Wednesday, March 18 2009

Today’s Agenda

For today, I had you read chapter 7 and write a 1.5 page response to the chapter.

Last class, we ended with a discussion on fallacies in argumentation. One of the things I want you to see today is that, regardless of whether or not you agree or disagree with any of the authors we have read so far this semester, they all make these kinds of challenging rhetorical maneuvers in their writing. Here’s what I would like to do today: Let’s take Hertsgaard’s Oblivious Empire and look at it in a new way. We are going to be dividing up this essay, and we will all be looking for different kinds of fallacies in argumentation that are in this writing. When you find one, identify it so we can talk about it as a class.

1)      Look for fallacies in Hertsgaard’s argument. Discuss   fallacies – discuss ways around these fallacies.

2)      Notice that we are not talking about whether or not his argument is correct or incorrect. Rather, we are talking about the rhetorical strategies he uses to make this argument.

For class today, I had you read chapter 7 and do a brief write up on it. Here are some of your comments.

What is a factual argument:

1

In chapter 7 the arguments that being explained are given through fact and evidence. The chapter also shows you how they are characterized, which the book says is “driven by perceptions and evidence” (182). All of the facts and evidence that you use in your argument totally depends on the people you are trying to reach. They talk about strategies on how to set up a factual argument. They tell us how to start an argument how to research and then how to present it in a formal work.

2

A factual argument is one that is meant to, “challenge beliefs and assumptions held widely within a society on the basis of inadequate or incomplete information.” As the audience being presented the information factual arguments can also be detected if the argument, “addresses broader questions about the history or myths societies want to believe about themselves.” Some examples of these types of arguments address major issues such as the citing of creatures, question the validity of the man on the moon, and if care seats are safer that seatbelts.

3

Factual arguments come in many varieties with different standards of proof (178). What factual arguments so is explain and tell whether something is true or not or whether something exists. At first you might not agree with the argument, but it’s just a matter of looking things up and writing a report, to find that maybe you were wrong or you agree with what you found during research. In order to have a good factual argument you need to identify an issue, research your hypothesis, refine your claim, decide which evidence you’re going to use and what evidence is going to support your hypothesis the best, present your evidence and then lastly consider you design and visuals.

1

A factual argument that I have encountered is the idea that there is a “Big Foot,” creature that exists and still roams the woods. This particular argument was presented to me through a television show on the History Channel. This show described and argued that such a creature did exist and was still alive. The program showed individuals in the woods looking and “hunting,” for “Big Foot.” However, during these hunts nothing was showed in daylight, just noises were heard in the woods. These noises caught on this footage could have been a variety of creatures in the forest, but the show chose to convince the viewer that these were noises coming from “Big Foot,” himself. The television show also displayed evidence for their claim in the form of pictures and interviews from eyewitness accounts. The validity of the pictures was questioned when all of the pictures presented on the show were either of “Big Foot,” running away from the camera, creating a blurry shot of the creatures back. The other pictures presented were of “Big Foot,” at a distance where no tell tale signs of the creatures true existence could be identified. The pictures poor quality made the argument very questionable.

2

My family had for some reason had got onto the subject of global warming at the dinner table on night. My brother is a teacher and knows reasonable amounts about what is going on in our world. My parents also have their facts to add that they saw from the news and other sources. It started out with how the polar ice caps are melting and that the animals in those regions are losing their habitat. My father says that the main part is that all the emissions from the cars are causing a change in our atmosphere. It’s all of the carbon dioxide emissions from the cars that are reacting with our atmosphere making it deteriorate. Once my dad finished my brother had to agree, but also say that cars are not the only things that are causing the global warming and that the polar caps are not the only things on earth that are in danger.

3

I’ve been assessing the possible schools to attend by thinking about what I want out of a college. The facts that I’ve been thinking about that I want out of a school are whether or not it is affordable, if it is a school at least the size of Husson, the types of athletics they offer, the type of area it’s surrounded by, and if it has the major(s) I’m interested in.
So far after looking at some schools in Vermont, New Hampshire, and here in Maine, I’ve narrowed down my choices to three schools. One of them is Castleton State College of Vermont. When I looked at this school online, it is in the perfect area for me. I’ve always wanted to go skiing in Vermont and there are a lot of resorts in the area. I like that it has scholarships and grant money to offer, and that the tuition is at the same level as I’m paying right now. It is very similar to Husson in that it has pretty much the same sports and has the same amount of students enrolled. I also have a friend who goes to the same school.

Now we are going to work with a factual argument on 203. We will read it, and we will look for fallacies in this argument, if there are any.

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