Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Questions to Consider in
Evaluating Arguments
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
George Orwell
Politics and the English
Language (1946)
Examples of Inductive
Reasoning:
Each of these passages has faults of its own, but quite apart
from avoidable ugliness, two qualities are common to all of
them. The first is staleness of imagery; the other is a lack of
precision. The writer either has a meaning and cannot
express it, or he inadvertently says something else, or he is
almost indifferent as to whether his words mean anything
or not. The mixture of vagueness and sheer incompetence
is the most marked characteristic of modern English prose,
and especially of any kind of political writing. (158-9)
Examples of Deductive
Reasoning:
The sole aim of a metaphor is to call up a visual
image. When these images clashas in The
Fascist octopus has sung its swan song, the jackboot is
thrown into the melting pot it can be taken as
certain that the writer is not seeing a mental
image of the objects he is naming, in other
words he is not really thinking. (164-5)
Evidence is either:
sufficient
precise
accurate
representative
authoritative
sufficient
precise
accurate
representative
authoritative
Warrants:
Generally fall into two categories:
1.
Commonly held beliefs or principles, based
on assumptions or empirical evidence
(Where theres smoke, theres fire.)
2. Appeals to authority
(When X says Y, Y must be so.)
Example of a Warrant :
Here, the warrant is based on a generally held belief:
It is almost universally held felt that when we call a
country democratic we are praising it: consequently
the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is
a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop
using the word if it were tied down to any one
meaning. (162)
5. Counterarguments
Counterarguments ask you to consider how you would
answer someone who asked, But what about?
It is important to acknowledge and respond to
questions and objections to your argument. Consider
using phrases such as to be sure, admittedly, and
some have claimed, etc., followed with although,
but, however, on the other hand, etc.
Example of counterargument:
I said earlier that the decadence of our language is
probably curable. Those who deny this would
argue, if they produced an argument at all, that
language merely reflects social conditions, and that
we cannot influence its development by any direct
tinkering with words and constructions. So far as
the general tone or spirit of a language goes, this
may be true, but it is not true in detail. (168)
Definition
Qualification
Common Ground
Acknowledgement of Sources
Categories of qualification:
Examples of Qualification
I have not here been considering the literary
use of language, but merely language as an
instrument for expressing and not for
concealing or preventing thought. (170)
Here, Orwell gives us a quantity qualification
these, not those
Examples of Qualification
Or:
Examples of Establishing
Common Ground
What do I cite?
In the humanities, quote only what is language
worthy, and quote only when the original words
are especially memorable.
In the sciences, quote sparingly. Use your own
words to paraphrase or summarize the idea you
want to discuss, emphasizing the points relevant to
your argument.
In all cases, be sure to name sources even when
you are not using the exact original words.
Examples of
Acknowledging Sources
For example
Examples
Additional Resources:
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