{"id":2420,"date":"2018-05-24T18:34:36","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T18:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-wm-englishcomposition1\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=2420"},"modified":"2018-08-28T17:15:40","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T17:15:40","slug":"revising-a-logical-argument","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/chapter\/revising-a-logical-argument\/","title":{"raw":"Revising a Logical Argument","rendered":"Revising a Logical Argument"},"content":{"raw":"<img class=\"wp-image-2874 size-medium alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3033\/2018\/05\/16111807\/CW-OER-revise-logical-argument-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;Assess&quot;\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/>For a logical argument, in addition to applying the usual essay revision processes, you\u2019ll need to evaluate your logical argument draft for the quality of your evidence, and the logic of your reasoning. You don\u2019t, for example, want to make the claim that elementary schools should institute honors programs based mostly on the evidence of your neighbor, whose child benefited from a special program while in elementary school. However, evaluating your draft for the quality of your evidence and logic of your reasoning is often difficult to do (because, of course, your argument will make sense to you!).\r\n\r\nThe best way to evaluate your draft as preparation for revising is to set it aside for a while and then come back to it, trying to apply a new reader\u2019s perspective.\r\n<h3>Identifying and Evaluating Claims<\/h3>\r\nIdentify your overall claim \u2013 your thesis \u2013 in the argument. Then evaluate it by asking and answering the following questions:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Am I making a claim or assertion about an actual issue \u2013 something about which there are two (or more) ways of thinking?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Am I making a claim that is supportable by evidence?<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Does my claim (thesis) have a clear topic and angle or assertion?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<img class=\"alignright wp-image-2422 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3033\/2018\/05\/24172841\/CW-OER-Revising-Logical-Argument-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"decorative image\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/>\r\n<h3>Evaluating Support<\/h3>\r\n<h4><em>\u00a0<\/em>Use the STAR method to Assess Appeals to Logic<\/h4>\r\nMapping or diagramming arguments in your draft may help you judge whether an appeal is adequately supported. Applying the STAR Criteria\u2014<strong>S<\/strong>ufficiency, <strong>T<\/strong>ypicality, <strong>A<\/strong>ccuracy, and <strong>R<\/strong>elevance\u2014is one such technique for assessing whether an\u00a0argument has sufficient depth and clarity.\r\n<table>\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>Measure<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td><strong>\u00a0Question<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<td><strong>\u00a0Examples &amp; Notes<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>S<\/strong>ufficiency<\/td>\r\n<td>Is there <em>enough\u00a0<\/em>evidence cited to support the conclusion?<\/td>\r\n<td>Generally, only \u201cstrongly\u201d and not \u201cweakly\u201d supported conclusions should be accepted. The more controversial a claim is, the more evidence authors should provide before expecting an audience to accept it. If the evidence is not sufficient, the author may need to modify or qualify the claim, by stating that something is true \u2018sometimes\u2019 rather than \u2018always\u2019.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>T<\/strong>ypicality<\/td>\r\n<td>Is the cited evidence typical or representative?<\/td>\r\n<td>If an author makes a claim about a whole group but the evidence is based on a small or biased sample of that group, the evidence is not \u201ctypical.\u201d Similar problems stem from relying just on personal experiences (anecdotal evidence) and from \u201ccherry picking\u201d data by citing only the parts that support a conclusion while ignoring parts that might challenge it.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>A<\/strong>ccuracy<\/td>\r\n<td>Is the cited evidence up to date and accurate?<\/td>\r\n<td>Authors using polls, studies and statistics must ask whether the data were produced in a biased way and also ask whether the sample was large and representative of its target population so that results were outside the \u201cmargin of error.\u201d (<strong>Margin of error<\/strong>: If a sample is too small or not well chosen, results may be meaningless because they may represent random variation.)<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td><strong>R<\/strong>elevance<\/td>\r\n<td>Is the cited evidence directly relevant to the claim(s) it is being used to support?<\/td>\r\n<td>An author may supply lots of evidence, but the evidence may support something different from what the person is actually claiming. If the evidence is not relevant to the claim, the author\u00a0may need to modify or qualify the claim\u2014or even to acknowledge that the claim is indefensible.<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\nAlso, as you revise, evaluate your draft for common logical fallacies, or errors in logic that need to be addressed and eliminated or corrected.","rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2874 size-medium alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3033\/2018\/05\/16111807\/CW-OER-revise-logical-argument-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"&quot;Assess&quot;\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/>For a logical argument, in addition to applying the usual essay revision processes, you\u2019ll need to evaluate your logical argument draft for the quality of your evidence, and the logic of your reasoning. You don\u2019t, for example, want to make the claim that elementary schools should institute honors programs based mostly on the evidence of your neighbor, whose child benefited from a special program while in elementary school. However, evaluating your draft for the quality of your evidence and logic of your reasoning is often difficult to do (because, of course, your argument will make sense to you!).<\/p>\n<p>The best way to evaluate your draft as preparation for revising is to set it aside for a while and then come back to it, trying to apply a new reader\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n<h3>Identifying and Evaluating Claims<\/h3>\n<p>Identify your overall claim \u2013 your thesis \u2013 in the argument. Then evaluate it by asking and answering the following questions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Am I making a claim or assertion about an actual issue \u2013 something about which there are two (or more) ways of thinking?<\/li>\n<li>Am I making a claim that is supportable by evidence?<\/li>\n<li>Does my claim (thesis) have a clear topic and angle or assertion?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-2422 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/courses-images\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3033\/2018\/05\/24172841\/CW-OER-Revising-Logical-Argument-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"decorative image\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Evaluating Support<\/h3>\n<h4><em>\u00a0<\/em>Use the STAR method to Assess Appeals to Logic<\/h4>\n<p>Mapping or diagramming arguments in your draft may help you judge whether an appeal is adequately supported. Applying the STAR Criteria\u2014<strong>S<\/strong>ufficiency, <strong>T<\/strong>ypicality, <strong>A<\/strong>ccuracy, and <strong>R<\/strong>elevance\u2014is one such technique for assessing whether an\u00a0argument has sufficient depth and clarity.