Units 4-6 Canvas

The counter argument includes

-Summary of Opposing side's argument -Concession -Refutation/Rebuttal

data

Facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis

Definitions give people

reasons to believe certain things

arguing from an induction tips

-Don't settle for one example to prove a pattern. -Start with the general pattern (your claim), and then look for the examples (your evidence) -Pair your argument from induction with a different argumentative strategy -Qualify your argument by acknowledging that the general pattern doesn't always hold

concession

-Explain that the points to which you've conceded don't matter -Explain that the points to which you've conceded actually support your argument -Explain that the concessions form a common ground on which you can build a new consensus

Deciding and Meeting the Assignment Expectations

-If anything in the assignment description seems confusing or vague, you should make a note and ask your instructor -make a checklist for yourself of all the things that the paper has to accomplish

Peroration tips

-If you're writing to a sympathetic audience, you can give them reasons to feel -If you're writing to a sympathetic audience, you can give them reasons to believe something new -If you're writing to a hostile audience, you can remind them that you're a member of their community and that you care about the things they care about -If you're writing to a hostile audience, you can concede that many of their beliefs are true, and many of their values are just

How concession and refutation can work together

-Offer counterevidence of exactly the same kind -Present a different kind of evidence that leads to a different conclusion -Question the quality or the source of the evidence

Refuting Causation

-Point out that there are other, equally plausible causes -Note that sometimes the effect appears without the presumed cause -Explain that there's no reason for these things to cause one another, so the more likely explanation is coincidence.

Refuting Induction

-Show an exception to the rule -Show another contradictory pattern -Show how many possible examples there are -Show that the examples chosen by your opponent are not representative

Types of Audience

-Sympathetic Audiences: A sympathetic audience is already inclined to believe the argument -Hostile Audiences: Hostile audiences already disagree with the argument -Uninterested Audiences: An uninterested audience knows about the subject but, for one reason or another, doesn't care -Uninformed Audiences: An uninformed audience doesn't know much or anything about the subject -Confused Audiences: A confused audience simply doesn't understand what is at stake or why people believe certain things

Analogy tips

-Though good analogies don't have to be perfect analogies, convincing analogies often compare things with many similarities -Analogies don't have to prove that any general patterns exist -Extended analogies should feature two things that resemble one another -Effective analogies should feature things that resonate with the audience.

Argument tips

-Though the argument is the most important part of your essay, it may not be the longest segment of your essay -The argument itself must be arranged

Inventing Difference Arguments

-While analogies depend upon points of comparison, difference arguments depend on points of contrast -While analogies don't have to be perfect to be convincing, arguments at the topic of difference do have to compare completely—or at least extremely—different things -Arguments about difference tend to have more emotional appeal

To invent a causal argument, you will need:

-a claim about something causing or being the effect of something else -some evidence (such as a sign, a correlation, or a sequence) -an assumption about what kinds of things tend to cause other kinds of things

Causation

A cause and effect relationship in which one variable controls the changes in another variable. ex-Most children whose parents read to them at night do well in school, SO we can conclude that reading to children at night promotes academic success SINCE things that regularly happen together (like reading to children at night and academic success) are causally related.

Definition

A statement that gives the meaning of a term. ex-The refugee situation in Europe is a humanitarian crisis SO we should try to help the people who have come to European countries even if they do so without permission SINCE humanitarian crises require that we pay less attention to the strict enforcement of the law and more attention to the care of people in dire need.

The five-paragraph essay is the height of formulaic writing

After mastering this arrangement scheme, many students are disappointed to learn that it does not satisfy all audiences.

All of your reasons and your evidence must do what?

All of your reasons and your evidence must come together to prove the main idea.

how many comparisons can a analogy have ?

An analogy can rely on hundreds of comparison points or just one. The number of comparison points depends on how much your audience will be willing to accept the comparison.

faulty comparison

Comparing two things that are too different to make it a fair comparison, OR making a comparison that is illogical

criteria-based definitions

Criteria-based definitions present all the qualities that a thing must have in order to be defined in a certain way

Exordium - Confused Audience

Finally, if the audience is confused, you need to explain the common point of confusion in your exordium. Rather than earning their trust or sparking their interest, you need to explain that many people misunderstand or simply don't know about something important.

Exordium - Hostile Audience

If you're writing to a hostile audience, you should use your exordium to earn their trust. Introduce yourself. Explain your credentials. Show the audience that you're part of their community, and you care about their wellbeing. Say you agree with them on some important points. Concede that there are problems with many arguments in favor of your own viewpoint. Sometimes, when writing to a hostile audience, it's best in the exordium simply to introduce the topic and to avoid stating your claim. You don't want them to quit reading once they realize you disagree with them.

Exordium - Uninformed Audience; also effective for the Disinterested Audience.

If you're writing to an uninterested or an uninformed audience, you should use your exordium to grab the audience's attention. Use your research to explain the controversy's exigency. Tell the audience why they're stakeholders.

