Colin Swatridge 2014 Introduction Oxford Guide To Effectiv PDF

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Introduction You are someone who has to argue a case:you have a speech to make, or a letter, article, paper, essay, or dissertation to write. You are a student (most of us are at some stage), and you have been given a title, or you have to choose one, that requires you to advance an argument. You have to read relevant articles, books, websites; you have to decide where you stand on the subject, and make a case in such a way as to persuade your reader, or readers, to agree with the conclusion that you come to. You may have to write just a couple of pages; or you may have to write a paper, or essay, of 5,000 words; or, perhaps, a dissertation of 40,000 words ormore. This book is designed to help you to dothis. You have probably not been asked to write about a subject: what you already know about it or what you can find out about it; some discussion is probably expected—some analysis. The likely requirement is thatyou:

How realistic is the idea of a United States of Europe? Your answer to this question (in however many words) will be one answer among many possible answers. Your job is to make a strong, persuasive case of your answer. Central to your argument will be the claim that answers the question. It is the point that you want to make and that you want your reader to accept. It is the conclusion that you draw from the claims that others make, and from the evidence that is available to you. It is the conclusion that your reader will come to if the claims and the evidence give it strong enough support. It might be a conclusion likethis:

To be united, the peoples of Europe need to share a commitment to democratic ideals and consider themselves to be fairly represented by a single parliamentary government. We would seem to be a long way from this sort ofunity. The claims that you make and the evidence that you provide to support your conclusions we shall simply call reasons. This is what an argument is. It is a set of claims; one of them is the conclusion; and some (if not all) of the others are the reasons that you hope will supportit.

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The study of claims that make up an argument is the stuff of Critical Thinking. This is often taught as if it was a subject in its own right, to a small minority of students in their final years of school, or in their first year of a general humanities or philosophy course at college or university. This is a pity, since nearly all students have to advance and assess arguments at one time or another and it is highly desirable that they do this critically. What does this mean:‘critically’? The word often has a negative undertone: of carping; of fault-finding. In this context, though, it means using one’s judgement:in Greek, a kritikos was a judge, examining evidence on two sides in a case, and judging which was the weightier.

This is what you do when you think ‘critically’: you judge what it is that makes an argument strong or weak; you learn how to put forward stronger arguments and how not to be seduced by weak ones. The uncritical accept what they read or what they are told, at face value; critical thinkers weigh claims in the balance, and make—or reserve—judgement when the evidence has dispelled reasonabledoubt. This book is full of arguments put forward by thinkers and doers from across history and the (mostly western) world. These arguments illustrate aspects of conducting an argument, and they are numbered sequentially throughout the book, for easy reference. They are raw material for the critical thinker, too; but in this book, critical thinking is harnessed to the business of writing—as a means to a practicalend. Arguing is not about winning and losing. There are no ‘model’ arguments in this book, and there are no ticks for ‘right answers’. The most that you can hope to do when you write is to persuade a reader that your conclusion is as safe and sound as you can make it for all the reasons that you give. Likewise, when you weigh up the arguments of other people it is wise neither to be too easily persuaded, nor too dismissive. You can be certain in an equation, but only rarely in an argument.

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EBSCOhost - printed on 9/12/2021 1:39 AM via UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use...