Evidence and Reasoning What are Content Premises? Premises in Persuasion rely on: people’s ability to think rationally and logically Success or failure of any argument or claim relies on: underlying premises believed by the audience Example: AIDS is deadly, criminals are undesirable, etc. Content Premises Are logical patterns we have learned over time Cause effect reasoning – We believe that events have causes and when certain things happen, other things will follow (consequences) Problems also have causes, and when we remove the cause, the problem is eliminated Therefore, persuader needs to present evidence as proof Types of Evidence Dramatic Evidence Narratives – rely on the audience’s ability to project themselves into the context or situation described by the persuader Testimony – persuader might read eyewitness account or share is or her personal experience Anecdotes – short narrative to make a point Participation or demonstration Rational Evidence Appeals to our logic in a non dramatic, intellectual way Types of Reasoning Cause to effect reasoning (because of this, then this) Effect to cause reasoning – persuader cites known effects and works back to the cause Reasoning from symptoms – persuader identifies symptom(s) and tries to conclude something from them. Criteria to application reasoning – persuader presents specific criteria (cell phone commercial) Reasoning from analogy or comparison- persuader compares or uses analogy (something familiar to demonstrate something unfamiliar) Types of Reasoning Deductive Reasoning – reasoning from general to specific conclusion Inductive reasoning – from specific to general conclusion Common Fallacies “Fallacy” – “deceptive apearance, false mistaken idea… often plausible argument using false or invalid inference” Ad hominem: attacking the person instead of the argument Ad populum: (bandwagon): assumption that something is popular therefore good The undistributed middle: “guilt by association”, a group, individual or philosophy shares one aspect or attribute with another, so it shares all Source: Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition Common Fallacies The straw man argument: setup a weak or “straw” man case and defeat it Post Hoc, ergo propter hoc (After this, therefore because of this): because B followed A, A must have caused B The Toulmin Format Stephen Toulmin develop format for everyday logical persuasion saying any logical argument has 3 parts: Claim – What the persuader wants to prove (the existence of a problem) Claims of fact (can be verifiable) Claims of value (approval or disaproval) Claims of policy (we should, we ought to…) Data – support (evidence) Warrant – relates/connect the claim and data APA Style In-text Citation Provide the author’s last name and the date of publication. Similarly, Rogers’ (1995) diffusion theory shows that, without successful policy initiatives, the existing socio economic status of different segments of people will structure the diffusion of technological innovations. For example, in studying the Sesame Street effect, researchers showed that children from higher socio-economic status achieve more educationally than children from lower socio-economic status even in similar educational settings (Attewell and Battle,1999). In-text Citation When there is no author / date 1. No author: mention the title of the document According to a BBC article, chimpanzees at sites in West Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda exhbit culture-specific patterns of behavior when grooming one another (“Chimps,” 1999) 2. No date: use the abbreviation “n.d.” Attempts to retrun sign-language-using apes to the wild have had mixed results (Smith, n.d.) Reference Style Guideline 1. Book, single author Anderson, B. (1983). Imagined communities. New York: Verso. 2. Book, multiple authors Strunk, W. & White, E. B. (1979). The elements of style. New York: Macmillan. 3. Book chapter, from edited book Roll, W.P. (1976). ESP and memory. In J. M. Wheatly & H. L. Edge (Eds.). Philosophical dimensions of parapsychology (pp. 154-184). Springfield, IL: American Psychiatric Press. Reference Style Guideline 4. Journal article Bucy, E. & Gregson, K. (2001). Media participation: A legitimizing mechanism of mass democracy, New Media and Society, 3, 357-380. 5. Magazine Article Shea, R. H. (2002, October 28). E-learning today. U.S. News & World Report, 133, 54-56. 6. Articles from an online periodical (Internet articles based on a print source) Ways, J. (2000). Power elite. [Electronic version]. Social science research, 29, 535-555. Reference Style Guideline 7. Articles from an Internet only journal VandenBos, G. (2001). Trend in deliberation research. Journal of Public Deliberation. Retrieved March 28, 2006, from http://www.osu.edu/~sj/~deliberation. 8. Non-periodical Internet document Cain, A. P. (1999, April). Investigation of the use of mobile phones while driving. Retrieved March 30, 2006, from http://www.cutr.eng.usf.edu/its/mobile. 9. Motion picture, television broadcasts, etc. Soderbergh, S. (Director). (2000). Traffic [Motion picture]. United States: Gramercy Pictures. Participation Assignment Find a source concerning one of your topics E-mail me (beam.33@osu.edu) an example intext citation and the corresponding reference line Due before next class Researching Online Research Assignment In one typed, single-spaced page: List at least five sources in APA format presented in Hacker Under each source, write a one paragraph annotation in which you briefly describe what information the source contains and how it is relevant to your topic (e.g., if it is relevant to developing the exigency argument, explain what points in your argument are supported by the source). In one sentence, indicate why you think the source is credible, especially for your audience. One reference must be from an academic journal