

Author-writes an argument to convince a particularaudience.

Constraints-includes the people, events,circumstances that constrain an audience to analyze

and react in a particular way. Exigence-part of the situation that signals that

something controversial has occurred or is present.

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Use Rhetorical Situation When You

Write an Argument

The context for argument: exigence and

constraints that influence both author and

audience

You, the author The audienceThe text

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Rhetorical Situation as Writer

Exigence: What is motivating you to write onthis issue?

Reader/Audience: Who is going to read/hearthis?

Constraint: Will your values and attitudes driveyou and your opponent apart or will they helpyou develop common ground?

Author: What do you know? What do you need

to learn? Text: What should your argument look like?

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CLAIMSTypes of Claims establishing purpose and organization

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Claim

What do you, as the writer, intend to prove?

Synonyms: thesis, controlling idea, main point, proposition

The claim is the main point of the argument.

Identifying the claim as soon as possible helps you focus on

what the argument is about.

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Types of Claims: Establishing

Purpose and Organization

Claims of Fact

Claims of Definition

Claims of Cause Claims of Value

Claims of Policy

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Claims of Fact

Answers the questions: Did it happen? Does it exist?

Can be an apparent statement of fact, not everyone may not

agree.

These facts need to be proven as either absolutely true in

order for audience acceptance.

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Examples

Women are as effective as men in combat

The ozone layer is becoming depleted

Big foot exists

Men need women to civilize them

It may turn out that the digital divideone of

the most fashionable political slogans or recentyearsis largely fiction.

Newsweek, March 25, 2002

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Organization for Claims of Fact

Chronological order: traces what has occurredover a period, usually in the order in which itoccurred, can be used to develop claims of fact

Claim with reasons may used to organize a fact

paper The claim of fact itself is often stated near the

beginning of the argument unless there is apsychological advantage for stating it at the end.

Most authors make claims a fact clear from theonset

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Factual support is appropriate for claims of fact

Support includes:

Facts

Statistics

Real examples

Quotations from reliable sources

When reliable authorities are used, thequotations are usually based on fact and less

on opinion

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Claims of Definition

Answers the questions: What is it? How should we define it?

Entire arguments can center around the definition of a term.

Definition is also used as a type of support, often at the

beginning , to establish the meaning of one or more key

terms.

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Example

The debate is solely about biomedical cloning for lifesaving

medical research.

New York Times op-ed, April 25, 2002

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Organization for Claims of

Definition

Compare and contrasttwo or more aspects arecompared and contrasted throughout the essay.

Topical Organizationseveral qualities,characteristics, or features of the word orconcept are identified and explained.

Main types of support are references to reliableauthorities and accepted sources to establishclear definitions and meanings.

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Claims of Cause

Answers the questions: What caused it? Or, what are its

effects?

People often disagree about what causes something to

happen, and they disagree about the effects

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Examples

Overeating causes diseases and early death

A healthy economy causes people to have faithin their political leaders

Sending infants to daycare results in

psychological problems later in life

The important issue, then, it whetherantidepressants truly worsen the potential for

suicide.New York Times, May 25, 2004

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Organization for Claims of Cause

Describe the cause and then the effects

Effects may be described and then the cause or

causes

Support for establishing cause-and-effectrelationship is: Factual data including real examples and statistics

Signs of certain causes and effects can also be used

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Claims of Value

Answers the questions: It is good or bad? What

criteria will help us decide?

Aims at establishing whether the item being

discussed is good or bad, valuable or notvaluable, desirable or not desirable.

It is often necessary to establish goodness or

badness and apply them to the subject to show

why something should be considered good or

bad.

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Examples

Private schools vs. public schools

Dogs make the best pets

Science fiction novels are more interesting than romance

novels

Computers are a valuable addition to modern society

Viewing television is a wasteful activity

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Detroit is a town of engineers, and engineers like to believe that

there is some connection between the success of a vehicle

and its technical merits.

The New Yorker, January 12, 2004

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Organization of Claims of Value

Applied criteria: criteria for evaluation areestablished and then applied to the subject athand.

Make the claim and add a list of reasons why it is

good or bad. Appeals to valuesthe arguer appeals to what

the audience is expected to value.

A sense of common, shared system of values

between the arguer and audience is importantfor the argument to be convincing.

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Support for Claims of Value

Motivational appeals that suggest what theaudience wants are also important for theargument to be convincing.

People place value on things they work to

achieve Quotations from authorities who are admired

help establish judgments of good or bad

Examples can be used to establish that

something is good or bad Definitions are used to clarify the criteria

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Claims of Policy

Answer the questions: What should we do about it? What

should be our future course of action?

Describes a problem and then suggests ways to solve it

Deciding what to do in the face of problems has always been

one of the major purposes of argument.

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Examples

We should stop spending so much on wars and start spending

more on education

Every person in the United States should have access to health

care

Low income families should receive health care from thegovernment

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It would benefit every man, woman, and

child in this country, and it would hurt noone, to demolish prisons and replacethem with much smaller, locked, secureresidential schools and colleges in which

the residents could acquire as mucheducation a their intelligence andcuriosity would permit.

Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 1978.

