Purpose and Aim
Argument is not in itself an end or a purpose of communication. It is
rather a means of discourse, a way of developing what we have to say.
We can identify four primary aims that argument helps us accomplish:
Inquiry, Conviction, Persuasion, Negotiation.
~ Timothy Crusius & Carolyn Channell
An Amalgamation
 Of the ideas in
 Aims of Argument by Timothy Crusius & Carolyn
Channell
 Reading Rhetorically by John Bean, Virginia Chappell,
and Alice Gillam
 Argument Culture by Deborah Tannen
 Cali Linfor’s mind
Some Definitions of Argument from the Study of Critical
Thinking
 A claim or proposition put
forward along with reasons
or evidence supporting it. ~
Kathleen Dean Moore
 An attempt to support a
conclusion by giving
reasons for it. ~ Robert
Ennis

A group of propositions of
which one, the conclusion,
is claimed to follow from
the others, which are
premises. ~ Irving M. Copi
 How Neutral!
To what purpose …
“The purpose of argument is to change the nature of
truth.” ~ Frank Herbert
And what do we do with this changed truth?
AIMS OF ARGUMENTS
WHAT DO WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE?
 Inquire: the truth
 Convince: agreement
 Persuade: action
 Negotiate: census
Comparison of
the Aims
Purpose
Audience
Situation
Method
Seeks Truth
Oneself,
friends,
and collogues
Informal:
A dialogue,
A safe place
Questions
Prompts
Seeks agreement
to thesis
Less intimate:
Seeks careful
reasoning
More formal:
A monologue
Casemaking
(Competitive)
Seeks action, to
influence
behavior
More broadly
public,
Less academic
Pressing need
for a decision
Appeals to
Reason and
Emotion, uses the
resources of language
fully
Negotiating
Seeks consensus
Polarized
by differences
Need to
cooperate,
and preserve
relations
Finding common
ground
Inquiring
(Collaborative)
Convincing
(Competitive)
Persuading
(Collaborative)
American Culture and
Argument
(See Deborah Tannen’s Argument Culture)
 Competitive Arguing is
emphasized. (Convincing
and persuading)
 Collaborative Arguing is
not taught or often even
recognized. (Inquiring and
negotiating)
In elementary, school we learn
about author’s purpose
 To inform or teach
 To entertain
 To persuade/convince
 Share feelings (Maybe)
As we age, the list gets
bigger…
 instruct, persuade, inform, entertain, educate,
startle, excite, sadden, enlighten, punish, console,
express, reflect, explore, analyze, interpret, take a
stand, evaluate, judge, propose a solution, call to
action, seek common ground…
 And people begin to to confuse purpose with the
patterns of organization: describe, compare, order,
and so on.
 Why are they doing that????
We need to move students to think
about the process as much a the
product.
My explanation of the aims
is

to give you the theoretical basis to assist your students in understanding
the role of author’s purpose in writing and reading

to assist you in teaching students to separate purpose from the other
parts of an argument

to help you use purpose to assist students in finding the main argument
and in seeing its connections to other elements of the text such as genre

to aid you in helping students use purpose to evaluate the success of a
text

to model for you how be as exact as possible in the discussion of any text
you present to students

to help you create stronger prompts and rubrics through a deeper
understanding of the purpose you are setting for your students and what
it takes to be successful in achieving the purpose
Do Not Abuse the Aims!
 You do not need to
hammer your students
with the terms of aims. I
will do that in college.
 In most cases, a list of
purposes will do (except
inform—we hate inform
and oh any of the ones
learned in elementary
school.)
Sorting the Purposes
under the Aims
 In pairs, place the listed
purposes under the aims
they likely serve. You can
make an argument that some
purposes have more than
one aim. This is most likely
true when a text has more
than one audience.
 You may add more purposes
to this list. (Just not the
Patterns of Organization.
They are not purposes. They
are not genres.)
 Instruct, persuade,
inform, entertain,
educate, startle, excite,
sadden, enlighten,
punish, console, express,
anger, reflect, explore,
analyze, interpret, take a
stand, evaluate, judge,
propose a solution,
inspire, call to action,
and seek common
ground.
Inciting the emotions or a feeling
as a purpose for arguing
 Purposes








