ARGUMENTATION

AND
ARGUMENT BUILDING

LESSON 6
 OBJECTIVES

At the end of the lesson the students

should be able to:
1. Familiarize with the basic parts or
elements of argumentation.
2.Build effective arguments through
logical reasoning and convincing
evidence; and
3.Present arguments in formal debate.
 ARGUMENTATIVE COMMUNICATION

• The modern method of making judgments takes into account real

arguments, where reasonable communicators do their best to
support their positions in a given situation.

• This is considered to be argumentative communication, the art of

persuading based on reason, on facts and not emotions

• DEBATING: explaining reasons(thesis) why a certain

theory can(cannot) be considered persuading
• ARGUMENTING: persuading the audience to support the
speaker’s thesis
• AUDIENCE: it’s the core focus around which an effective
debate is convcieved and formulated
 ARGUMENTATIVE COMMUNICATION

• While all argumentation is assertive, not all assertiveness

is argumentative

• Here argumentative individuals advocate positions on

controversial issues and verbally attack other people’s
contradictory perspectives

• It is important to note that it is the person’s position that is

under attack in argumentativeness, and not the individual
 ARGUMENTATIVE PERSONALITY

Argumentative is an adjective that means often

arguing or wanting to argue.

• Some people:
• Argue out of habit,
• Always need to be in the right position
• Almost always on the defensive
• Feel more than just anger or frustration
• Always ready to disagree or start arguing with
other people.
NOT THE SAME!
Argumentative personality

Argumentative communication
ARGUMENTATIVE COMMUNICATION
NEGATIVE OF BEING AROUND ARGUMENTATIVE
PERSONALITY PERSON
• Can be difficult to live and work with
• Many are very self-absorbed
• Have no insight into how their behavior impacts others
• Feel threatened with people with views different from
theirs
• Cronic blamers
POSITIVE OF BEING AROUND ARGUMENTATIVE
PERSONALITY PERSON

• Being around them can help build motivation to

stand up for yourself
• Learning debate techniques from those who
passionately defend their views
ARGUMENTATION THEORY

• While communicating the speaker will share the

information and the listener will listen to it

• Here the Listener must be able to differentiate the

trustworthy reliable information with the lies and
treachery

• The listener must be able to filter the messages and he

must vigilant attitude towards the information that he/she
gets
Stephen Toulmin’s structure of argumentation

Elements of arguments which generate categories through

which an argument can be evaluated:

• Claim
• Ground
• Warrant
• Backing
• Qualifier
• Rebuttal
Claim A statement that answers the
question posed

Evidence data/evidence that support your

claim

Reasoning explain how the evidence supports

your claim
AGGRESSIVE COMMUNICATION - Verbal aggressive means a
tendency to attack the self-concept

ARGUMENTATIVE VS. AGGRESSIVE COMMUNICATION

Argumentative communication is considered to be a

subset of assertiveness
• More desirable
• Assertiveness is constructive

Verbally aggressive communication is considered to be

a subset of hostile communication
• Much less desirable to give and/or receive
• Hostility is destructive to communicate exchanges,
relationships, and, even the self-identities of the
participants
HOSTILE COMMUNICATION - Hostility seeks to destroy the
other.
CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK AND CRITICISM

• When attacks are focused on a person’s position, they fall

under the category of assertive or argumentative
CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK AND CRITICISM
When
• When attacksattacks
are focused onare focused
a person’s on fall
position, they a under
person’s characteristics,
the category of assertive or argumentative
history,
When behaviors,
attacks are or any
focused on a person’s otherhistory,
characteristics, component
behaviors, or anyofother
thecomponent of the
individual, they are considered hostile, and possibly aggressive
individual, they are considered hostile, and possibly
aggressive
ARGUMENTATIVE SPEECH

An argumentative speech persuades the audience to take

the side of the speaker, and the speaker generally discusses
a topic he or she feels strongly about
The speaker makes a specific claim and then addresses
points that support the claim
At the end of the speech, the audience should be clear on an
action that should or should not be taken and why
ARGUMENTATIVE vs PERSUASIVE
• Persuasive Discussion – the author focuses mostly on using
emotions to convince audience of their claim.
ARGUMENTATIVE vs PERSUASIVE
• Argumentative
Persuasive Discussion – the Discussion
author focuses mostly– on
theusingauthor
emotions touses
convincefacts
audienceto back
of their claim.up
Argumentative Discussion – the author uses facts to back up their claim. Argumentative discussion does not
theirmeanclaim. Argumentative
that the author discussion
is angry. There is no anger does
in argumentative not
discussion mean
as defined that
above.
the author is angry. There is no anger in argumentative
discussion as defined above.
DEBATE - A debate is a discussion or structured contest about an issue or a
resolution.involves two sides:
1. One supporting a resolution and
2. one opposing it.

A formal debate usually involves three groups:

1. one supporting a resolution (affirmative team),
2. one opposing the resolution (opposing team), and
3. those who are judging the quality of the
evidence and arguments and the performance in the debate.
The Seven C’s of Building an Argument
When you need to build an argument, use the seven C’s to develop and support a
position about a specific topic:

1.Consider the situation.

2. Clarify your thinking.
3. Construct a claim.
4. Collect evidence.
5. Consider key objections.
6. Craft your argument.
7. Confirm your main point.
 REFERENCE LIST

Skola Futura. (2015-2017)

https://www.slideshare.net/ei_skola/argumentative-communication

2014 Thoughtful Learning

https://thoughtfullearning.com/inquireHSbook/pg102