Evaluating Reasoning and Support

Objectives
Student will be able to:
  • analyze the logic and reasoning in an argument.
  • identify the strengths, weaknesses, and acknowledgement of counterarguments in an author's argument. 
  • evaluate evidence for relevance, quality, credibility, and completeness.

Introduction
An argument is a form of persuasive writing. It is a personal opinion or idea about an issue that is both controversial and current. An argument is written to potentially change the audience's opinion in favor of the writer's. Arguments are objective and supportable with facts and evidence that can be proven and/or substantiated. As a critical reader, do not confuse an argument with a fight; they are very different. As you evaluate claims you will find faulty logic and unsupportable claims.  

Think of an argument as being a triangle composed of audience, the claim, and the writer. Who is the audience for this argumet? Are they going to like, dislike, or be neutral about the argument? What is the claim? How is it developed? Is the evidence in the right places to be convincing? Is the research limited to sources that support the claim? What is the writer's position and credibility: an authority or a concerned citizen? Remember that feeling strongly about an issue does not automatically enable a writer to argue about the issue effectively. The writer needs to back up the claim clearly and convincingly with current and accurate information.


When you evaluate an argument you need to consider two steps.

  • First, identify the type of claim or proposition and does it answer the question: "What belief or opinion is the writing defending?" To be credible to an audience, claims must be supported with specific evidence.
  • Second, identify the support or evidence and if it answers the question: "Do the examples, facts, and data prove the claim's validity and can these be proven?"

Exercises
Read the speech "Municipal Government" by Mark Twain, and then answer the questions that follow.




1.
Highlight the claim in the passage and underline the supporting evidence.
  • Highlighted: you have the best municipal government in the world—the purest and the most fragrant
  • Underlined: It is by the laws of the city; New Yorkers have the cleanest, quickest, and most admirable system of street railways in the world
1.
 

2.
Explain why the evidence you selected above is either relevant, appropriate, or logical.
 

Student responses may vary. Acceptable answers include:

  • Twain's evidence is relevant in pointing out all of the important aspects of the city. He provides numerous points that support his claim.
  • The evidence provided by Twain that New York has greatly improved is supported by numerous examples that are relevant.
2.
 

3.
Which statement could be added to support the claim in the passage? 
a. New York is in the economic center of the United States.
b. New Yorkers are now able to walk safely through the streets.
c. Other cities in the United States will model their progress after New York.
d. People who come to New York are amazed at the skyscrapers and landscape. 
 
b.  New Yorkers are now able to walk safely through the streets.
3.
 

4.
Based on the argument in the passage, which statement would be faulty logic?
a. New York has changed since I was here.
b. Any city can develop like New York City did.
c. Transportation is important in a big city.
d. Buildings look different at night than during the day.
 
b.  Any city can develop like New York City did.
4.
 

5.
Write a claim that could be used in an argument about the use of fluorescent bulbs.
 

Student responses may vary. Acceptable answers include:

  • Laws requiring only the sale of fluorescent bulbs will help to lower energy consumption.
  • Fluorescent bulbs provide a light source that is healthier.
5.
 

6.
Write two to three sentences that support your claim above.
 

Student responses may vary. Acceptable answers include:

  • Studies have been done that show that changing to fluorescent bulkbs in a home lowers the electric bill on average 10%.
  • People who suffer depression during the winter have been found to regain their happiness 75% of the time when they use fluorescent bulbs.
6.
 

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     In this absence of nine years I find a great improvement in New York. Some say it has improved because I have been away. Others, and I agree with them, say it has improved because I have come back. We must judge of a city by its external appearances and by its inward character. In externals the foreigner coming to these shores is more impressed at first by our skyscrapers.
     In the daylight they are ugly. They are—well, too chimneyfied and too snaggy—like a mouth that needs attention from a dentist; like a cemetery that is all monuments and no gravestones. But at night, seen from the river where they are columns towering against the sky, all sparkling with light, they are fairylike; they are beauty more satisfactory to the soul and more enchanting than anything that man has dreamed of since the Arabian nights. We can't always have the beautiful aspect of things. Let us make the most of our sights that are beautiful and let the others go. When your foreigner makes disagreeable comments on New York by daylight, float him down the river at night.
     What has made these skyscrapers possible is the elevator. The cigar-box which the European calls a "lift" needs but to be compared with our elevators to be appreciated.
     New Yorkers have the cleanest, quickest, and most admirable system of street railways in the world has been forced upon you by the abnormal appreciation. Nobody else would have brought such a system into existence. We ought to build him a monument. We owe him one as much as we owe one to anybody. Nothing permanent, of course; build it of plaster, say. Then gaze at it and realize how grateful we are—for the time being—and then pull it down and throw it on the ash-heap. That's the way to honor your public heroes.
     As to our streets, I find them cleaner. I miss those dear old landmarks, the symmetrical mountain ranges of dust and dirt that used to be piled up along the streets for the wind and rain to tear down at their pleasure.
     Compared with the wretched attempts of London to light that city, New York may fairly be said to be a well-lighted city. Why, London's attempt at good lighting is almost as bad as London's attempt at rapid transit. There is just one good system of rapid transit in London—the "Tube," and that, of course, had been put in by Americans. Perhaps, after a while, those Americans will come back and give New York also a good underground system.
     It is by the laws of the city, it is by the manners of the city, it is by the ideals of the city, it is by the customs of the city and by the municipal government which all these elements correct, support, and foster, by which the foreigner judges the city. It is by these that he realizes that New York may, indeed, hold her head high among the cities of the world.
     Gentlemen, you have the best municipal government in the world—the purest and the most fragrant. You got it by a noble fidelity to civic duty. You got it by stern and ever-watchful exertion of the great powers with which you are charged by the rights which were handed down to you by your forefathers, by your manly refusal to let base men invade the high places of your government.

This selection is not copyrighted in the U.S.


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