Books: Practical Argumentation
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George K. Pattee >> Practical Argumentation
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2. Football benefits the player mentally.
3. Football benefits the player morally.
4. Football benefits the students who do not participate in the game.
5. Intercollegiate football games advertise the college.
The partition is usually found in college debate because in a contest
of this sort absolute clearness is a prerequisite for success. As but
little interest customarily centers around the subject itself, each
debater knows that if he is to make any impression on the audience he
must so arrange his argument that it will, with a minimum amount of
effort on the part of the listener, be clear to every one. To one
reading an argument, a partition, unless of the simplest kind, will
probably seem superfluous; to one listening to a speech in which he is
truly interested, the partition may seem labored. But when the whole
interest centers in the method of presentation, and in the processes
of reasoning rather than in the subject matter, the partition does
increase the clearness of the argument, and should, therefore, be
used.
By way of summary, then, it may be said that the work of conviction in
the introduction is to show the relation between the proposition and
the proof. The arguer accomplishes this task, first, by defining all
words the meaning of which is not generally comprehended; secondly, by
explaining, in the light of these definitions, the meaning of the
proposition taken as a whole; thirdly, by discovering the issues
through a careful process of analysis; and fourthly, by making a
partition when he is engaged in debate and has reason to think that
the audience will not see the connection between the issues and the
discussion.
HOW TO INVESTIGATE A SUBJECT.
A student will hardly have reached this point in the study of
Argumentation before finding it necessary to search for information
that will assist him in the construction of his argument. To one
unfamiliar with a library, a search after facts bearing upon a given
subject is likely to prove tedious. For this reason a few words of
advice concerning the proper way in which to use a library may be of
great help to a beginner. Nothing, however, can be given here that
will even approximate the value of a few hours' instruction by the
librarian of the college in which the student is enrolled. In the
absence of such instruction, one can seldom do better at the outset
than to become familiar with indexes to periodical and contemporary
literature, encyclopaedias, government reports, and the library
catalogue.
The best indexes are the _Reader's Guide, Poole's Index, The Annual
Library Index,_ and the _Current Events Index_. These give
references to all articles published in the principal magazines and
newspapers for many years. In these articles one will find almost
limitless material on nearly every popular topic of the day--
political, economic, scientific, social, educational. The writers,
too, are often of national and even of international reputation, and
the opinions and ideas given here are frequently as weighty and
progressive as can be found. In searching through an index for
articles upon a certain subject, one should invariably look under
several headings. For example, if one is seeking material in regard to
the abolishment of baseball from the list of college sports, he ought
not to consult just the one heading _baseball_; he should in
addition look under _athletics_, _college sports_, and
similar topics.
Other valuable sources of information are encyclopaedias. They often
give broad surveys and comprehensive digests that cannot readily be
found elsewhere. Although they do not, as a rule, discuss subjects
that are of mere local or present-day interest, yet the thorough
searcher after evidence will usually do well to consult at least
several. A fact worth bearing in mind is that in connection with these
articles in encyclopaedias, references are often given to books and
articles that treat the subject very thoroughly.
In the next place, official publications frequently furnish invaluable
help in regard to public problems. Both state governments and the
national government constantly publish reports containing statistics,
the opinions of experts, and suggestions for economic and political
changes. Some of the most valuable of these documents for the purposes
of the arguer are Census, Immigration, Education, and Interstate
Commerce Commission reports, the messages of the Presidents, and the
_Congressional Record_. There are indexes to all these, and one
can easily find out how to use them.
Furthermore, one should not fail to consult the library catalogue. To
be sure, if the books are catalogued only according to titles and
authors, one will probably get little assistance from this source
unless he knows beforehand what particular books or authors to search
for. If, on the other hand, the books are also catalogued according to
the subjects of which they treat, one can see almost at a glance what
books the library has that bear upon the matter under investigation.
EXERCISES
A. Define the following terms:--monopoly, free trade, railway pooling,
income tax, honorary degree, tutorial system of instruction,
industrial education, classical education, German university method of
study, vivisection, temperance, Indian agency system, yellow peril,
graft, sensational, mass play, monarch, civilization, autonomy.