Entertain/Amuse
Excite
Sadden
Punish
Console
Anger
Inspire
Startle
Why do you want to do that?
 I assert
 Most of these
achievements of an
argument could be sorted
under any aim.
 They would largely always
be a part of a many
purposed text and often
secondary.
 More dominantly, they are
really a result of the
appeals we make to
forward our argument not
the purpose or
achievement of that
argument.
A closer look at the Aims
of Argument
Based on the work of Crusious and Channell
Circumstances
Motivation
Aim
Audience
Examples
Common Purposes to Each Aim
Under what circumstances do
we argue?
Everyday: As a citizen, As community member, As a consumer, In
relationships with family, friends, co-workers, and children
School and Work: As worker and student
Arguing to Inquire
It is better to debate a question without settling it
than to settle a question without debating it.
~Joseph Jourbert
Arguing as Inquiry
Circumstances
Motivation
Audience Examples
Seeking information
To make an intelligent decision,
reasonable to us and respected by
those we respect.
Oneself,
friends,
mentors,
teachers,
family
members,
colleagues,
those we trust
Finding solutions
Forming opinions
requiring some kind of
research
Questioning opinions
we already have
Confronting basic
philosophical
dilemmas
To increase our ability to face
complicated decisions.
To help us think through personal
and public dilemmas (two voices
conflicting, inside or outside)
To determine our success or
failure
Resolving dilemmas
To clarify own ideas
and understandings
Meeting new and often
unexpected challenges
To gain confidence in the
accuracy of our decisions
To explore ideas,
hypotheses, and systems
of belief
Advice seeking
Philosophical questioning
Product analysis
Informational research
Solution Meetings
Town Halls
Text Analysis Papers
Journals
(the formality of the
inquiry is shaped by
the the audience and
genre)
Your Examples?
“Center of Attention: The Gender of Sports Media”
by Michael Messner
Inquiry and its
Purposes
 Inquiry’s most common purposes are to





Express
Reflect
Explore
Analyze
Interpret
The Purposes of Inquiry
blended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam
Express and Reflect
Focus
Features
Writer’s
Literary
own life
Techniques
and
experiences
Offers
Readers
Desired
Response
Success
Examples
Share
emotional,
intellectual
experience
Readers
can
imagine
and
identify
with
author’s
experiences
Depends on
writer’s
ability to
create scene,
dialogue,
and
commentary
that engages
Nature
writer’s
essay
narrates
her
discoveries
when back
backing.
The Purposes of Inquiry
blended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam
Explore
Focus
Features
Offers
Readers
Desired
Response
Success
Examples
Puzzling
problems
while
showing
writer’s
thinking
processes
Delayed thesis
or no stated
thesis,
examination of
subject from
multiple
angles,
writer’s
thinking is
fore grounded
Shared
intellectual
experience,
new
information,
new
perspectives
Readers will
agree
question or
problem is
significant ,
identify with
writer’s
thinking,
and find
new insights
Depends on
writer’s
ability to
engage
reader with
question or
problem and
the
exploration
process
Nature
writer’s
essay
puzzles
over the
impact of
human use
on natural
areas
The Purposes of Inquiry
blended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam
Analyze and Interpret
Focus
Features
Offers
Readers
Desired
Response
Success
Examples
Phenomena
that are
difficult to
understand
or explain
Relatively
tentative
stance or
understood to
be so, thesis
supported by
evidence and
reasoning,
new and
unsettling
analysis,
interpretation
s must be
convincing,
doesn’t
assume
evidence
speaks for its
self
New way
of looking
at the
subject
matter
Readers will
grant writer
credibility as
analyst and
accept insight
offered or at
least
acknowledge
value of
approach
Depends on
writer’s
ability to
explain
reasoning
and connect
it with
phenomena
analyzed
Nature writer
pursues ideas
about
wilderness to
further in an
article
analyzing the
work of
several wellknow
environmental
thinkers
comparing
those ideas to
current laws
Arguing to
Convince
“I am not arguing with you - I am telling you.”
~ James Whistler
Arguing as Convincing
Circumstances
Motivation
Desiring of others to To get others to accept
share a conviction or the truths we claim to
understanding
have reached
Creating a shared
understanding to
proceed
Needing agreement
from others
To gain assent from
others
To secure the assent of
an audience by means of
reason rather than by
force.
Needing to make a
case for our
thinking—to defend
To defeat lesser ideas
it
Putting our ideas
against others to
win
To create order of
operations or of a group
Audience Examples
Can be the
same as
inquiry but
tends to be
less
intimate.
A lawyer’s brief
Newspaper
editorials
Case studies
More
broadly
academic.
Evaluation Paper
Can be
hostile,
friendly or
neutral
Recipe
Seeks
careful
reasoning
A Manuel
Your Examples?
 “Arrested Development: The Conservative Case
against Racial Profiling," James Forman Jr
Convincing and its
Purposes
 Convincing’s most common purposes are to