Exordium - Sympathetic Audience

If your audience is sympathetic, then you don't need much of an exordium. If they are interested in the topic, then you don't have to raise their interest. If they're excited about the controversy, then you don't have to show them why they should care. If they're sympathetic to your cause and if they are confident in you as the speaker, then you don't have to win their approval.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

Latin for "after this, and therefore as a result of this." It refers to causal arguments that depend upon sequence

assumption

Most reasons to believe assume that the audience already believes something else

The peroration is the last thing your audience will read so

Remind them of what you've said. But if you're writing to an audience that will easily remember your principal claim, then you can do other things in your peroration. If you're writing to a sympathetic audience, then you can use your peroration to extend the argument

Evidence for causal arguments typically comes in three varieties:

Sign, Correlation, and Sequence

Sign, Correlation, and Sequence examples

Sign-Last week, Christian said that he was not your friend, but now he's telling everyone you're very close (sign), SO his affection must be caused by his need to borrow money from you. Correlation-Everytime I wear my lucky socks, the UT basketball team wins (correlation) SO my socks must cause the team to win. Sequence-Earthquakes in Oklahoma began not long after hydrofracking was introduced into the area (sequence), SO hydrofracking caused these earthquakes.

sine qua non definitions

Sine qua non means roughly "without this quality, nothing else matters." A sine qua non is the one quality that matters

correlation and sequence

Sometimes, it is not reasonable to argue that a causal connection exists just because two things tend to go together or because one thing tends to happen after another thing

Choosing a Strong Opponent and Fairly Representing the Opposition

The first step toward writing a good refutation is choosing a strong opponent. The next step toward writing a good counterargument is to represent the opposing argument fairly.

principal claim

What is the main point that you want your audience to believe when they've finished reading your paper? Everything else in your argument should support this principal claim

essentialization

When a speaker essentializes, she assumes that her definition captures the most important qualities (the essence) of something

slippery slope arguments

When you say that someone mistakes correlation for causation or that someone makes a post ergo propter hoc argument, you are saying that this person does not use the proper evidence to make a causal claim. When you say that someone makes a slippery slope argument, you contend that the evidence is acceptable, but the conclusion does not derive from the evidence.

ad hominem

a fallacy that attacks the person rather than dealing with the real issue in dispute

Induction abstracts

a general pattern from a specific example.

The most convincing argument is

a good counterargument

Difference

a point or way in which people or things are not the same. ex-College is nothing like high school, SO, when you're a first-year student at UT, you should learn to study every day and keep your own schedule SINCE high school teachers provide lots of support (such as homework assignments and in-class assistance) that college teachers will not provide.

reasons

a statement presented in justification or explanation of a belief or action

countering the opposition has

a strategic value and countering the opposition also has a practical value, finally, countering the opposition has ethical value.

false analogy

an argument using an inappropriate metaphor

logos

and reasons to believe certain things

Like analogies, differences

arguments at the topic of difference draw conclusions based on comparisons. Instead of highlighting similarities, however, arguments at the topic of difference focus on differences

Every reason to believe

asks the audience to conclude something based on something else

In the classical template, refutation

comes after the argument.

Analogy

comparison ex-Electing a president is just like hiring someone for a job in a specific industry, SO you should vote for the career politician rather than the outsider SINCE the career politician has experience that will allow her to do a good job in office.

essentializing definitions always run the risk of

excluding or deriding someone or something or inappropriately admitting something or someone into a category

Try to anticipate and speak to your audience's relationship to the subject. Through the format of

exordium, narration, partition, argument, refutation, and peroration

Induction

factual reasoning ex-The Google Car recently hit a bus, SO self-driving cars are dangerous SINCE this one accident is representative of what all self-driving cars will do.

Therefore, you probably won't convince this audience to use the term, "Benghazi-gate." They will think the analogy is hopelessly _____

false

In a long argument, the partition prepares the audience by

forecasting the principal claim and the manner of argument

The narration

gives the audience the background information they will need in order to understand the argument that follows

Sometimes the boilerplate can guide the writer to meet the audience's needs, but

having all the parts arranged according to the boilerplate is less important than meeting the audience's expectations.

the assumption in a causal argument tends to

include some belief in what kinds of things can and do cause other kind of things

An argumentative _________ is a logical conclusion based on some reason.

inference

An exordium

introduces the audience to the subject and the speaker

Like narration, refutation can

occur just about anywhere.

The quality of an argument depends

on how an audience receives it

If the audience disagrees, if they think the examples are unusual, or if they think there is no general trend, they will say that the speaker _______________

overgeneralizes

narrative digressions:

passages that turn away from the principal argument to accomplish some necessary but secondary task

a definitional argument asks your audience to

place something specific (something they already know about) in a larger category.

To refute an argument about difference, you should

point out all the similarities between the two things being compared

pathos

reasons to feel certain things

ethos

reasons to trust the speaker

Rebuttal is the

return to argumentative offense

Like partition, refutation

should appear where it is best suited to the audience's expectations.

Effective writing, no matter the genre, will involve

some review, some feedback, and some targeted revision

Arguments about causation claim that

something causes or is the effect of something else

Such unfair or oversimplified representation is called making a _____ ______ out of your opposition

straw person

When we say that reasons are invented, we don't mean

that they are fictitious or false. We mean that reasons come from creative thinking. Evidence comes from careful research.

An effective and extended analogy won't just hold up two similar things. Instead,

the argument will explain the specific points of comparison

Once an audience has learned a boilerplate,

the arrangement shapes their expectations.

As is the case with all arguments, the persuasive appeal of our claim above will depend upon

the audience's acceptance of the assumption

evidence

the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.

Different stakeholders can be identified, as we mentioned in the earlier modules, by

the definitions that they prefer.

all induction arguments depend upon

the same kind of assumption: a belief that the example is representative of a general trend.

Difference arguments are more effective if

they feature good examples, if they present close comparisons, and if they resonate with the audience

Our example illustrates that the specific-general pyramid addresses the needs of two audiences:

those who already know about a story and those who don't know but want to learn. A third audience is possible—those who don't know and don't yet care.

warrant

to justify (Toulmin called everything that follows the "SINCE" in each of our examples the warrant.)

argumentative fallacies

under the assumption that certain kinds of arguments are always wrong (i.e., fallacious), regardless of the --audience or situation -Since most arguments can convince some people, no argument is rhetorically fallacious, though many arguments are rhetorically flawed

Detailed partitions are especially appropriate when

writing to a confused audience