B. Criticise the issues that are given for the following
propositions:--
1. _Resolved,_ That in the United States naturalization laws
should be more stringent.
a. Are the present laws satisfactory?
b. Have the results of the laws been satisfactory?
c. Would a change be wise?
2. _Resolved,_ That in the United States the reformatory system
of imprisonment should be substituted for the punitive.
a. Is the reformatory system practicable?
b. Does it reform the criminal?
c. What has been its success thus far?
d. Is it in accordance with modern civilization?
3. _Resolved_, That education in the United States should be
compulsory to the age of sixteen.
a. Is compulsory education practicable?
b. Will compulsory education benefit the child?
c. Will compulsory education benefit the public?
4. _Resolved_, That American universities should admit women on
equal terms with men.
a. Is woman's education as important as man's?
b. Is coeducation a benefit to both sexes?
c. Is coeducation a benefit to the college?
d. Is the desirable system of separate education worth the extra
money it costs?
5. _Resolved_, That in the United States there should be an
educational test for voting.
a. Is voting a privilege or a natural right?
b. Ought illiterates to be excluded from the polls?
c. Would the test be unfair to any class of citizens?
d. Could such a test be easily incorporated into our laws?
6. _Resolved_, That vivisection should be prohibited.
a. Is vivisection of great assistance to medicine?
b. Is vivisection humane?
c. Is it right for us as human beings to sanction the many
forms of needless and excessive cruelty practised by
vivisectors?
C. Make a brief introduction to each of the following propositions,
defining all words that require definition, explaining the meaning of
the proposition, stating the issues, and making the partition:--
1. All colleges should debar freshmen from participation in
intercollegiate athletic contests.
2. Playing baseball with organizations not under the national
agreement should not render athletes ineligible for college teams.
3. ---- College should adopt the honor system of holding examinations.
4. All colleges should abolish hazing.
5. The climate of our country is changing.
6. Macbeth's wife was the cause of his ruin.
7. The Rhodes scholarships for the United States will accomplish the
objects of its founder.
8. National expositions are a benefit to the country.
CHAPTER V
THE INTRODUCTION--BRIEF-DRAWING
Preceding chapters have dwelt on the essential characteristics of the
introduction and have shown what it should be like when completed. No
one but an expert writer, however, can hope that his argument, in
either introduction, discussion, or conclusion, will attain any
considerable completeness and excellence without first passing through
a preliminary form known as the _brief_.
A brief is a special kind of outline: _it is an outline that sets
forth in specific language all the ideas to be used in that portion of
the argument known as conviction, and that shows the exact relation
these ideas bear to each other and to the proposition_. An outline
in narrative, descriptive, or expository composition is invariably
made up of general suggestions, which seldom indicate the same ideas
to different persons; it is inexact and incomplete. A brief, on the
contrary, fails in its purpose unless it conveys accurate information.
The material composing it is always in the form of complete sentences;
the ideas are expressed in as exact and specific language as the
writer is capable of using. A good brief means as much to the one who
reads it as to the one who draws it. It is, too, a complete work in
itself. It does not deal with persuasion; with this exception,
however, it contains in condensed form all the material to be used in
the finished argument.
There are many reasons why an arguer should first cast his material in
the form of a brief. To begin with, this device enables him to grasp,
almost at a glance, all the material used for the purpose of
conviction; it keeps constantly before him the points that he must
explain, and shows him instantly just how far he has progressed with
the proof of each statement. Furthermore, a brief renders the arguer
invaluable assistance in preserving the fundamental principles of
composition, especially those of Unity, Coherence, Proportion, and
Emphasis. It greatly simplifies his task of assorting material and
assigning each part its proper place and function. It exhibits so
clearly every particle of evidence and every process of reasoning
employed that it affords great convenience for testing both the
quality and the quantity of the proof. In fact, a good brief is so
essential a part of a good argument that a student who neglects to
draw the first is bound to meet failure in the second.
