ENGH 302 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Goldilocks Principle

• School: George Mason University
• Department: English
• Course: ENGH 302
• Professor: John Walter

Document Summary

Creating successful arguments often requires more than offering claims and sub-claims backed by reasons supported with evidence. Quite often, to make a successful argument we need to attend to the concerns, objections, and perspectives of others. And this should make sense: if arguable topics are topics upon which reasonable people can disagree, then it"s not a simple case of one side being right and one side being wrong. Instead, it"s an issue of one side offering a more compelling case for the given situation. As the authors of the craft of reason explain in chapter 10, the best way to address our audience"s concerns, objections, and perspectives is through acknowledging and responding. In short, we acknowledge likely (or known) concerns, objections, and alternate perspectives, and we respond to them by discussing how our argument better meets specific goals within a specific context. Generally, our audience will raise two kinds of questions: 1.