ANALYZING ARGUMENT

Sutiadi Rahmansyah, SS,M.Hum

 ARGUMENT PURPOSE
• To change people’s minds and attitudes
• To solve problems
• To resolve conflict
• To build consensus
• To create community
• To reinforce belief
• To move people toward commitment and action
• To foster identification
• To open up a topic for discussion, debate, and further inquiry
• To question common knowledge
• To stimulate further research
Writers can use the Toulmin method to analyze their own arguments or those
of others. Arguments proceed from:

1. data or grounds (facts, evidence, or reasons) that support a claim (a

point of contention,a position on a controversial issue, a call to act, a
thesis).

2. Claims are based on warrants, the unstated premises that support a

claim.

3. Warrants require backing (support, additional data) when they are

disputable.

4. Qualifiers (terms like some, most, or many) may be used to soften the
claim.

5. Rebuttals, or challenges to the claim, focus on points that undermine the

claim or invalidate the warrant.
 Home Schooling Isn’t Really School
As a public school teacher, I have to admit I cringe every time I hear the  DATA
phrase “home schooling.” I know that many parents believe they are
helping their children by teaching them at home. But in my experience,  CLAIM
home schooling may do more harm than good.
 WARRANTS
Children who enter my class after a long period of home schooling
usually have huge gaps in their education. True, they often read and write  BACKING
better than the average fifth grader, and their spelling is good. But they
know very little about the social sciences, and science itself seems to be a
foreign word.  WARRANTS
In addition, children who have been schooled at home frequently have  BACKING
difficulty working with other children. Unused to the give-and-take of
group interactions, they quickly show their discomfort or displeasure.
Their response is understandable since they have spent years at home in
a class of one or two at most.  REBUTTAL
I know that many parents believe that home schooling protects their
children from dangerous or corrupting ideas and experiences. To some QUANTIFIER
degree, they are probably correct in that assumption. Unfortunately, the (MAY)
protection home schooling provides may come at too heavy an
intellectual price. Parents just do not have the necessary training or
background to give their children the wide-ranging and up-to-date
education they need. And certainly parents cannot provide the kind of
peer socialization found in schools outside the home.
1. What is the point of the author’s argument?
Home schooling may do more harm than good.

2. What two reasons does the author give in support of that

point?
a. Children can end up with big gaps in their education.
b. Children schooled at home usually have
difficulty working in groups.

3. Identify the opposing point of view mentioned in the reading.

Parents believe that they are protecting their children from bad
experiences and inappropriate ideas.

4. Paraphrase the author’s response.

The protection costs too much socially and intellectually.
 ASSIGNMENT
1. What is the point of the author’s argument?
2. Identify the reasons used to support that
point.
3. Identify the opposing point of view
mentioned in the reading.
4. Paraphrase the author’s response.