CHAPTER 1: DEFINING ARGUMENTATION
This chapter introduces students to the key concepts in argumentation. It is important that students get a
clear idea of what it means to seek the adherence of relevant decision makers. It is also important that
they see the types of support for claims and the greater usefulness of supported claims over assertion.
They should also understand that when they argue they are making claims about uncertainty. The idea
6.
In discussing spheres, it is useful to select a major issue such as gay/lesbian marriage, and look at
arguments emerging in different spheres. For example, history, culture, religion, law, biology, and politics
all produce arguments on this subject. Students should be able to see how each produces a different set of
criteria with which to evaluate arguments. The concept of “ultimate purpose” is a difficult one for
students to grasp, and in a discussion such as this, one can discuss the differing ultimate purposes of each
of those spheres.
The exercises/projects included at the end of chapter 1 in the text ask students to read editorials in
newspapers and then answer these questions:
What adherence is sought from the reader?
Who are the appropriate decision makers? Why?
What claims does the editorial make?
What support is provided for the claims
What criticism can you make of the arguments?
And then students are given the project of selecting a familiar topic on which they need to make a
decision, and to prepare an argument and label the parts in response to these questions:
In what kind of sphere is the decision to be made?
What is the ultimate purpose of the decision?
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What proposition expresses their desired decision?
What issue(s) needs to be addressed?
What claim directly responds (seeks to answer) the issue?
How can the claim be supported argumentatively?
MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS
1. The intersection of a claim and its support is called
2. Evidence, values, and credibility combine to
3. Stephen Toulmin says the test of an argument is
4. A critical decision is one that
5. When sports fans at non-BCS schools argue that their team should compete in the BCS championship
game, they often fail to consider
6. When you test ideas by having a conversation with yourself, the process is called
7. What kind of claim is this: “Medical marijuana use ought to be legalized.”
8. The first level of critical thinking to test possible arguments is
9. Decision making within a context of uncertainty
10. “The clash of two opposing claims stated as a question,” is the definition of
11. Decision making groups with recognizable goals and norms and sets of rules and resources and
patterns
of interaction under ongoing tension are called, in the text,
1. Discuss the relationship between claims, issues, and propositions.
2. Define and explain critical decision making through argumentation.
3. Discuss the inner dialogue and its role in argumentation. How does it relate to dialectic?
4. Explain the difference between dialectic and rhetoric, and discuss how each contributes to critical
decisions.
5. Explain what the text means by “critical decisions,” and how they contrast with uncritical decisions.
EXERCISES/PROJECTS
1. The editorial project at the end of the chapter in the book can be expanded by asking students to
respond to these questions:
2. Still working with the editorials, it is helpful for students to exchange papers with each other and write
critical responses. They will see that different people apply different perspectives to the same issue. They
3. Select a topic of contemporary concern and divide the class into teams. Ask them to engage in dialectic
on the topic seeking an understanding of the issues that seem to be involved and the propositions that
4. Ask the students to write a one-page paper discussing the difference between dialectic and rhetoric. Use