Writer's Blog: Chapter 12

In Chapter 11, we learned how to develop our thesis statement for the paper and now in chapter 12 we will learn how to develop our argument for the paper. Your argument is what you want others to understand or how you want them to act. It will support your thesis statement.The first thing you will do, according to the book, to develop your argument is choose reasons to support the thesis statement you have decided to use. You can choose reasons by brainstorming, looping, freewriting, etc. For an informative document, like we are writing for this class, we need to ask what we want to convey to the readers and what they will want to know about the topic when we are thinking up reasons for our argument. The next step that is done to support your thesis statement and create your argument is to select evidence that will support the reasons that you just came up with in step one. Evidence will include "details, facts, personal observations, and expert opinions" (211). The evidence will "back up your assertions and help your readers understand your ideas" (211). The last step to support your thesis statement is to decide how you are going to appeal to your readers. You will make sure to appeal to authority, emotion, principles, values and beliefs, character, and logic. Two important things to consider when using logical appeals is deduction and induction. "Deduction is a form of logical reasoning that moves from general principles to a conclusion. It usually involves two propositions and a conclusion" (214). It is normally used for arguments regarding ethical and moral issues. "Induction is a form of logical reasoning that moves from specific observations to general conclusions, often drawing on numerical data to reveal patterns" (214).

The next part of this chapter is about assessing the integrity in your argument. A lack of integrity means a lack of respect towards your readers. If a reader notices an error in your reasoning, they may very well reject an argument. One thing to do is check for fallacies based on distraction. They include "a red herring", which is an irrelevant and distracting point, "ad hominem attacks" which which attempts to discredit an argument by suggesting the person associated with it should not be trusted, and "irrelevant history" which is also a distraction (216). You will also look for fallacies based on questionable assumptions which includes generalizations, oversimplification of other people's arguments, citing inappropriate authorities (non experts, sources with strong bias, etc.), and jumping on a bandwagon. Jumping on a band wagon is just saying that if enough people believe something, it HAS to be true. The next type of fallacies you will search for are ones based on misrepresentation. They include only presenting one side of an argument (only your side), base-rate fallacies based on statistics, and false analogies that make inappropriate comparisons. The last fallacy to check for in your argument is fallacies based on careless reasoning including arguing something happened because something else happened first, slippery slope arguments, arguments that present two choices one of which is not desirable, statements that don't follow logically what has been presented, and lastly circular reasoning. To find more information about the specific types of fallacies to look for in your research argument, you may look on pages 215 to 217. Configuring an argument is very important to this paper and it will identify reasons why people should accept your thesis statement!