The rules governing brief-drawing logically divide themselves into
four classes: those which apply to the brief as a whole constitute the
first class and are called General Rules; those rules which apply to
each of the main divisions of a brief constitute the three remaining
classes and are called Rules for the Introduction, Rules for the
Discussion, and Rules for the Conclusion.
GENERAL RULES.
In drawing a brief, the student should first divide his material into
three groups, corresponding to the three divisions of the complete
argument: the Introduction, Discussion, and Conclusion. Moreover,
since absolute clearness in every particular is the prime requisite
for a good brief, he should label each of these parts with its proper
name, so that there may never be the slightest doubt or confusion as
to where one part ends and another begins. Hence the first rule for
brief-drawing is:--
Rule I. _Divide the brief into three parts, and mark them
respectively, Introduction, Discussion, and Conclusion_.
A brief, as has been explained, is an outline that contains all the
reasoning to be found in the finished argument. Reasoning processes
are carried on, not with vague ideas and general suggestions, but with
specific facts and exact thoughts. For this reason, only complete
statements are of value in a brief. Mere terms must be avoided. A
statement, it should be remembered, is a declarative sentence; a term
is a word or any combination of words other than a sentence.
The following examples of terms plainly show that no reasoning process
can exist without the use of complete statements:--
Strikes during the past twenty-five years.
Percentage of strikes conducted by labor organizations.
Building trades and strikes.
Since such expressions as these give no information, they are
manifestly out of place in a brief. Each term may call to mind any one
of several ideas. No one but the author knows whether the first term
is intended to indicate that strikes have been of frequent or of
infrequent occurrence, beneficial or detrimental. The second term does
not indicate whether the percentage of strikes conducted by labor
organizations has been great or small, increasing or decreasing. The
third term is equally indefinite. Notice, however, that as soon as
these terms are turned into complete sentences, they may well serve as
explanation or as proof:--
During the twenty-five year period ending in 1905 there occurred in
the United States 36,757 strikes.
Labor organizations directed about two-thirds of these strikes.
The building trades have had more strikes than has any other industry.
This explanation gives rise to the following rule:--
Rule II. _Express each idea in the brief in the form of a complete
statement_.
Moreover, each sentence should contain only one idea. Every thought
expressed has some specific work to do, and it can do it far more
effectively if it stands by itself as a unit. The awkwardness and
impracticability of proving the truth or falsity of a statement that
makes several assertions has been treated under the head of Combined
Propositions. Obviously, there are unwarrantable difficulties in
grouping explanation or proof about such a statement as, "Municipal
ownership has failed in Philadelphia, has succeeded in Edinburgh, and
is likely to meet with indifferent success in New Orleans."
Furthermore, a sentence that contains several distinct thoughts is
very ineffective as proof for some other statement. Since one part of
the sentence may be accepted as true and another part rejected, the
resulting confusion is very great. To avoid all errors of this kind,
the student should use, as far as possible, only _simple_
sentences.
Rule III. _Make in each statement only a single assertion_.
In the next place, one who draws a brief should take pains to frame
all his statements in as concise a form as he can. If he is able to
state an idea in six words, he should not use seven. This principle
does not mean that small words like _a, an_, and _the_
should be left out, or that an obvious subject may be omitted; it does
not mean that the "diary" style of writing is permissible. It means
simply that one should always state his ideas as briefly as possible
without violating any of the rules of Composition. Quotations should
rarely appear in a brief, never unless they are very short. When an
arguer wishes to make use of another writer's material, he should
condense it into his own language, and state from what source he
derived his information. In an expanded argument the full quotation
may appear. The ability to express ideas both concisely and, at the
same time, clearly, is attained only by considerable labor, yet a
departure from the principle of brevity is a serious violation of good
brief-drawing. Hence the rule:--
Rule IV. _Make each statement as concise as is consistent with
clearness_.
Every brief is primarily a process of explanation. From this fact it
is evident that clearness must be sought above all other qualities.
