Argumentative Speeches Formal arguments requires a claim convincing

Argumentative Speeches Formal arguments requires a claim, convincing evidence, and a warrant.

What is an Argument? • Although you should feel passionate about your topic, arguments are supposed to be intellectual activities, not dog fights. • However an argument does involve two opposing points of view. • This means that you must include the opposing side, even if only briefly.

Elements of an Arguments are composed of three main elements: – Claims – Data/Evidence – Warrants

What’s a good claim? Definition: A claim states your position on the issue you have chosen to write about. • A good claim is not too obvious. Why bother proving a point nobody could disagree with? • A good claim is engaging. Consider your audience's attention span and make interesting claims which point out new ideas: teach the reader something new. • A good claim is not overly vague. Attacking enormous issues whole leads only to generalizations and vague assertions; refrain from making a book-size claim.

Good claims are logical, debatable, and complex. • A good claim is logical; it emerges from a reasonable consideration of evidence. • A good claim is debatable. Claims that are purely factual and claims that are only opinion fail this requirement. You cannot argue matters of taste: e. g. Coca-Cola tastes better than Pepsi-Cola. • A good claim is complex enough to use subordinate clauses. Simple sentences rarely comprehend enough complexity to do justice to a well-conceived opinion.

Claims have two parts: topic & assertion! • Cigarette vending machines must be outlawed. • Cytochrome is the most critical aspect of cell respiration. • All students must be required to take computer science.

Which claim is the best? • Teachers are posed with many problems today. • Polls show that today more minorities own businesses than ever before. • Ophelia is my favorite character in Hamlet because she is the most interesting. • Though they seem innocuous, Hollywood movies are partially responsible for reinforcing cultural stereotypes in America.

What is data or evidence? Definition: the evidence which you cite to support your claim. Like a lawyer presenting evidence to a jury, you must support your claim with facts; an unsupported claim is merely an assertion. Data can include the following: • Facts or statistics: objectively determined data about your topic. (Note: just what constitutes "objective" may be open to debate. ) • Expert opinion: the media and our essays are full of learned opinions which you should cite frequently, both to support your argument and to disagree with. Authors must be quoted and properly cited in your paper.

Data/Evidence • Personal anecdotes: the most difficult kind of data to use well, for doing so requires a persuasive argument that your own experience is objectively grasped and is not unique to you. • Personal experience can, however, help bring an argument to life.

What is a warrant? Definition: the warrant interprets the data and shows how it supports your claim. Think of it as the GLUE holding your argument together & linking your EVIDENCE to the claim. • The warrant, in other words, explains why the data proves the claim. In trials, lawyers for opposing sides often agree on the data but hotly dispute the warrants. • And a defense attorney's failure to offer strong warrants may result in a warrant for the defendant's arrest. • A philosopher would say that the warrant helps to answer the question, "What else must be true for this proposition to hold? "

What’s in the warrant? • A good warrant will be a reasonable interpretation of facts. • A good warrant will not make illogical interpretive leaps. • A good warrant will not assume more than the evidence supports. • A good warrant may consider and respond to possible counter-arguments.

Let’s practice warrants! • CLAIM: Forks were not used in France in the fifteenth century. • EVIDENCE: Paintings of banquets from that period show no forks on the tables or people eating with them. • Warrant:

Potential Warrant • Contemporary paintings are excellent indications and reflections of the customs of an age and can teach us much about the past.

Let’s practice again… • CLAIM: The most popular soap opera on American television is Wild Wet Winds of Love. • EVIDENCE: We know that because fully 76 percent of the viewing public in Wadkins, Florida watches this program. • Warrant:

Potential Warrant • The viewing public in Wadkins, Florida is a cross section of viewers much like those in the rest of the United States. Thus, a show’s popularity there indicates its popularity throughout the land.

1 -2 -3 Rule Good writers & speakers obey this rule whenever they are about to discuss an important piece of evidence. 1. Establish the context and purpose of the evidence. 2. Present the evidence. 3. Show the evidence fits into the argument.