ARGUMENT 101

1. ARGUMENT 101

2. What do you think about when you see the word “argument”? • Argument attempts to resolve issues between two or more parties. • Argument is rational disagreement, but it can get emotional • Argument can result in agreement or compromise. • Argument is angry people yelling at each other. • Argument is standing up for your ideas, defending them, and minimizing the opposition by being persuasive.

3. What would happen if a society decided to outlaw all forms of argument? • Everyone would think the same thing • There would not be any progress • There would be no new knowledge • Life would be boring

4. Definition of Argument Traditional The goal of argument is to bring about a change in an audience’s 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.

5. Examples of Traditional Argument • Public Debate-candidates for public office who want to convince their audiences to side with them and accept their points of view. • Courtroom argument • Single perspective argument-one person develops a perspective and argues to convince a mass audience to agree with it. • One-on-one everyday argument

6. Definition of Argument Consensual At 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.

7. 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

8. 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 some truth; they persuade when they think they know it.

9. Argument vs. Persuasion Argument (discover a truth) Conviction Persuasion (know the truth) Action

10. The basic method that argument of both types employs can be described as: • Making a claim —expressing a point of view on an issue that is communicated by the arguer and • Supporting it with reasons and evidence to convince an audience to change the way its participant think about the issue. • All forms of productive argument include these components.

11. 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 initiate the 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

12. When Arguments Work Best • Common Ground -the establishment of some common ground between the audience and arguer that is relevant to the issue. • A Forum -People need forums for an argument so they can feel creative and know they will be heard. • Audience Outcomes -successful arguments should produce changes in the audience.

13. When Argument Fails • No disagreement or reason to argue -no arguments can take place when there is no real disagreement. • Risky or trivial issues -Big or risky problems that may call for radical change are difficult to argue. • Difficulty in establishing common ground • Standoffs or fights which result in negative outcomes

14. Review • What did you think when you encountered the word argument? Has your opinion changed? • What are 3 examples to illustrate the statement: “Argument is everywhere” • Describe a traditional argument and a consensual argument. • What are some conditions necessary for argument to work best? • What are some conditions that may cause argument to fail?

15. 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 in common.

16. RHETORICAL SITUATION

17. Rhetorical Situation • Text-the written argument, which has the characteristics you can analyze. • Reader or audience-for the text must care enough to read and pay attention. • Author-writes an argument to convince a particular audience. • 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.

18. Use Rhetorical Situation When You Write an Argument The context for argument: exigence and constraints that influence both author and audience The audience You, the author The text

19. Rhetorical Situation as Writer • Exigence: What is motivating you to write on this issue? • Reader/Audience: Who is going to read/hear this? • Constraint: Will your values and attitudes drive you and your opponent apart or will they help you develop common ground? • Author: What do you know? What do you need to learn? • Text: What should your argument look like?

20. CLAIMS Types of Claims establishing purpose and organization

21. 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.

22. Types of Claims: Establishing Purpose and Organization • Claims of Fact • Claims of Definition • Claims of Cause • Claims of Value • Claims of Policy

23. 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.

24. 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 divide”—one of the most fashionable political slogans or recent years—is largely fiction.” Newsweek, March 25, 2002

25. Organization for Claims of Fact • Chronological order: traces what has occurred over a period, usually in the order in which it occurred, 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 a psychological advantage for stating it at the end. • Most authors make claims a fact clear from the onset

26. Factual support is appropriate for claims of fact • Support includes: • Facts • Statistics • Real examples • Quotations from reliable sources • When reliable authorities are used, the quotations are usually based on fact and less on opinion

27. 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.

28. Example • “The debate is solely about biomedical cloning for lifesaving medical research.” New York Times op-ed, April 25, 2002

29. Organization for Claims of Definition • Compare and contrast—two or more aspects are compared and contrasted throughout the essay. • Topical Organization—several qualities, characteristics, or features of the word or concept are identified and explained. • Main types of support are references to reliable authorities and accepted sources to establish clear definitions and meanings.

30. 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

31. Examples • Overeating causes diseases and early death • A healthy economy causes people to have faith in their political leaders • Sending infants to daycare results in psychological problems later in life • The important issue, then, it whether antidepressants truly worsen the potential for suicide. New York Times, May 25, 2004

32. 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-effect relationship is: • Factual data including real examples and statistics • Signs of certain causes and effects can also be used

33. 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 not valuable, 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.

34. 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

35. 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

36. Organization of Claims of Value • Applied criteria: criteria for evaluation are established and then applied to the subject at hand. • Make the claim and add a list of reasons why it is good or bad. • Appeals to values—the arguer appeals to what the audience is expected to value. • A sense of common, shared system of values between the arguer and audience is important for the argument to be convincing.

37. Support for Claims of Value • Motivational appeals that suggest what the audience wants are also important for the argument 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

38. 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.

39. 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 the government

40. “It would benefit every man, woman, and child in this country, and it would hurt no one, to demolish prisons and replace them with much smaller, locked, secure residential schools and colleges in which the residents could acquire as much education a their intelligence and curiosity would permit.” Chronicle of Higher Education, October 16, 1978.

41. Organization for Claims of Policy • Problem-solution—the problem is first described in detail that the audience will want a solution. Then the solution is spelled out.

42. 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

43. PROOFSupporting the Claim

44. Traditional Categories of Proof • Aristotle’s 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.

45. Traditional Categories of Proof • Aristotle distinguishes between proofs that can be produced and laid on the table like a murder weapon, fingerprints, or a written contract and proofs that are invented and represent the creative thinking and insights of clever intelligent people. • He divides the second category into three subcategories.

46. Traditional Categories of Proof • Logical Proofs—logos • Proof that establishes ethos • Emotional Proof—pathos

47. 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 the claim 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

48. Types of Logical Proof: Logos • Argument from Induction • Provides a number of examples and draws a claim in the form of a conclusion. • Also called argument from generalization or argument from example • An inductive argument uses examples to lead into a claim or generalization about the examples.

49. Types of Logical Proof: Logos • 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.

50. Types of Logical Proof: Logos • Argument from Cause • Places the subject of the argument in a cause-and-effect relationship to show that it is either the cause of an effect or the effect of a cause. • Can serve as an organizational pattern • Historians frequently use argument from cause.