Effective Argument

Read Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" in your yellow Seagull Reader book. It's kind of a lengthy one, but it's a good read, I promise. Go ahead—I'll wait.

Done? Ok, now that you've read it, I want you to do some analytical thinking. Who's he addressing? What is he addressing? What is the tone he's using to address these people? Taking all that together—audience, purpose, tone, context—what in it is effective? What's ineffective? Where does he utilize logical fallacies (they're in there, I promise) and where does he make sound logical arguments? How does he balance the ethos, pathos and logos parts of his argument?

And, perhaps most importantly, how can you utilize any of this in your paper?

Logical Fallacies

Find the file on Angel about Logical Fallacies. Read all those and get yourself familiar. They're pretty handy to know. Now, I want you to pick out three of them and come up with an example to fit each of them. I also want you to explain how each is an example of that particular fallacy. Make me believe you.

Topic!

OK, so some have already gotten started on this and emailed me, but what I want you to do for your blog post today is to pick a potential topic to write about. Remember that there will be research involved in this, so try picking something that makes it a little easier. Then, I want you to discuss your position, explore some of the reasons you'll be using to support your stance, and delve into what you know about the topic. Consider this kind of an exploratory thing.

A couple things to remember about picking a topic:

1. Your topic needs to be something in which there are a range of options. Things like raising/lowering the age to do X, legalizing/criminalizing X, or why you should/shouldn't do X are NOT within the boundaries of the paper's requirements. Some examples of topics students have done in the past include why horses make the best pets, why the Lakers are the team with the best chance to win the NBA championship (and they were right), why Honda/Subaru/Ford are the best car to buy, why acupuncture is the best choice for pain relief, etc. Make sense? All of those have a RANGE of options, not just a two-side, black/white thing. You know, like 99.99% of any arguments you'll actually have to make in real life, unless you become a talking head on a news station or talk radio. And if that's the case, then all hope is lost for you anyway.


2. Remember that there will be research involved in this, so try picking something that makes it a little easier.


3. Some topics fall into "No, duh" territory. These are ones that are not necessarily fact, but that are kind of universally accepted—things like why it's best to visit the dentist every six months, or why it's best to get eight hours of sleep. These aren't acceptable topics, either, because there's really nothing to argue. In colloquial terms, it's "preaching to the choir." Those two examples don't really satisfy that first requirement, either, so there's that, too.

Let me know if you have any questions.

And before you ask, the following topics are an automatic no. Don't even bother:

• Abortion (either side)
  
• Immigration (either side)
  
• Pot (legalizing it or making punishments worse)
  
• Lowering/Raising the drinking age
  
• Death penalty (either side)
  
• Universal healthcare (either side)

Get creative. If the topic you picked is an issue that even remotely looks like one of these, figure out a new one.