Chapter 15 Argument: Writing to Persuade

Chapter 15 Argument:
Writing to Persuade

Writing Argument

Persuasion is a broad term. When we persuade, we try to influence people to think in a certain way or to do something.

Argument is persuasion on a topic about which reasonable people disagree. Argument involves controversy. Whereas exercising appropriately is probably not controversial because reasonable people do not dispute the idea, an issue such as gun control is. In this chapter, we will be concerned mainly with the kind of persuasion that involves argument.

Techniques for Developing Argument

Statements of argument are informal or formal. An opinion column in a newspaper is likely to have little set structure, whereas an argument in college writing is likely to be tightly organized. Nervertheless, the opinion column and the college paper have much in common. Both provide a proposition, which is the main point of the argument, and both provide pupport, which is the evidence of the reasons that back up the proposition.

For a well – structured college paragraph or essay, an organizing plan is desirable. Consider these elements when you write an argument, and ask yourself the following question as you develop your ideas:

• Background: What is the historical or social context for this controversial issue?
• Proposition (the thesis of the essay): What do I want my audience to believe or to do?
• Qualification of proposition: Can I limit my proposition so that those who disagree cannot easily challenge me with exceptions? If, for example, I am in favor of using animals for scientific experimentation, am I concerned only with medical experiments or with any use, including experiments for the cosmetic industry?
• Refutation (taking the opposing view into account, mainly to point out its fundamental weakness): What is the view on the other side, and why is it flawed in reasoning or evidence?
• Support: In addition to sound reasoning, can I use appropriate facts, examples, statistics, and opinions of authorities?

Your Audience

Your audience may be uninformed, informed, biased, hostile, receptive, apathetic, sympathetic, and empathetic – any one, several, or something else. The point is that you should be acutely concerned about who will read your composition. If your readers are likely to be uninformed about the social and historical background of the issue, then you need to set the issue in context. The discussion of the background should lead to the problem for which you have a proposition or solution. If your readers are likely to be biased or even hostile to your view, take special care to refute the opposing side in a thoughtful, incisive way that does not further antagonize them. If your readers are already receptive and perhaps even sympathetic, and you wish to move them to action, then you might appeal to their conscience and the need for their commitment.

Kinds of Evidence

In addition to sound reasoning generally, you can use these kinds of evidence: facts, examples, statistics, and authorities.

• First, you can offer facts. Some facts are readily accepted because they are general knowledge – you and your reader know them to be true, because they can be or have been verified. Other “facts” are based on personal observation and are reported in various publications but may be false or questionable.
• Second, you can cite examples. Keep in mind that you must present a sufficient number of examples and that the examples must be relevant.
• Avoid presenting a long list of figures; select statistics carefully and relate them to things familiar to your reader.
• Third, you can present statistics. Statistics are numerical facts and data that are classified and tabulated to present significant information about a given subject.
• Fourth, you can cite evidence from, and opinions of, authorities. Most readers accept facts from recognized, reliable source – governmental publication, standard reference works, and books and periodicals published by established firms. In addition, they will accept evidence and opinions from individuals who, because of their knowledge and experience, are recognized as experts.

In using authoritative source as proof, keep these points in mind:

• Select authorities who are generally recognized as experts in their field.
• Use authorities who qualify in the field pertinent to your argument.
• Select authorities whose views are not biased.
• Try to use several authorities.
• Identify the authority's credentials clearly in your essay.

Logical Fallacies

Certain thought patterns are inherently flawed. Commonly called logical fallacies, these thought patterns are of primary concern in argument. You should be able to identify them in the arguments of those on the other side of an issue, and you should be sure to avoid them in your own writing.

Eight kinds of logical fallacies are very common.

• Post hoc,ergo proter hoc (“after this, therefore because of this”): When one event precedes another in time, the first is assumed to cause the other. “If A comes before B, then A must be causing B.”
• False analogy: False analogies ignore differences and stress similarities, often in an attempt to prove something.
• Hasty generalization: This is a conclusion based on two few reliable instances.
• False dilemma: This fallacy presents the readers with only two alternatives from which to choose. The solution may lie elsewhere.
• Argumentum ad hominem: (argument against the person): This is the practice of abusing and discrediting your opponent rather than keeping to the main issues of that argument.
• Begging the question: The fallacy assumes something is true without proof. It occurs when a thinker assumes a position is right before offering proof.
• Circular reasoning: This thought pattern asserts proof that is no more than a repetition of the initial assertion.
• Non sequitur: This fallacy draws a conclusion that does not follow.

The basic pattern of a paragraph or an essay of persuaion or argument is likely to be in this form:

Proposition (the topic sentence of the paragraph or the thesis of the essay)

I. Support 1
II. Support 2
III. Support 3


Source:Brandon, Lee. Brandon, Kelly. Paragraphs and Essays with Integrated Readings, Tenth Edition. Boston, NY: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008