Analyzing Arguments

Adapted from the Saint Martins Handbook 8a-f

Recognizing argument
Some professors say that all language can in some sense be considered argument.
1. A warm greeting persuades people we are happy to see them.
2. Putting a news story on the front page argues its subject is important.
3. Choice of details and language presents a perspective: patriotic support or pro-war rally?
In academic writing, however, argument is defined as a text that makes a claim with full support.
Thinking critically about argument
Critical thinking is essentially the process of analyzing and making sense of any information.
1. Playing the believing and the doubtinggame
2. Asking pertinent questions
--What is the writers agenda or unstated purpose, values, and assumptions?
--Why does the writer hold these ideas or beliefs? What individual or group promotes the idea?
--What does the writer want readers to do and why?
--How valid are the reasons, support, and sources of the writer?
--What are some possible objections to the argument?
3. Getting, interpreting, and assessing information
4. Making and assessing your own arguments is the ultimate goal of critical thinking.
Considering cultural contexts
1. Practice the believing game before you play the doubting game, being open to new ideas.
2. Remember that there is great variety of individual differences even within another culture.
3. Above all, watch your own assumptions. Are statistics better than religious precedents?
Reading emotional, ethical, and logical appeals
Aristotle categorized argumentative or rhetorical appeals into three types: pathos, ethos, and logos.
1. Emotional appeals speak to the heart and values of the audience, often with stories or visuals.
2. Ethical appeals support the credibility, moral character, and goodwill of the writer.
3. Logical appeals present reason, evidence, facts, observations, experiments, and testimonies.
Identifying fallacies
1. Ad hominem uses personal attack or name calling.
Who cares what that fat loudmouth says?

2. Guilt by association unfairly links a person with a supposedly bad person or activity.
Dont trust her; her husband had a gambling addiction.

3. False authority shows celebrities or experts in another field to support the claim. Todays
NASCAR winner banks at National Mutual!

4. Bandwagon appeal suggests a great movement is underway.
Everyone is drinking Blitzkrieg Beer!

5. Flattery persuades by suggesting readers are thoughtful, perceptive, or intelligent to agree.
You have superlative taste to wear Bling diamond jewelry.

6. In-crowd appeal invites readers to be part of a select group.
Mountain Condominiums are the best-kept secret of Middletons elite young professionals.

7. Veiled threats try to frighten readers into agreement by hinting at consequences.
Public Service Electric Company must get a rate increase or your service will suffer.

8. False analogies make comparisons between two things that are not alike in important respects.
The volleyball teams failure was like the sinking of the Titanic.

9. Begging the question is a circular argument that treats debatable issues as though proven.
TV news covered the story well; I learned all I know about it from watching TV.

10. Post hoc fallacy incorrectly assumes that if B follows A, then B was caused by A.
We should not rebuild the docks because every time we do, a hurricane comes.

11. Non sequitur tries to tie together logically unrelated ideas.
If we can send a spacecraft to Mars, then we can find a cure for cancer.

12. Either-or fallacy insists that a complex situation has only two outcomes.
Either build the new highway or get ready for downtown business to close.

13. Hasty generalization bases a conclusion on too little evidence or on misunderstood evidence.
I couldnt understand the lecture today, so I know this course is going to be impossible.

14. Oversimplification claims an overly direct relationship between cause and effect.
If we prohibit the sale of alcohol, we will get rid of binge drinking.

15. Straw man arguments unfairly present the opposing view as overly simple or unreasonable.
My opponent believes we should offer therapy to terrorists, but I disagree.