A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
An excellent, brief introduction to a topic vital for all who speak and write!
Table of Contents
Introduction: Why Arguments Are Good
1 The Basics of Good Arguments
2 Reasoning and Logic
3 Fallacies
4 Belief, Fact, and Opinion
5 Defining Your Terms
6 Drawing Analogies
7 Cause and Effect
8 On Good Authority
9 Making Your Case
Case Studies
Glossary
Selected Quotes
- As you learn to develop your own arguments, one of the most important skills to develop is the skill of clearly stating every element that is important to the argument. (6)
- The simplest way to describe deductive reasoning is to say that a good argument using deductive reasoning leads to a conclusion that cannot possibly be false, assuming that all the premises are true. (16)
- Objective claims are those that can be proven true or false because they pertain to matters of the external world. Subjective claims, on the other hand, are claims about matters of personal preference. (49)
- Deductive arguments are an all-or-nothing affair. They cannot be made stronger or weaker. Inductive arguments, on the other hand, have premises that do not entail the conclusion but rather work together to show that the conclusion is probably true. (73)
- Cause-and-effect reasoning often begins with what is called correlation: regularly associating two events with one another. When one happens, the other happens also. (81)
- No one knows everything…you included. It stands to reason, then, that if you want to make good arguments, you will need to rely on the arguments, ideas, and expertise of other authors. (91)
- Citing recognized experts can go a long way toward convincing your audience that you have a good understanding of the issues pertaining to your argument, even those that lie outside your own area of expertise. Since you don’t know everything, it is essential that you learn how to find and cite experts at key points in your argument. (101)
- Whatever your precise reason for engaging in argumentation, you must think about your overarching purpose regarding your audience, as well as your audience’s perspective and whether or not they already believe your claims. Then you can craft your argument accordingly. (106)
- But if the objective is to persuade an audience…one of the quickest ways to derail the whole project is to adopt an arrogant attitude toward the topic. (106)