Everything's an Argument

An audience refers to the groups or individuals a writer intends to reach through their argument. Writers consider the audience’s values, expectations, understanding, and motivation as they build support and use appeals. Everything’s an Argument writes to college students, appealing to their idealism and desire for academic success, while maintaining a familiar, mentoring tone.

To provide a citation is to provide documentation of outside source material. Most publications expect citations to follow a particular style guide, such as those published by the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the American Psychological Association (APA). Citing sources gives credit to the source’s creator, ensuring ethical use of information. Citations also help those researching similar topics connect to additional relevant sources.

Aristotle describes “constructed” arguments as those supported by reasoning rather than evidence. The authors claim that the most effective arguments use a combination of constructed arguments and hard evidence.

An opposing or alternative argument. Effective arguments acknowledge and either concede or refute counterarguments and counterevidence. The authors emphasize exploring counterarguments to ensure a thoughtful, well-researched argument.

This type of deductive reasoning is composed of a sentence that includes a claim and a reason that implies agreement with an unstated assumption. Those using enthymemes must be confident that the audience agrees with the assumption. The authors advise using enthymemes to outline larger arguments, as each enthymeme can become a topic sentence for a paragraph.

One of Aristotle’s three appeals, ethos is an appeal to credibility and trustworthiness—an ethical appeal. Appealing to ethos includes establishing credentials and building a connection to the audience. Effective arguments employ all three appeals to persuade.

Fallacies are flawed argumentative strategies. Speakers should avoid using fallacies in their arguments. A fallacy in another’s argument can be a point of refutation.

Concrete data, such as facts and statistics, comprise hard evidence. The authors advise readers to use a combination of hard evidence and constructed arguments to support a claim.

Researchers Sonja Foss, Cindy Griffin, and Josina Makau coined this term. People participate in invitational arguments by submitting their ideas to a group exploration of a topic in a spirit of mutual understanding and respect. These arguments exemplify the authors’ idealized view of all arguments ultimately seeking consensus.

One of Aristotle’s three appeals, logos is an appeal to logic. Speakers can appeal to logos through their use of evidence and reasoning. Effective arguments employ all three appeals to persuade.

One of Aristotle’s three appeals, pathos is an appeal to emotion. Speakers can appeal to pathos through anecdotes and language. Effective arguments employ all three appeals to persuade.

Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is also the subject of Everything’s an Argument, in which the authors examine rhetoric from both a developmental and analytical perspective.

A rhetorical analysis evaluates an argument’s use of structure and strategies to convince or persuade an audience of its claim. The analysis itself becomes an argument, working to convince the audience of its validity.

The rhetorical situation refers to the context and outside influences on an argument, such as the time, place, speaker, audience, and the implications of the subject. Knowledge of the rhetorical situation helps the speaker develop their argument to be appropriate to the time, place, and audience. Someone rhetorically analyzing an argument will consider the rhetorical situation’s impact on the argument, including its tone and the references made within the argument.

Named after the hallmark therapy style of psychotherapist Carl Rogers, this type of argument seeks to find common ground and trust between opponents. The authors praise this kind of argument, as they feel it can productively move society forward. A Rogerian argument seeks truth rather than triumph.

A speaker’s style consists of the strategic use of language within an argument. In textual arguments, diction, syntax, punctuation, and figurative language contribute to an argument’s style. In visual arguments, color, images, text features, data representations, and maps contribute to style. An argument’s style conveys the speaker’s voice and tone.

A type of deductive reasoning, syllogisms form a conclusion based on stated premises. A speaker must know whether the audience agrees with the premises for the conclusion to be sound. Explicitly stating the assumptions left unsaid in the simplified enthymeme allows the speaker to consider whether additional support is needed for the implied premises.

Arguments bring together information from a variety of sources to support a common purpose. This act of blending gathered ideas and facts into a new perspective is called synthesis. Synthesizing begins with sifting through information for reliable, relevant sources. Then, a speaker will paraphrase, summarize, or quote the material in support of their overarching claim.

Part of the Toulmin argumentative structure, a warrant connects support to the claim. The authors stress the importance of being aware of the warrants existing in a claim. Speakers may need to support their warrants depending on their audience’s beliefs. Determining the warrants implied in an argument as a reader can aid in evaluating the argument’s effectiveness. Throughout the text the authors examine the warrants of the various example arguments they include.