Strategies of Argumentation

Examples

  • Well chosen examples are the most basic kind of evidence
    • Clarifies the reality behind an idea
    • Shows what you mean
    • Helps readers pay attention and understand 
  • Illustration is an extended example
  • For examples and illustrations to work well you need reasons to justify them. Reasons answer the question why?
  • Well-chosen examples and illustrations combined with logical reasons are the basic building blocks

 \n Authorities 

  • Authorities are experts in the field who are respected, reliable, and trustworthy
    • Cite them to support or to challenge opinions
    • Carry weight and can be persuasive
  • Guidelines for using Authorities
    • Look at their credentials. Determine what they are and what others say about them
    • Is authority biased?
    • Try not to overuse authority. Don’t cite too many experts as you don’t want your argument to seem like a compilation of their opinions as opposed to a synthesis of your own understanding

 \n Statistics

  • Numeral, objective facts
  • Often persuasive; express information clearly and concisely
  • Appeal to logos and pathos 
  • Rarely stand alone
    • Usually require an expert to interpret or draw inferences from them
    • Opinions are usually attached to them
    • Pay attention to words that introduce statistics
  • Can be easily manipulated to fool readers or be misleading
    • Need to be able to judge whether the numbers have been used appropriately
  • Example
    • What if 50% of young women playing high school football in the United States quit during the last 5 years?
    • Make sure to ask 50% of what
      • If only 20 women played football, then that means 10 quit but 10 played

 \n Contraries

  • Arguing with contraries involves examining opposites to see how they relate to each other, indeed depend on each other
  • Contradictions
    • “A condition in which things tend to be contrary to each other”
    • Useful because they help you think
    • Spark arguments
    • Notice them
  • Paradoxes
    • “A statement that seems contradictory, unbelievable, or absurd but may actually be true”
    • Ex: “Hurts so good” by John Mellencamp

 \n Comparison

  • Extremely used and natural way to present ideas and evidence
    • Show similarities and differences
    • Helps your audience understand a point you are trying to make 
  • Block
    • Each topic gets its own paragraph
  • Point by Point/Alternating
    • Interweaving of two subjects
    • Helps to explain and show the close connections between the two topics
  • Can also use a combination of the two strategies if it flows…

 \n Refutation 

  • Disproving a person's argument
    • Does not prove you are right, only that your opponent is wrong 
  • Requires making s claim and supporting it clearly with specific evidence
  • Point out counterarguments and flaws
    • Reflects on a writer’s ethos
    • Don’t attack your readers
    • Persuade them to change their mind

 \n Induction and Deduction

  • Inductive Reasoning
    • Give your examples first and then make your claim about them-generalization
    • Seldom proves the generalization
    • The more examples you have to support a claim, the more reliable that claim is 
    • Specific example
    • Specific example
    • Specific example
    • Generalization
  • Activity 3 pg.90 
  • Deductive Reasoning 
    • General laws predict specific examples or instances 
    • Start with general knowledge and predict specific observation 
    • Generalization
    • Specific example
    • Specific example
    • Specific example

 \n Cause and effect

  • Examine problems and to present information
  • Persuade readers to care about the problem and address it
  • Another lens which to see and analyze problems
  • The more complex the problem, the greater the system of causes and effects 

 \n Narration and Description

  • Narration
    • Telling events, usually in chronological order
    • In both formal and informal arguments
    • Often useful in supporting a claim
    • Can be considered testimonial or “anecdotal”
  • Description
    • Making visual pictures with words
    • Using concrete details on sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch
  • Purpose
    • Engage readers interest and support arguments

 \n Classification

  • Naturally divide things and sort them into categories or groups
  • Argue a point, not to show that you can classify things
  • Avoid trivial or obvious classifications
    • “There are three kinds of cars: small, medium, and large ”
  • Use categories to develop and defend a claim
    • Generates analysis
    • Helps you see distinctions within a complex topic
    • Idea, process, event, or group of people

 \n Analogy

  • Extended comparison between unlike things
  • Focus on resemblance to clarify complex things
  • Provide images that help readers visualize and understand meaning
  • Persuade audiences but do not prove arguments
  • But they can weaken arguments
    • Not considered strong forms of evidence because they involve imagination 
    • Cannot be verified
    • Can be oversimplified
    • Leading to False Analogy fallacy

 \n Humor

  • Can cause laughter and delight but can also expose serious problems and even suggests surprising ways to solve those problems
  • Humorous Tone
    • Help readers have a good time
    • Usually toward the beginning
  • Humor as Satire
    • Helps you see the problems in a new perspective
    • Exposes how foolish, unwise, or immoral something or someone is
    • Saturday Night Live

 \n Definition

  • Define words
  • Help you communicate clearly and persuasively
  • Reflects strong logos and ethos
  • Look up works that you don’t know
    • Keep digging
    • Definition might not work
    • Connotation vs. Denotation
  • Trace the roots of words to learn more
    • Etymology 
    • Where it came from
    • History of the word