Transcript Your midterm will be returned to you on Wednesday.

Welcome
OCTOBER 25, 2010
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PLEASE TAKE YOUR PAPERS FROM THE
FOLDERS. (DO NOT LEAVE THEM, TAKE
THEM WITH YOU.)
YOUR MIDTERM WILL BE RETURNED TO
YOU ON WEDNESDAY.
Agenda
 Engrade
 Argumentation-Persuasion
 Essay 4
 Choosing your topic
 For Wednesday
Argumentation
 Using clear thinking and logic, the writer tries to
convince readers of the soundness of a particular
opinion on a controversial issue.
Persuasion
 A piece of writing that uses emotional language and
dramatic appeals to readers’ concerns, beliefs, and
values.
 Besides acceptance of an opinion, persuasion often
urges readers to commit themselves to a course of
action.
Argumentation-Persuasion
 Argumentation, Persuasion, and combinations of the
two are everywhere.
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In editorials
In your own writing
 This kind of essay involves more than presenting a
point and providing evidence. It assumes
controversy and addresses opposing viewpoints.
Argumentation-Persuasion
 Hard to predict what will make readers accept your
point of view.
 Three factors that are crucial to the effectiveness of
argumentation-persuasion:
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Logos
Pathos
Ethos
Logos
 Soundness of your argument.
 Facts
 Statistics
 Examples
 Authoritative Statements
 Unified, specific, accurate and representative
supporting evidence.
Pathos
 Emotional power of language.
 Appeals to the reader’s needs, values, and attitudes,
encouraging them to commit to a viewpoint or
course of action.
 Includes connotative language (words with strong
emotional overtones)
Ethos
 Credibility and reliability
 You cannot expect readers to accept or act on your
viewpoint unless you convince them that you know
what you are talking about and that you are worth
listening to.
 You establish ethos by presenting a logical, reasoned
argument that takes opposing viewpoints into
account.
Audience
 Audience assessment is particularly important in
argumentation-persuasion. Not only must you
assess your reader’s interest in order to establish a
reasonable purpose for your writing, but you must
also understand the characteristics of your audience
so you know which points need to be stated and
proven, what kind of evidence will be the most
effective, how hard you must work to convince your
reader, and how your audience will respond to
emotional appeals.
Supportive Audience
 Agrees with your position and trusts your credibility.
 No need for a highly reasoned argument dense with facts,
examples and statistics.
 You can rely primarily on pathos.
Wavering Audience
 Interested but not fully committed to your viewpoint.
 Or may not be as informed on the subject as they
should be.
 In either case:
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Don’t alienate them with heavy handed emotional appeal.
Concentrate on ethos and logos.
Bolster your image as a reliable source and provide evidence to
advance your position.
Hostile Audience
 An apathetic or skeptical audience.
 Hard to convince.
 Avoid emotional appeals
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Might seem irrational, sentimental, or even comical.
Use logical reasoning and hard-to-dispute facts.
Strategies
 Identify the controversy surrounding your issue and
state your position.
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Thesis is often called the assertion or proposition.
Thesis should not be a factual statement, it should express
your view.
 Offer readers strong support for your thesis.
 Seek to create goodwill
 Avoid alienating readers
 Find common ground
Strategies
 Organize the supporting evidence
 Use Rogerian strategy to acknowledge differing
viewpoints. (Carl Rogers)
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Take the opposing viewpoints into account
Reduce conflict rather than to produce a winner or loser.
Understand the opposing viewpoint
 Open the essay with an unbiased statement of your viewpoint
 When appropriate, acknowledge the validity of some of the
arguments raised by the opposition.
 Point out common ground.
 Present evidence for your position.
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Strategies
 Refute differing viewpoints.
 Use inductions or deduction to think logically about
your argument.
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Induction: examination of specific cases, facts, and examples.
Based on these you draw a conclusion or generalization.
Deduction: Begin with a generalization and apply it to a
specific case.
Strategies
 Use Toulmin logic to establish a strong connection
between your evidence and thesis.
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Claim – the thesis, proposition or conclusion.
Data – The evidence
Warrant – The underlying assumptions that justifies moving
from evidence to claim.
 Recognize logical fallacies.
Before Wednesday
 Review Chapter 18
 Carefully read the Selection
 “The Border on Our Backs” (pp 517-518)