Everything’s
An Argument
Reading Arguments
 Life
is full of arguments. All verbal and
visual messages, in a sense, contain
arguments, sometimes implicit arguments
about who you are and what you value.
Purposes of Argument:

Win (in changing someone’s mind)

Inform - tell the audience something they didn’t know - street signs, newspaper headlines
“Deficit at 3 Trillion $”

Convince – persuasion – any written or visual argument trying to make someone believe
something – ads “You must buy now to save $100”, “You should try a tasty Big Mac”

Explore – look at multiple sides or aspects of an issue to better understand it – James Fallows
article about the US in 2016 to theorize about how the economy will be doing and to look at
the issues that would change the future for the better

Make Decisions – often connected to arguments to explore, once you understand the issues
you come up with a sound decision about how to proceed. Fallows for example talks
about how education is essential to the US remaining competitive, so his decision in the
present might be to increase funding for public schools and universities.

Meditate or Pray – when the writer, speaker, or thinker aims to transform or better understand
something within him or herself. These types of arguments involve deep introspection in
which the thinker attempts to grapple with complex issues or see the world in a new more
accurate way. Simply stopping at a church to look at stained glass windows demands
reflection and thought in a way that ordinary windows do not.
Persuasion:
 The
aim of persuasion is to change a point
of view or to move others from conviction
to action. So writers or speakers argue to
discover some truth; then they persuade
when they think they already know it.
Both argument and persuasion are
basically synonyms for our purposes.
Rhetoric:
 The
art of persuasion. The study of
rhetoric is the study of how and why
argument works
Occasions for Argument:

Argue about the Past – called forensic arguments – “Was the defendant at
the diner on the night of the murder?” , “Did the little brother actually put
away all the toys before dinner even though one is now out on the floor?”
These rely on evidence and testimony to re-create what can be known about
events that have already occurred. They also rely on cause and effect.

Argue about the Present – often take the form of arguments about
contemporary values – the ethical premises and assumptions that are widely
held or contested within a society. Generally an argument about the present
will praise what is admirable and blame what is not. Example about how rap
has gotten worse after Tupac died, now it is all about money and fame.

Argue about the Future – debates about what will or should happen in the
future are called deliberative arguments. Politics is in many ways a big
deliberative body trying to decide how the future should look. “Should
abortion be legal?”, “Should same sex couples be allowed to marry?” These
arguments try to project or extrapolate things into the future… “If same sex
couples are allowed to marry, it will …” and some would say encourage
marriage or destroy marriage based on their beliefs.
Kinds of Argument:

Arguments of Fact:
Usually involves a statement that
can be proved or disproved through specific evidence or
testimony. The defendant either was or was not at the
scene of the crime. Global warming – is it occurring or not?

Argument of Definition: Concerns an argument that tries to
determine whether one known object or action belongs in
a second – and more highly contested – category. Is a
human fetus a human being?

Arguments of Evaluation: These arguments are questions
of quality. We will have students in this class love a book
while the student sitting next to them dislikes it. They both
evaluate the book differently and must support their
evaluations with arguments.
Three Types of Appeals: defined by Aristotle, the Greek
philosopher, 2500 years ago as three ways that you can
argue successfully. Whenever we do rhetorical analysis,
always look to see if you recognize the various appeals at
work.

Pathos: emotional appeals or appeals to the heart – You could argue that the US
needs to provide funds for medicine to Africa by citing a list of facts and figures
about Africans suffering from disease, but a picture of a little girl thin and dying and
the explanation that she would be fine if she just had the right medicine might work
better.

Ethos: ethical appeals or appeals based on the writer’s authority and credibility –
In this sense, ethos means presentation of self. Audiences will respond well to
writers or speakers who seem authoritative or trustworthy, and that show they share
values and respect the audience.

Logos: logical appeals or appeals to reason – Inductive reasoning is the process of
drawing a generalization on the basis of a number of specific examples.
Deductive reasoning is when you reach a conclusion by assuming a general
principle (called the major premise) and then applying that principle to a specific
case (called the minor premise).
DO: 1) Analyze/Discuss – What kind of
arguments are made by the following
things?
 Security
cameras in a school
 Holding open the door for someone (a woman, a
child, an older person)
 Driving a sleek looking fast sports car
 Owning a library card
2) Analyze/Discuss – What do the following
objects, brand names, symbols evoke for
different audiences?
 Wearing
a cowboy hat
 The McDonalds Golden Arches
 A one hundred dollar bill
 Dying your hair pink or blue