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Organization for Claims of Policy

Problem-solutionthe problem is first described in detail that

the audience will want a solution. Then the solution is spelled

out.

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Support Data and statistics

Moral and common sense appeals Motivational appeals-the audience needs to be motivated

to think or act in a different way

Appeals to values-the audience becomes convinced it

should follow a policy to achieve important values Comparisons to what other groups have done

Quotations from authorities

Cause to establish origin of the problem and definition

used to clarify it Examples can be useful to show extent of the problem and

how things might turn out if accepted

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PROOF

Supporting the Claim

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Traditional Categories of Proof

Aristotles Rhetoric, written somewhere between 360 and 334

B.C., is a key text in the history of argument.

He goes into detail about broad categories of proof that can

be used to establish the probability of the claim.

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Aristotle distinguishes between proofs that can be producedand laid on the table like a murder weapon, fingerprints, or awritten contract and proofs that are invented and representthe creative thinking and insights of clever intelligent people.

He divides the second category into three subcategories.

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Logical Proofslogos

Proof that establishes ethos

Emotional Proofpathos

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Types of Logical Proof: Logos

Argument from Sign A specific visible sign is sometimes used to prove

a claim.

A sign can prove with certainty

Someone breaks out with chicken pox and theclaim is that the person with chicken pox

A sign can prove the probability of a claim

A race riot, is probably the sign of the claim

people think they are treated unfairly

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Argument from Induction

Provides a number of examples and draws a

claim in the form of a conclusion.

Also called argument from generalization orargument from example

An inductive argument uses examples to lead

into a claim or generalization about the

examples.

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Argument from Deduction

A deductive argument leads from a general principle, applies it

to an example or specific case, which is described in the

support and draws a conclusion which is the claim.

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Argument from Cause

Places the subject of the argument in a cause-and-effectrelationship to show that it is either the cause of an effect orthe effect of a cause.

Can serve as an organizational pattern

Historians frequently use argument from cause.

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Argument from Historical, Literal, or Figurative Analogy

Explore similarities and differences between items in the same

general category

We interpret what we do no know in light of what we do

know.

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Historical analogies explain what is going on nowin terms of what went on in similar cases in thepast. Future outcomes are often projected frompast cases

Literal analogies compare tow items in the samecategorywhat happened in one case willhappen in the other.

Figurative analogies compare items from twodifferent categories, as in metaphor, are usuallyspelled out in more detail than in a metaphor.Effective only when used to identify realqualities.

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Argument from Definition Definition is extremely important in an

argument.

It is very difficult to argue about anything unless

there is general agreement about the meaningsof key terms.

This is especially true when they are part ofclaim.

Sometimes an entire argument is based on theaudiences acceptance of a certain meaning of akey term.

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Argument from Statistics

Statistics describe relationships among data,people, occurrences, and events in the realworld, only they do so quantitatively.

Modern readers have considerable faith innumbers and statistics.

Read statistical proofs carefully to determine

where they came from and how reliable,accurate, and relevant they are.

P f th t B ild C dibilit

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Proof that Builds Credibility:

Ethos The materials provided in an argument that help the audience

gain a favorable impression of the arguer or the authoritiesand experts the arguer cites or quotes help create ethos orthe credibilityof the author.

The other way is to quote others or to use arguments from

authority.

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Argument from Authority

We are usually inclined to accept the opinions and factualevidence of people who are authorities or experts in theirfields.

Authors sometimes establish their own credentials by makingreferences to various types of past experiences that qualify

them to write about their subject.

T f E ti l P f

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Types of Emotional Proof:

Pathos

Emotional proofs are appropriate in argument

when the subject itself is emotional and when it

creates strong feelings in both the writer and the

reader.

Types of emotional proof focus on motivation

(what people want) and on values (what we

consider good or bad, favorable or unfavorable,

acceptable or unacceptable.

T f E ti l P f

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Pathos Motivational Proofs

Some proofs appeal explicitly to what all audiences are supposedto want

Authors sometimes appeal to the opposites of these needs andvalues to motivate people to change their behavior.

The purpose of motivational proof is to urge the audience to takeprescribed steps to meet an identifiable need.

T f E ti l P f

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Pathos Value Proofs

Some proofs appeal to what all audiences are expected to valuesuch as fairness, reliability, honesty, loyalty, patriotism,dependability, creativity, equality and devotion to duty.

For example the author that argues for policies and laws that

protect the environment is assuming you (the audience) valuesthe environment.

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Fallacies

Authors sometimes resort to using misleadingevidence and faulty reasoning when they try tobe convincing.

Fallacies can seem convincing when they appear

to support what the audience already believes orwants to believe.

When you are tempted to believe an argumentthat does not seem logical consider why you aretempted to believe it.

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Fallacies

Recognize a fallacy by asking:

Is this material relevant?

Is it adequate?

It is true or is it distorted?

Is it oversimplified or exaggerated?

Does it support the claim?

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Fallacies

Avoid quoting sources that contain fallacies

Avoid using them in your own writing

Fallacies in your own writing, whether created by you or by

the authors you choose to quote, weaken your argument and

damage your ethos.

Documents

Argument 101