ASSIGNMENT

Advanced Academic
Reading & Writing
What is an Argument

Submitted To
Mam Mussarat Naheed
Submitted By:
Zaheen Butt
Mehboob Ali
Hina Liaqat
Mudasra Iqbal

Date: 23/11/2016

Definition Of An Argument:

A statement, reason, or fact for or against a point.

Discussion involving differing points of view; debate:they were deeply involved in an

argument about inflation.

A process of reasoning; series of reasons.
An address or composition intended to convince or persuade; persuasive discourse.
subject matter; theme: the central argument of his paper was
Presented clearly.
An abstract or summary of the major points in a work of prose or poetry or of sections
of such a work.

What is an argument?
A crucial part of critical thinking is to identify, construct, and evaluate arguments. In
everyday life, people often use "argument" to mean a quarrel between people. But in logic
and critical thinking, an argument is a list of statements, one of which is the conclusion and
the others are the premises or assumptions of the argument before proceeding, read this
page about statements.
To give an argument is to provide a set of premises as reasons for accepting the conclusion.
To give an argument is not necessarily to attack or criticize someone. Arguments can also be
used to support other people's viewpoints here is an example of an argument if you want to
find a good job, you should work hard. You do want to find a good job. So you should work
hard.

A few points to note:

Dogmatic people tend to make assertions without giving reasons. When they are

criticized they often fail to give arguments to defend their own opinions.
To improve our critical thinking skills, we should develop the habit of giving good

arguments to support our opinions.

To defend an opinion, think about whether you can give more than one argument to
support it. Also, think about potential objections to your opinion, e.g. arguments
against your opinion. A good thinker will consider the arguments on both sides of an
issue.

History is an Argument:

History is an argument about how to interpret the past, but students often think of it as a
timeline of events or a straight forward set of facts. To counteract this, I emphasize in my
classes that the past cannot be examined without interpretation, and that historians will arrive
at different, and often conflicting, conclusions.
I have found the best way to demonstrate this is to bring my students to the archives. When
my students examine original documents in the archives, they are empowered to interpret
sources, debate their conclusions, and ultimately produce what educational theorist Benjamin
S. Bloom would describe as higher order intellectual work.
In 1956, Bloom categorized such cognitive activities into a hierarchy. In 2000, Lorain W.
Anderson, etc all published a revised version of Blooms Taxonomy which begins at the
bottom with remembering, understanding, and applying, and which moves up to the activities
of analyzing, evaluating and creating.

Work with archival collections requires students to move into the higher order activities at the
top of Blooms Taxonomy. Unlike textbooks, primary sources can rarely be read simply for
information. Instead of memorizing facts about past events and people, researchers must
place primary sources in a larger context and interpret them.
When my early American history students visit the reading room and pore over an original
document, they engage
in close reading, encounter new vocabulary, decipher difficult handwriting, encounter
unfamiliar formats, and draw on pre-existing knowledge to decide how to interpret a
particular source. These activities help students develop the confidence to examine and assess

historical information. They leave the archive with the skills required to create historical
narratives of their own.
When students complete the research paper in my course, they shift from a process of
knowledge acquisition to a process of knowledge creation. They become historians when they
assert the importance and meaning of a primary source.
The paper assignment also forces students to seek out contextual knowledge on their own.
When students locate information based on a specific need (in this case, to better understand
and interpret a primary source), they more effectively retain that historical context. For
example, students who study documents showing the transfer of land from the Canaries tribe
in Brooklyn to the Dutch settlers need to look up simple contemporary words
like wampum and kills. They also need to learn about complexities like the usufruct system
of land ownership used by the Canaries.
This focus on research and argument helps students understand and critique the historical
claims they will encounter throughout their lives, such as debates about Second Amendment
rights or changing definitions of marriage. They develop the skills needed to examine how
the past is portrayed in the movies, examined in the news, and employed by politicians.
When students visit the archives, they sit physically and intellectually in the process of
knowledge creation.
Element of an argument:
The Claim
The claim is the beginning of an argument and consists of the most general statement. The
claim part of an argument also contains qualifiers and/or exceptions. A qualifier is a word
such as some, most, may, usually, and other words that add quality to a word. An exception is
an omitted situation of a claim that denotes a restriction of the claim. For example, a claim
might assume most books are fun to read, but exclude one specific author who is not.
The Reasons
The reasons are simply the backing a writer makes the claim. Once a reason is given, a reader
must evaluate the relevance and effectiveness of the reasons. Reasons such as proven
evidence would give more effectiveness than a reason based on personal opinion.

Effectiveness is based first on relevance of the reasons and then on the value it gives to the
claim.
The Evidence
The evidence includes the facts, statistics, expert analysis or another proven backup to the
reason. If there is no such evidence, the reason and the claim are lacking this supporting part
of the argument. The evidence is analyzed based on its sufficiency, credibility and accuracy.
Convincing evidence, in order to be convincing, must be sufficient, credible and accurate.
Anticipated Objects and Rebuttal
An argument must contain reasonable objections the reader might make. The author will
include a rebuttal to these anticipated objections to the claim. These rebuttals should present
reasons and evidence as the original claim does.

Importance of arguments:

Argument is very important part of life. Argument is how everything in life solved.
every day people have different opinions about how things should be and argument is

a way to build your skill in per swaying someone to belief your side of the argument.
Arguments are used to prove a truth.
Argument is used in everyday life and people should e skilled with them, but that

could be bad if everybodys too good at argument.

We might have a lot of and ideas put forth because the other side could not comet it as

well.
Needless to say argument is very important and should be studied to increase the

intelligent in debates.
To clarify, a scientific argument is a statement designed to convince an individual of a
claim by providing some sort of supporting evidence or reasoning.

Guidelines of an argument:
TITLE:

This is the name of your argument. It is what you will call it, it is what you
want judges to write down, and it is how your opponents are likely to refer to it. This

repetition helps you.

The title should be a complete thought.
The title should be short.

You always want to say the title of your argument slower than the rest of your speech,

because you want judges to write it down word-for-word.

In front of some English second language speakers you might want to repeat the title.
THESIS:
This is a one or two sentence description of the entire argument.
It should come right after the title.
Studies show that if listeners understand the context of the whole idea
first, they will more successfully assemble the pieces of the idea as you go through
them.
STEPS:
The number and kind of steps you have in an argument are based on the nature of the

argument.
Steps are necessary components of a linear reasoning process.
Causes come before effects, links come before impacts, assumptions Come before
implications, etc. When in doubt, put in that extra step. The more explicit you are in

argument construction the better.

REASONING:
You need to explain the logic and reasoning behind the operation of the argument.
If logical connections are not explicitly stated then the process of Persuading the

judge ends.
Logical reasoning is not that difficult, we use it every day, and we use . Use these in

your arguments.
For some reason we may have been taught that you do not need to make these logical

operations explicit, as if it was somehow beneath you, but I

Can assure you that it is not. When the audience understands the logic Behind your
argument they are more likely to buy in.