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Argument Review in Context

Claims, Reasons, Evidence, Warrants, Acknowledgements/ResponsesTo date weve covered quite a bit of information on the structure of argument in the context of

news media. There are a number of points that weve covered under each topic, and thispacket should help to organize those points.

First, before writing your introduction with, of course, a status quo, destabilizing condition andonsequences!, there are a few questions that should be asked "you could write these

questions down for each paper you write and try to answer them, because theyll provide the

focus for your paper#

.! %hat do you think& ' ()*+

-.! %hy do you think that& ' /*0120

.! 4ow do you know thats true& ' /5+6/2(/7.! %hy do the reasons8evidence support the claim& ' %**2T0

9.! %hat about alternative views or contrary evidence& ' *(:21%)/6;//2T8/0

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music+ !ut now does nothin" of the sort.

7.! (laims of 6efinition# *rgue how something should be defined or categorized

#olitical rock should consider the relation of the musician to the music;$esame $treet should !e considered as educational in the traditional

sense; news media in the 2$ tends to fall either into pu!lic or

commercial cate"ories+ each with its own pros and cons.

For easons#

6o your reasons explain why you think the audience should accept your claim&6o they represent >udgments not shared by your audience i.e. are you already

preaching to the converted& +f so, wheres the argument&!

6o your reasons rest on evidence& emember, reasons exist in our heads, while what the

easons are based on evidence! is out there in the world.ecall the reasons we saw in %hatever, 6ude and8or 2evermind# first they both

presented a kind of status quo with the kind of films8music we get today and our

esponses to them, made a claim about that status quo the destabilizing condition!, and

hen went on to show how something either could be or was once different, and T4/2howed evidence through either the analysis of 1ne=/yed ?acks or age *gainst the

achine and ;ang of Four.

For /vidence#

(ould it be looked up&+s the evidence not contestable at least for the time being!&

+s it comprised of representations of states of affairs that are treated as facts&

emember, reasons rest on evidence, while evidence rests on itself.

4ow closely do you need to match your readers expectations&4ow strongly will your readers resist your claim "will your evidence need to be stronger if

hey will be more resistant& *long with that, how fully do you expect your readers to

accept your claim&ecall

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he reason and8or claim.

Think of a warrant as that thing at the end of your reasons8evidence that links those

hings back to your claim "if its not obvious from the paragraph itself, a simple statementasserting this is necessary.

ecall 2ightline and how we were looking for some warrants to tie all the loose

evidenceC back to some claim@ or