Not only must the idea expressed be understood, but the _relation
between_ ideas, must be perfectly plain and evident. The reader
should be able to see at a glance what material is of co-ordinate rank
and what is of subordinate rank. This perspicuity is especially
necessary in the discussion, where each statement is either being
proved by subordinate statements or is serving as proof for some other
statement. The device ordinarily adopted for exhibiting at a glance
the relation between the ideas in a brief consists of two parts:
first, all subordinate statements are indented farther than more
important statements; and second, numbers and letters are used to
indicate what statements are of co-ordinate importance and what are of
secondary rank. The system of marking most generally adopted is as
follows:--
I.
A.
1.
a.
1'.
a'.
B.
1.
a.
II.
A. etc.
Thus the fifth rule is:--
Rule V. _Indicate the relation between statements by indentation and
by the use of symbols_.
In indicating the relation between ideas, a writer should never put
more than one symbol before a statement. It seems almost superfluous
to mention an error so apparent as the double use of symbols, but the
mistake is frequently made and much confusion results. The numeral I
before a heading indicates that the statement is of primary
importance; the letter A indicates that it is of secondary importance.
If a statement is marked IA, apparently it is both primary and
secondary, clearly an impossibility.
Rule VI. _Mark each statement with only one symbol_.
RULES FOR THE INTRODUCTION.
It has been seen that a brief is a complete composition in itself,
embodying all the material for conviction that will later be found in
the expanded argument. The introduction, therefore, must contain
sufficient information to make the proof of the proposition perfectly
clear. This portion of the brief serves as a connecting link between
the proposition and the discussion; it must explain the nature of the
proposition and then show how the proof which is to follow applies to
it. The exact work that the introduction to a brief must perform is
stated in the following rule:--
Rule VII. _Put into the introduction sufficient explanation for a
complete understanding of the discussion. This explanation usually
involves:--
(a) a definition of terms,
(b) an explanation of the meaning of the proposition,
(c) a statement of the issues, and
(d) the partition._
Neither an introduction to a brief nor an introduction to a complete
argument should contain any statements not admitted by both sides. All
ideas that savor of controversy or prejudice have no place in an
introduction. The sole purpose of the introduction is to prepare the
way for the discussion; if it contains anything in the nature of
proof, anything which is not admittedly true, it is no longer pure
introduction, but becomes in part discussion. If explanation and proof
are thus thrown together indiscriminately, confusion will result.
Accordingly the following rule is of great importance:--
Rule VIII. _Put into the introduction only statements admitted by
both sides_.
The following introductions to briefs may well serve as models for
student's work:--
FIRST MODEL.
_Resolved_, That England should permanently retain control of
Egypt.
NEGATIVE BRIEF.
INTRODUCTION.
I. Because of the recent rapid development of Egypt, the question of
the retention of this country is becoming important.
II. The following explanations will aid in the discussion of the
problem:--
A. Egypt is that strip of country in the northeastern part of
Africa, drained by the Nile and its tributaries.
B. England has an army of occupation in Egypt, and governs it
nominally through the Khedive.
C. England has never suggested annexation.
D. England has shut out the interference of France and other
European nations.
E. England has practically ruled Egypt as a dependency.
III. The following facts are agreed upon:--
A. Some nation had to take charge of Egypt, for
1. The country was heavily in debt.
2. The people were starving.
B. It is for the advantage of England to retain control of the
country.
IV. The conflicting arguments on the question are as follows:--
A. Those who favor the control of Egypt by England have certain
beliefs:--
1. They believe that the control of Egypt by England is the
only practical solution of the problem.
2. They believe that the present status of affairs is
beneficial to Egypt and to the whole world.
B. Those opposed to the control of Egypt by England maintain the
following:--
1. They maintain that England rules in a selfish manner.
2. They maintain that Turkey and not England should have
control of Egypt.
V. From this conflict of opinion it appears that the points to be
determined are:--
A. Is Egypt benefited by the control of England?
B. Is the suzerainty of England over Egypt the only practical
solution of the problem?
C. Is the control of Egypt by England a benefit to the whole
world?
