The Five Parts of an Argument

Claims

Your claim is your main point. It should either seek to change how the audience thinks or how the audience acts.

The audience should be able to agree or disagree with your claim, and they should understand the need for the claim.  Sometimes a claim can seem more serious and necessary than it actually is.  For example, take the claim that the Fourth Amendment should not be repealed.  While technically a claim, it isn't a claim that carries much significance because there is no serious debate in the U.S. concerning the repeal of the Fourth Amendment.  There is a serious debate, however, concerning the meaning, spirit, and breadth of the Amendment, with serious debates centering on specific issues within the topic of gun control.    

It's your job to communicate the exigency, or necessity, of the claim to your audience. They should know what is at stake. Stating your claim clearly and concisely will help, but you must also help the audience understand how your claim responds to a situation that needs a solution.

Good claims are seldom broad; instead, they tend to have a narrow focus and are moderated by qualifiers like “many, “most,” and “often, while avoiding words like “all” and “always.”

Reasons and Evidence

You need reasons and evidence to convince audiences. Reasons and evidence answer the fundamental question: Why are you making this claim?

The evidence should support your reasons, and your reasons should be appropriate to your audience. You should choose the reasons and evidence that are also the most likely to convince your specific readers or listeners. Knowing the general values and priorities of your readers will help you determine what they will count as compelling reasons and evidence.

Evidence should also be reliable and based on authoritative and trustworthy sources. It should be appropriately cited and ample enough to convince, designed to appeal to your target audience's values and priorities.

Here are some useful strategies for using evidence to support your arguments:

Warrants

Warrants express justifying principles, shared beliefs, or general assumptions. They are the spoken or unspoken logic that connects your reasons to your evidence.

Take, for example, the argument:

I need new shoes because these ones have holes in them and it's the rainy season.

One who accepts this argument is one who likely shares the following warrant (shared belief):

When shoes can no longer protect the feet, they need to be replaced.

To some, this is common sense that justifies the claim for new shoes. But even in cases where your audience shares your warrant, evidence is still needed to connect the warrant with the claim. In other words, the evidence must show that the shoes are indeed in bad condition for the audience to agree.

Sometimes an audience will share the same warrant as you but disagree with the evidence you present. For example, the audience might not believe that the shoes are in as bad of shape as the arguer believes. In that case, the argument is likely to fail for lack of convincing evidence.

Other times, an audience won’t share a warrant with you. For example, a person might not believe in replacing damaged shoes, but rather repairing them. One who has a fix-it-first attitude might respond in the following way: “Who says you need to buy new shoes? I can get those repaired for a fraction of the price.”

As you see, warrants are important for getting an audience to accept specific conclusions.  For this reason, warrants may need their own evidence, or backing, to make your audience more likely to accept them.  To learn more about warrants, see the post on the Toulmin Model.

Acknowledgment and Response

Acknowledging and responding to opposing viewpoints can help your argument in a few ways:

When stating the opposing viewpoint, it’s important to do so fairly. Misrepresenting the opposing viewpoint is not just unethical, but it will likely cause your audience to lose trust in your argument.

After stating the opposing viewpoint, look for parts of the argument that actually seem right—try to acknowledge valid concerns. Doing so may lead you to make concessions to the other side, which will challenge you to moderate your claim and encourage common ground.

Of course, you also have the opportunity to respond to points you feel are not valid from the opposing viewpoint through refutation and counterpoints.  Counterpoints should include their own supporting evidence as well.

Thinking about the five parts of an argument is an important first step toward persuading your audience. Check out the next post for tips on evaluating the quality of your own argument.