18a Recognizing Argument
"In one important sense, all language use has an argumentative edge." We want to persuade our audience to believe in, or assent to our words, by raising tones to emphasize it(also with facial expression), using emotional expressions, or simply choosing tangible, attractive way to speak it out(just as the banner in the picture: God Bless Our Troops).
18b Critical Thinking
"Critical thinking is a crucial component of argument, for it guides us in recognizing,formulating, and examining arguments." We are quite familiar with critical thinking(mostly its meaning, and skills of doing it), since we all prepared SAT reading, which is call critical reading(critical thinking). 18b talks more in detail about the definition, and range of critical thinking:
Playing the game of believing and doubting:
We should be able to shift our stances when we are reading, that is, to assume the we are the author first, and try to perceive everything as our own words and assent to it spontaneously, and then shift stance to the very opposite side -- to act like a debater, to pick out the downsides/ disadvantages of the arguments.
Asking pertinent questions:
We'll choose our own questions as we move on reading and critically analyzing the passages-- for me, I would like to pick the following questions to help me digest what I'm reading:
1.What are the writer’s qualifications for making this argument?
2.What sources does the writer rely on? How current and reliable are they? What agendas do these sources have? Are any perspectives left out?
3.What is the writer’s agenda — his or her unstated purpose?
Getting information:
In order to understand the whole picture, you'll need to find our more about the piece of reading.
Interpreting and assessing information:
Based on the step above, we should be able to examine and assess the attitudes, pros and cons of the author's words, even he/she tends to be neutral-- no arguments are absolutely in-the-middle-of-the-road.
Making and assessing your own arguments:
The ultimate goal of all critical thinking is to construct your own ideas and reach your own conclusions.
18c Cultural Context for arguments
Pay attention to clues to cultural context,and be open to the many ways of thinking you will encounter. There are different cultures within the worlds and different types of people within the culture, so be sure to understand the author's culture so that you can completely examine his/her work. "Take a writer’s cultural beliefs into account before you begin to analyze an argument!"
18d Emotional, Ethical and Logical Appeals
"Aristotle categorized argumentative appeals into three types: emotional appeals that speak to our hearts and values (known to the ancient Greeks as pathos), ethical appeals that appeal to character (ethos), and logical appeals that involve factual information and evidence (logos)."
Emotional Appeals:
--A way of arguing thoughts by relating the point with people's real daily life. Although some pointed out that doing this may mislead people and make people misunderstand things, it turns out that Emotional Appeals is very effective.
Ethical Appeals:
"Ethical appeals support the credibility, moral character, and goodwill of the argument’s creator."
Logical Appeals:
Most people believe that logical appeals are trustworthy. However, critical readers need to examine logical appeals just as carefully as emotional and ethical ones. What is the source of the logical appeal — and is that source trustworthy? We need to pay attention to the structure of the logic proof, and find about the credibility of the arguments.
18e The Elements of the arguments
Claims--Reasons--Assumptions--Evidence--Qualifiers
18f Fallacies
Ethical fallacies:
Some arguments focus not on establishing the credibility of the writer but on destroying the credibility of an opponent.
Emotional fallacies:
Appeals to the emotions of an audience constitute a valid and necessary part of argument. Unfair or overblown emotional appeals, however, attempt to overcome readers’ good judgment.
Logical fallacies:
Although logical fallacies are usually defined as errors in formal reasoning, they can often work very effectively to convince audiences.
