At the beginning of this module, the word “argument” might have made you think of what followed when you came home late in high school or when you took your sister’s sweater without asking.  By the end of this module, though, you can see how “argument” is used in the academic setting and its importance in all subject areas as you continue your college career.

• An argument must have a topic, a claim, and reason and evidence.  It should be shared with an audience and should consider the opposing point of view.
• Facts are observable, verifiable information; inferences are based on analysis; judgments are subjective observations; and an opinion is a view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge.
• Perspective is born from your prior knowledge and all the things you’ve experienced.  Understanding your perspective means taking stock of your prior knowledge, experiences, and priorities.
• Bias is an inclination towards or against a person, thing, or idea and describes a kind of judgment for which you can’t really give reasons.  Just as bias can cause us to make unreasoned or unfair judgments about people, it can also impair our ability to develop or analyze an argument.
• Evidence is the raw data that is offered in support of an interpretive claim.  It must be integrated into your own argument or claim, and you must demonstrate that the evidence supports your thesis. Statistical evidence supports arguments by grounding claims in verifiable numbers.
• Texts are used as evidence in the form of direct quotations from the work in question. When the specific language of a text is less important than a broader plot point or theme, scholars often use a summary of the relevant parts of the text as evidence to support their claim.  Scholarly essays also use quotations from or summaries of secondary works as evidence to help make their overall case.
• Quantitative data looks at issues of how many, while qualitative data looks at issues of value.
• Personal experience can also be used as evidence in particular genres and fields of study. People can speak with authority for different reasons — they can have subject expertise, societal position, or special experience
• Toulmin developed a method using claims, grounds, warrant, backing, rebuttal, and qualifier for analyzing arguments that can be applied to nearly any text.  When creating your own analytic arguments, start by identifying an argument’s Claim, then working down to Grounds, Warrant, and Backing.
• To build up an argument using the Toulmin Method, you must begin with Backing, then work up towards Warrants, Grounds, and finally arrive at your Claim.  Building a Rogerian argument would require you to demonstrate that you understand the other person’s viewpoint, even that you have empathy for it. By showing this, a person is more likely to listen to your point of view. In a Classical argument, your goal as a writer is to convince your audience of something by using a series of strategies to persuade your audience to adopt your side of the issue.
• A synthesis considers multiple, related texts where you look at several texts’ purposes, construction, and contents. To approach a synthesis systematically, you could create a synthesis matrix so all information is available to you at once.