Journal 15: Analyzing an Argument

Arguments are around us all the time. We make and hear them whenever we try to persuade someone we're right or whenever someone wants to convince us to buy their product. To be a critical thinker and an effective academic writer, we need to understand how arguments are put together.

Prompt: Choose an opinion article (or letter to the editor) from a magazine or newspaper. In the journal first give the reference (APA style!) and then analyze the argument being made.

Use the Six Steps of Evaluating an Argument that we talked about this morning. Identify the argument, Spot the Conclusion, Find the Premises, Evaluate the Premises, Evaluate the Argument, Reflect.

Here are some other questions you might want to answer.

• What is the THESIS? What is the author trying to convince you of?
  
• What kind of a CLAIM (Definition, Cause, Value, Policy) is this?
• To what is the argument appealing - to reason (logos), to emotion (pathos), or to trust and values (ethos)? What are the Premises?
  
• What is the evidence or premises the author uses to reach his conclusion? Are they true?
• Evaluate the logic of the argument. Is it sound? Are there any fallacies?
  
• Finally - What do you think? Remember that you cannot disagree with the conclusion if you believe the Premises and Argument to be true.

Here are some on-line versions of opinion articles.

Daily Titan Opinion Articles

Orange County Register Opinion Articles

Los Angeles Times Opinion Articles

New York Times Opinion Articles

For example, here's a response to an article from the immaculate Daily Titan:

Landsman, A. (2008, October 27). I'll have some breast milk with my Ben and Jerry's please. Daily Titan, p. 4.

In this article Landsman pokes fun at the argument by PETA that the famous ice cream company, Ben & Jerry's, should use human breast milk instead of cow milk (par. 3). PETA's argument that we shouldn't use animal milk for nourishment (par. 8) is a claim of policy which appeals to emotion: disgust, in particular. Landsman seems to think this tactic is really strange. She admits that she doesn't have any scientific evidence on how hard it would be to do this (par. 15), but then PETA also offers weak evidence, too. They argue that it is stranger to use another creature's milk than our own (par. 8).

Due Friday, April 22nd. 10PM.

Your very appealing teacher who claims to know it all,