Inform
Explain
Take a Stand
Evaluate
Judge
The Purposes of
Convincing
blended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam
Inform and Explain
Focus
Features
Offers
Readers
Desired
Response
Success
Examples
Subject
Matter
Confident,
authoritative
stance, typically
states point and
purpose early,
strives for clarity,
provided
definitions and
examples, using
convincing
evidence without
argument
Significant,
perhaps
surprising,
new
information ;
presentation
tailored to
reader’s
interest and
presumed
knowledge
level
Readers will
grant writer
creditability
as an expert
and be
satisfied
with the
scope and
accuracy of
information
Depends on
writer’s
ability to
anticipate a
reader’s
needs and
ability to
understand
Nature
writer
prepares
opinion
piece
arguing in
favor of the
proposed
wilderness
designatio
n
The Purposes of
Convincing
blended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam
Take a Stand
Focus
Features
Offers
Readers
Desired
Response
Success
Examples
Question
that
divides a
community
States firm
position,
provides clear
reasons and
evidence,
connects with
readers’
values and
beliefs,
engages
opposing
views
Reasons to
make up or
change their
mind about a
question or
issue
Readers will
agree with
writer’s
position and
reasoning
Depends on
writer’s
ability to
provide
convincing
support and
counter
opposition
without
alienating
readers
Nature
writer’s
article
presents
rules and
process of
wilderness
designatio
n
The Purposes of
Convincing
blended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam
Evaluate and Judge
Focus
Features
Offers
Readers
Desired
Response
Success
Examples
Question
about worth
or value of a
phenomena
Organized
around
criteria for
judgment
and the
phenomena
matches
them
Reasons to
make up or
change
their minds
about the
focal
question
regarding
worth or
value
Readers will
accept the
writer’s view of
the
phenomena’s
worth or value
Depends
on writer’s
ability to
connect
subject to
criteria that
the reader
will accept
Nature writer
evaluates the
consequences
of
designating
wilderness
areas in other
states and
argues that
the benefits of
preservation
outweighs the
negatives of
limited access
Arguing to
Persuade
“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be
believable we must be credible; to be credible we
must be truthful.”
~ Edward Murrow
Arguing as Persuading
Circumstances
Motivation
Determining a public
policy
To call to action
Deciding right and
wrong
To change a behavior
Audience Examples
Differ from
us in beliefs,
attitudes,
and/or
desires.
Political speeches
Sermons
To encourage a behavior
Pressing need for
action
To implement a solution
Selecting a method
To cease a behavior
Gaining permission
To establish and adhere to a policy
Receiving _____ to
proceed
To enforce
Connecting parties
through activity
Closing the gap
between assent and
action
A spectrum
of view
points on the
topic
More broadly
personal or
public but
can be
academic.
Advertising
Proposals
Your Examples?
 Martin Luther King writes "A Letter from
Birmingham Jail"
Persuading and its
Purpose
 Persuading’s most common purpose is to
 Propose a Solution
The Purpose of Persuasion
blended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam
Propose a Solution
Focus
Features
Offers
Readers
Desired
Response
Success
Examples
Question
about
what
action
should be
taken
Describes
problem and
solution then
justifies
solution in
terms of
values and
consequences;
level of detail
depends on
assumptions
of reader’s
knowledge
A
recommend
course of
action
Readers
will assent
to
proposed
action and
do what the
writer
suggests
Depends on
reader’s
agreement
that a
problem
exists and/or
that the
recommende
d action will
have good
results
Nature
writer urges
state
residents to
support
wilderness
project, visit
area, attend
hearings,
write leg.
Arguing to
Negotiate
Usually more than two groups are engaged in a
struggle. Also, people who might consider
themselves to be within the same group can still
disagree about how to approach a particular issue.
And many people feel connected to more than one
group, so when they present their ideas, they have
to negotiate among their own multiple allegiances
as well as their various readers’ needs and
expectations.
~ Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Herzberg
Arguing as Negotiating
Circumstances
Convincing and
persuading have been
tried in order to have
the conflict or dispute
settled to our
satisfaction with little
or no effect. Or to
someone else’s
satisfaction with little
or no effect.
Agreeing to disagree is
not a practical solution
because we must come
to some agreement in
order to pursue a
necessary course of
action.
Requiring
collaborative problem
solving
Motivation
Audience
To preserve a relationship Polarized
by
To prevent violence
differences
To keep conversations
about critical issues going
To create social and
personal change
To cooperate
Examples
Diplomatic
negotiations labor
relations, collations,
documents in
organizational
decision-making;
essays seeking
resolution of conflict
between competing
parties; also frequent in
private life when
dealing with
disagreements among
friends and family
members.
Your Examples?
 NRA VS NEA
 Sara Vowells radio essay “Shooting Dad”
Negotiating and its
Purpose
 Negotiation's most common purpose is to
 Seek Common Ground (Not Compromise)
The Purpose of
Negotiation
blended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam
Seek Common Ground
Focus
Features
Offers
Readers
Desired
Response
Success
Examples
Multiple
Perspectives on
a vexing
problem
Lays out values
and goals of
the various
stakeholders so
that others can
find
commonalities
to build on,
does not
advocate
New
perspective
and
reduced
intensity
regarding
difficult
issues
Readers will
discover
mutuality
with
opponent,
conflict
perhaps not
resolved:
could lead to
cooperative
action
Depends on
readers’
discovery of
mutual
interest
Nature writer
undertakes
project
interviewing
advocates and
stakeholders
about where
wilderness
boundaries
should be
drawn
Applying the concept of
purpose
Some helpful questions
Journey North Teacher
 Based on the title, why do think the author wrote this selection?
 Which words in the text do you think best reveal the main
reason the author wrote this selection?