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>Measure<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>\u00a0Question<\/strong><\/td>\n<td><strong>\u00a0Examples &amp; Notes<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>S<\/strong>ufficiency<\/td>\n<td>Is there <em>enough\u00a0<\/em>evidence cited to support the conclusion?<\/td>\n<td>Generally, only \u201cstrongly\u201d and not \u201cweakly\u201d supported conclusions should be accepted. The more controversial a claim is, the more evidence authors should provide before expecting an audience to accept it. If the evidence is not sufficient, the author may need to modify or qualify the claim, by stating that something is true \u2018sometimes\u2019 rather than \u2018always\u2019.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>T<\/strong>ypicality<\/td>\n<td>Is the cited evidence typical or representative?<\/td>\n<td>If an author makes a claim about a whole group but the evidence is based on a small or biased sample of that group, the evidence is not \u201ctypical.\u201d Similar problems stem from relying just on personal experiences (anecdotal evidence) and from \u201ccherry picking\u201d data by citing only the parts that support a conclusion while ignoring parts that might challenge it.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>A<\/strong>ccuracy<\/td>\n<td>Is the cited evidence up to date and accurate?<\/td>\n<td>Authors using polls, studies and statistics must ask whether the data were produced in a biased way and also ask whether the sample was large and representative of its target population so that results were outside the \u201cmargin of error.\u201d (<strong>Margin of error<\/strong>: If a sample is too small or not well chosen, results may be meaningless because they may represent random variation.)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><strong>R<\/strong>elevance<\/td>\n<td>Is the cited evidence directly relevant to the claim(s) it is being used to support?<\/td>\n<td>An author may supply lots of evidence, but the evidence may support something different from what the person is actually claiming. If the evidence is not relevant to the claim, the author\u00a0may need to modify or qualify the claim\u2014or even to acknowledge that the claim is indefensible.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Also, as you revise, evaluate your draft for common logical fallacies, or errors in logic that need to be addressed and eliminated or corrected.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-2420\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Revising a Logical Argument. Revision and adaptation of the page Supporting Claims at https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-englishcomposition1\/chapter\/1-4-supporting-claims-text\/ which is a revision and adaptation of the page CORE 101: Academic Argument Essay at http:\/\/lcubbison.pressbooks.com\/chapter\/core-101-academic-argument-essay\/. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Susan Oaks. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Empire State College, SUNY OER Services. <strong>Project<\/strong>: College Writing. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Supporting Claims. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-englishcomposition1\/chapter\/1-4-supporting-claims-text\/\">https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-englishcomposition1\/chapter\/1-4-supporting-claims-text\/<\/a>. <strong>Project<\/strong>: English Composition I. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by-nc-sa\/4.0\/\">CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>image of Scrabble tiles spelling Assess. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Wokandapix. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Pixabay. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/assess-measure-evaluation-business-2372181\/\">https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/assess-measure-evaluation-business-2372181\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cc0\">CC0: No Rights Reserved<\/a><\/em><\/li><li>image of starfish. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: flober81. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Pixabay. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/starfish-sea-africa-kenya-holiday-74535\/\">https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/starfish-sea-africa-kenya-holiday-74535\/<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/cc0\">CC0: No Rights Reserved<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">Public domain content<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>CORE 101: Academic Argument Essay. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Radford University. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/lcubbison.pressbooks.com\/chapter\/core-101-academic-argument-essay\/\">https:\/\/lcubbison.pressbooks.com\/chapter\/core-101-academic-argument-essay\/<\/a>. <strong>Project<\/strong>: Radford University Core Handbook. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/about\/pdm\">Public Domain: No Known Copyright<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":81366,"menu_order":12,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Revising a Logical Argument. Revision and adaptation of the page Supporting Claims at https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-englishcomposition1\/chapter\/1-4-supporting-claims-text\/ which is a revision and adaptation of the page CORE 101: Academic Argument Essay at http:\/\/lcubbison.pressbooks.com\/chapter\/core-101-academic-argument-essay\/\",\"author\":\"Susan Oaks\",\"organization\":\"Empire State College, SUNY OER Services\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"College Writing\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Supporting Claims\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-englishcomposition1\/chapter\/1-4-supporting-claims-text\/\",\"project\":\"English Composition I\",\"license\":\"cc-by-nc-sa\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"pd\",\"description\":\"CORE 101: Academic Argument Essay\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Radford University\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/lcubbison.pressbooks.com\/chapter\/core-101-academic-argument-essay\/\",\"project\":\"Radford University Core Handbook\",\"license\":\"pd\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"image of Scrabble tiles spelling Assess\",\"author\":\"Wokandapix\",\"organization\":\"Pixabay\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/assess-measure-evaluation-business-2372181\/\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc0\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"image of starfish\",\"author\":\"flober81\",\"organization\":\"Pixabay\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/en\/starfish-sea-africa-kenya-holiday-74535\/\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc0\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-2420","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":2379,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81366"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3964,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2420\/revisions\/3964"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/2379"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/2420\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=2420"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=2420"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-esc-englishcomposition1-2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=2420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}