Argument Unit

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Argument Unit

• AP Language and Composition

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Deductive Reasoning

• General
• Particular

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Inductive Reasoning

• Particulars
• Generalities

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Transaction between Writer and Reader

• Be sure to understand your readers views!
• Begin by stating what
• your readers probably think.
• (This helps to hide your cynical side. Omit the
  following By Heaven, my view is absolutely
  right!)

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Thesis Statement

• Your opinion is the thesis, or claim, of your
  argument.
• With inductive reasoning, your thesis statement
  will be at the beginning (clueing them in to your
  purpose).
• Deductive reasoning is necessary if the reader
  has difficulty accepting your thesis until they
  have heard some of your argument.

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Logos- evidence/factsPathos- emotionsEthos-eth
ical/character
Persuasive Appeals
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Syllogism

• The format of a formal argument that consists of
  a major premise, a minor premise, and a
  conclusion.

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Toulmin Method

• British Philosopher, Stephen Toulmin, devised
  this practical method for dividing an argument
  into three parts.

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Data The evidence to prove something.
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Claim What are you proving with the data?
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Conclusion The assumption or principle that
connects the data to the claim.
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Data Example All human beings are immortal.
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Minor Claim Socrates is a man.
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Conclusion Therefore, Socrates is immortal.
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Logical Fallacies-a mistake in reasoning
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Non sequitur

• Stating a conclusion that doesnt follow from the
  first premise.
• Example Ive lived in this town a long timewhy
  my grandfather was the first mayorso Im against
  adding fluoride to the drinking water.

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Oversimplification

• Supplying neat and easy explanations for large
  and complicated phenomena.
• Example No wonder drug abuse is out of control.
  Look at how the courts have hobbled police
  officers.
• All these bad teenagers should be shipped to
  China.

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Hasty Generalization

• Leaping to a generalization from inadequate or
  faulty evidence.
• Example Women are too emotional to fight in
  combat.

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Dogmatism (Dogmatic)

• A writer who attempts to persuade by asserting or
  assuming that a particular position is the only
  one conceivably acceptable.
• Example No rationale person would disagree that
  
• It is clear to anyone who has thought about it
  that

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False Authority

• It occurs chiefly when writers offer themselves,
  or other authorities they cite, as sufficient
  warrant for believing a claim.
• Example We ought to castrate all sex offenders
  Uncle Oswald says we should.
• or
• According to reliable sources, my opponent is
  lying.

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Ad hominem

• Attack against the man
• Example Mayor Burns is divorced and estranged
  from his family. How can we listen to his pleas
  for a city nursing home?

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Begging the Question

• Taking for granted from the start what you set
  out to demonstrate.
• (You repeat that what is true is true.)
• Example I am in college because that is the
  right thing to do. Going to college is the right
  thing to do because it is expected of me.

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Strawman Argument-The speaker/writer attributes
false or exaggerated characteristics to the
opponent and attacks him on those falsehoods.

• Example You say you are for allowing only people
  over twenty-one to vote. Ill never understand
  mean, simple-minded activists like you who are
  willing to deny democratic freedoms to millions
  of citizens.

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Bandwagon Fallacy

• Arguments that urge people to follow the same
  path everyone else is taking.
• V Terry Shivo, Drunk Driving, Illegal
  Immigration
• Example Everyone else is going camping without
  chaperones. The parent replies, If everyone
  jumps off the bridge tomorrow, will you jump off
  one too?