The Persuasive Argument
Being Persuasive involves knowing your information and knowing it well enough to be delivered. You can have all the right thoughts, information, basics, but deliver it wrong you will find yourself losing a heated debate. Now I've noticed this trend on Gaia a lot. They write fantastic points, but fail to gather the right evidence to support their claim. Every argument deserves the appropriate points, proper evidence and a well thought out explanation to prove why it affects the situation that we are arguing about.
Let's look at the point part of the argument. If people don't know what your proving or why that point is actually important to the argument, then you won't be able to deliver your point. For example, Sue is in an argument about equality and wants to deliver a point based on Feminism. Her point is "All women are being viewed as second class to men" The problem with her point is saying "All men." This can provide a loop hole that her fellow debaters can use against her. They can say, "women are too quick to judge" or make the comment, "I know several men that treat women like Queens, but they often get mistreated because of it." We all know that all men are not all the same and therefore will not all treat women as second class. This is a big loop hole that can hurt her overall argument. Here is a better way that this example could have gone, "At my workplace, the men often treat women as second class." By being specific, there is less opportunity for people to argue around her point. Her evidence can become stronger and be more effectively placed to prove her point.
Evidence can make or destroy an argument. You can have a billion great points, but without the evidence, your argument will remain invalid. Let's continue with our example. Sue point is, "At [her] workplace, the men often treat women like second class." She can now prove this point using evidence from her experiences at that workplace. "My boss has only given raises to the men. We are often given are breaks after the men have gone and I've experience many times where my manager has yelled at me or written me up for small things he's let the male workers get away with." This is okay evidence. Sue has explained why she feels that her workplace treats women second class. Management seems to be giving the male workers more lenient rules. Now Sue has to solidify the evidence, "Here is some of the written notices I've gotten and also some written complaints I've gotten from fellow workers." This is important. What you say often gets taken for a grain of salt, but having solid evidence to support her claim really solidifies her argument against her workplace. However, to fully allow this argument to stand she has to explain how the evidence connects with her point.
Often what gets mixed up and confused in an argument is the explanation. Lacing your explanation with swearing or mockery can destroy your argument. Sue knows this and chooses to end her argument on a great note, "As you can see by my evidence that I have provided, the female staff at my workplace often get treated like second class because there is a lot of written notices and complaints about how Management treats the men over the women. Management has shown countless times in many reports to withhold breaks until the men are finished. These reports also show that many of the female staff feel like second class by not receiving a raise when the male staff does and by getting written up for rules often broke by our male co-workers." Sue has taken her evidence and explained why it is important to prove the point. She takes apart her evidence and applies it to the point, explaining why it proves her point to begin with.
Now that you have an idea as to what makes an argument please keep in mind that there are many out there that still don't have this wonderful knowledge you see before you. We found that it is easy to say what you think, but when you put your point up to the light, you can realize the many loop holes it can create. Now, even though Sue has proven her point, there will still and always be loop holes that people will use. That is where you gather more, effective and substantial evidence to support your claim. Have a great time debating and arguing your points.