Why did the author write the article from a particular point of
view?
 How did the author influence your response to the selection
 Was the author’s purpose specifically stated?
 Do you think that the author achieved his/her intended
purposes?
 What examples from the text support your conclusions about
author’s purpose?
What was the aim/purpose of the texts
we have read together?
 “Unsung Heroes”
 “Black Men in Public Spaces”
 “Joe and Jane Go To College”
 “Don’t Let Stereotypes Warp your Judgments”
Free writing about
Argument
 Free write about an argument your recently had or
wrote.
 Now, go back and label the parts: Main Argument,
Claims, Evidence, Genre, Purpose, Audience,
Context
 If you have excluded any of this information please
fill in
 If you had thought about your argument before you
engaged in it through the lens of purpose, what
would you change?
Purposes’ relationship to
other parts of the text
Genres and the Aims

While text in genre can have a
host of different aims, some
genres can not meet certain aims
and some genres are better
suited to achieve certain aims.

Take this list of genres and place
the under the aim or aims you
think they might best serve.
Discuss with your group why
they might best serve that aim.
Also, note what genre you feel
can not be matched to an aim or
that it would be very difficult to
achieve that aim with that genre.
Discuss this as well.

Please also discuss the power of
this knowledge for our students.
 Play, sonnet, editorial, public
service Announcement,
sitcom, text analysis paper,
term identification, classroom
discussions; journal writing;
late-night bull sessions,
autobiographical narrative,
inauguration speech, sermon,
closing arguments, short story,
magazine article, personal
statement, evaluation paper,
reading response, eulogy, lab
report, love song, a memorial,
book report, personal letter
Our thinking about the purpose
for a text assists students in

understanding the role of author’s purpose in writing and
reading

separating purpose from the other parts of an argument
 finding the main argument and in seeing its connections to other
elements of the text such as genre
 using purpose to evaluate the success of a text

applying exact terms and characteristics to what a text is trying to
do in the world
 thinking about they hope to achieve in their own arguments.
 understanding of the purpose set for them in writing tasks and
what it takes to be successful in achieving the purpose