VI. The negative will attempt to prove that England should not
permanently retain Egypt for the following reasons:
A. English control is harmful to Egypt.
B. English control is not the only solution to the Egyptian
problem.
C. English control is harmful to other nations.
SECOND MODEL.
_Resolved_, That the President of the United States should be
elected by direct popular vote.
AFFIRMATIVE BRIEF.
INTRODUCTION.
I. The present method of electing the President of the United States
has been both praised and condemned ever since the adoption of
the Constitution.
A. Two methods of electing the President are under consideration:
the present system whereby the President is elected by the
electoral college, and the proposed system whereby the
President would be elected by a direct popular vote.
II. These two systems may be described as follows:--
A. The present system has the following characteristics:--
1. Each state elects a number of electors equal to the whole
number of Senators and Representatives to which the state
is entitled in Congress.
2. These electors are chosen as the Legislature of each state
may direct.
3. The electors meet in their respective states and vote by
ballot for the President.
4. Since the year 1800 the electors have always voted for the
candidate nominated by the national party which elected
them, though the Constitution does not make this
requirement.
5. The ballots are sent in sealed packages to the President of
the Senate, who counts them and declares the candidate
receiving a majority vote elected.
6. If the electors fail to elect, the House of Representatives
chooses a President from the three candidates that
receive the greatest number of electoral votes.
B. The proposed system has the following characteristics:--
1. The people vote directly for the President, the candidate
receiving a majority of the votes being elected.
2. If there be no majority, the President is elected as under
the present system when the electors fail to elect.
III. The real question to be answered is, Should the direct method be
substituted for the present method?
A. The comparative value of each method must be judged by the
following standards:--
1. Which would be the more practicable?
2. Which would give the voter fuller enjoyment of his right of
suffrage?
3. Which method would have the better effect upon the general
welfare of the nation?
IV. The affirmative will uphold its side of the proposition by
establishing the three following facts:--
A. The direct popular vote system would be more practicable.
B. The direct popular vote system would be more democratic.
C. The direct popular vote system would be better for the general
welfare of the nation.
EXERCISES.
A. (1) Criticise the following Introduction to a brief, and
(2) Write a suitable Introduction to a brief on this subject.
City Location for College.
Introduction.
A. This question is important.
I. The following explanation will aid--
(a) In the understanding, and
(b) In the discussion of the question.
1. Primarily men come to college to study.
2. Men can study better in the country.
3. But is this really the case?
B. A college is an institution of learning higher in rank than a high
school or an academy.
C. The issues of the question are the following:
I. Which college location is more favorable to health and
intellectual development?
II. Is the student able to enter athletics?
III. Does the student in the lonely country college form more
lasting friendships?
IV. Which is the cheaper? Which is the better location?
B. Put into brief form the Introduction found above, Chapter 3,
Exercise #7, dealing with Henry Ward Beecher.
C. Put the following Introductions into brief form:--
(1) HOW TRUSTS AFFECT PRICES.
Perhaps no subject in connection with the Industrial Combinations of
the last few years has been more discussed than that of their
influence upon prices. Opinions have differed widely, the opponents of
the Combinations usually believing that they have increased prices
materially, their defenders claiming with equal positiveness that they
have reduced prices. Differences of opinion have probably originated
largely from the fact that the subject has been approached from
different points of view; and mistakes have also, in many cases, been
made through lack of a careful interpretation of available facts. It
by no means follows that the Trusts have lowered prices because prices
have fallen within a few years after their formation; nor, on the
other hand, that Trusts have raised prices because prices have been
increased. Neither does it follow that, because the Industrial
Combinations might through their economies lower prices, they have, as
a matter of fact, actually done so; nor again that, with the possible
ability to increase prices through the exercise of monopolistic power,
they have not found it advisable under certain circumstances really to
lower them. Any careful discussion of the subject will involve, first,
what the influence of combination would enable the Trusts to do
regarding prices; second, what the Combinations actually have done;
and, third, what effects upon society may be anticipated from any
changes in prices made by Industrial Combinations. [Footnote: Jeremiah
W. Jenks, North American Review for June, 1901, p. 906.]
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