After reading the assigned Chapters in our text book Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric With Readings, it has become clear that writing a good argument is more complicated than just stating a claim and backing it up with information (Ramage). Effective classical appeals of an argument have three persuasions: logos, ethos and pathos also known as the “rhetorical triangle” (Ramage 62). Although a successful argument only requires three components: a claim, a reason and grounds, there are multiple ways of doing this, and an argument must have more than just facts: summarization should include one or more of the “because” clauses (Ramage 87). It is also important to support the assumptions or “warrants” that one has about an audience’s beliefs and values and the Toulmin schema is a tool to help do this (Ramage 87). The Toulmin model is an audience-based courtroom model that differs from formal logic and it helps “arguers tailor arguments to their audiences” (Ramage 76).
With the structure of an argument being logical, then the evidence to support this needs to be used effectively and is an essential skill needed for arguers (Ramage 103). The strategies for this are numerous and the STAR criterion which is taught by rhetorician Richard Fulkerson helps to categorize some of these strategies into manageable terms (Ramage 90). Framing strategies are helpful to emphasize or de-emphasize evidence to guide a reader’s response and there are a lot of different ways for gathering data/evidence in arguments (Ramage 98-103).
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There are several different types of strategies for arguments and the types of appeals that an arguer invokes together with the logical structure and evidence come together to complete an effective argument strategy. As much as the classical argument works for a neutral or supportive audience, the dialogic strategies work for the more resistant audiences (Ramage 140). Two types of the dialogic strategies are delayed-thesis and Rogerian and are aimed at promoting understanding between a writer and the reluctant audience, reducing hostility and taking a conciliatory stance (Ramage 135-140).
More in depth reading of these chapters reveal arguments by analogy which can be described as the most imaginative form of argument or arguments by precedent or resemblance (Ramage 267-273). The precedent arguments compares two phenomena, one of which is usually a past event, and the resemblance argument depends on emphasizing the similarities of two phenomena while playing down the differences (Ramage 267-273). These types of analogies, however, will not work if they are not accurate, but most important, all of these things come together to make up a well written argument and by having good research sources, integrating these sources into the paper, citing the sources of one’s research, and documenting them properly complete the process.
Works Cited
Ramage, John D., John C. Bean and June Johnson. Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings. New York: Longman, 2010. Print.
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