The Curious Writer Reading Response

In this chapter, Ballenger is explaining how to properly form an argument paper. Of course, to begin writing an argument paper we must know how to clearly form an argument. Logical fallacies aside, an argument has many other components that can affect its clarity. The British born philosopher, Stephen Toulmin, developed an outline for a properly constructed argument. In this "Toulmin Model" a person must create a claim out of clear data. The first step in forming an argument by Toulmin's standards is to develop a warrant from the data that leads to a claim. The warrant is just the logical steps that you take to arrive at your claim. After you have warranted a claim you must qualify this claim with both backing and rebuttal. Backing is the point at which you qualify your claim by simply restating the logical process involved in your warrant. After this you rebut yourself; introducing and refuting claims that can be made in opposition to your own. I have spent a lot of time in argument over my life, and I have found that good arguments always have this form (Toulmin).

Now what would this form look like? Well it starts with data. For the sake of starting an argument, I am going to say that from the years 2007 through 2009 the total national banana import fell by eight million bananas in the United States. Coinciding with this data is the fact that the hip fracture numbers in the US fell by two-thousand fractures. Now I have my data. At this point I start to analyze this data, applying a basic logical conclusion. As banana imports fell, so did hip fracture rates. I can now create a claim that banana peels are the leading cause of hip fractures in the US. My warrant is simple; as A fell so did B, thus A falling causes B to fall. This is simple logic. Now I must qualify this claim. I could simply state that the numbers are obvious and they do not lie; a sort of appeal to the unwavering ethical stature of numbers. I then rebut myself by saying that there are those who claim that hip fractures are caused by osteoporosis. This is an easy claim to refute because I can state that osteoporosis does not break the bones, it simply makes them break easier. I now have a complete argument. This claim may not be accurate but it is legitimate simply because of its form. I try to never include an argument in any of my writing that does not follow this guideline.

Toulmin, Stephen. The Uses of Argument. 2nd. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1958. Print.