1

Analogyfrom Gr. analogos, a due ratio

extended metaphor or simile

comparison of two quite different things or activities for the purpose of explanation; often used in science writing.A child is like a tender plant needing care from a

skilled gardener.A mind is like a parachute…

Limit your analogies; don’t draw them out to the point of absurdity.

Analogy: Textbook says/Ogden says

Textbook: “an analogy must truly illuminate. Overly obvious examples, such as the one comparing a battle to an argument, offer few or no revealing insights.”

Ogden: “Wrong.”

[Text is very useful on the same page (261-2) on advertising & comparisons.]

Analogy: Example

Charles Darwin: The Origin of Species

Wanted to persuade audience of the concept of mechanistic evolution—change and development without Divine attentionDarwin’s Concept: “Natural Selection”

Given 1.] Variation in procreation—organic reproduction—exists Given 2.] Stuff [‘nature’] exists Darwin’s Argument: 1 + 2 = ‘natural selection’ = ‘fittest

organisms live and unfit die’=biological diversity.

Darwin’s Analogy: “Artificial Selection” In animal husbandry, breeders select the strongest & best

speciens and breed them to create diversity.

Grant DePatie

24 y/o young man from Maple Ridge

Tattooed his 3 siblings’ names above his heart

Bought $7000 mountain bike instead of a car

Graveyard shift at Maple Ridge Esso, saving money for school to become helicopter pilot

Took the license number of a fuelling car reported by a customer of having its ignition punched out.

Darnell Pratt First Nations ancestry

Mother a crystal meth addict

Taken by Social Workers at 12 and placed with an aunt.

Night of the crime, 16 y/o, drank 20 beer.

Jacked a car, stole $12 gas, ran over the attendant, dragged him 8 km to slow death by flaying & burning alive

Boasted to friends he’d heard the screams as he dragged Mr. dePatie to his death.

7 year sentence, ran away from halfway house at his early parole release

6

Cause and Effect (RCT)

Exercise: “Why…?” “Because…” some uses of cause and effect

to describe a process to a patientto promote a policy change to a supervisorto explain current events to check the validity of a explanation

Different kinds of causes exist. (Duh!)general material adapted from: Winifred Bryan Horner, Rhetoric in

the Classical Tradition, 1988 (RCT), & Reinking, J., et al., Strategies for Successful Writing (SSW)

7

Types of Causes

Causes can be classified by their power to produce an effect or event temporal relationship to the effect or

event

Causal analysis uses both categories: Smoking is both a contributory and a

remote cause of death for the smoker with lung cancer.

8

Causes according to power to produce an effect

Necessary Cause: essential for the effect to occur; effect can’t occur without the presence of that cause; but presence of this cause alone doesn’t assure the effect.

Sufficient Cause: could on its own produce or precipitate the effect, but other causes may be involved. Sufficient causes can help out necessary causes.

Contributory Cause: helps bring about, but cannot by itself produce, an event; a particular combination of causes might be necessary.

Most occurrences have several sufficient causes, not just a single necessary cause.

9Causes according to temporal relationship to an

effectImmediate Cause

cause that directly produced the outcome or effect.

Remote Cause(s)a more distant factor or combination of

factors that eventually produce an effect. Causal Chain

each event is the effect of the preceding one and the cause of the following one

10Cause & Effect in Technical Situations

Troubleshooting: Known effects—find the cause

Computer won’t start—not plugged in

Engineering: Known cause—study the effects

New type of pest control on Granville Island—effects on prey population.

Problem Solving: Need causes & effects

Improved urban design: causes of human satisfaction & dissatisfaction + causes of

resource management effect (invent & design) new urban layout and elements

11

Aristotle’s Four Causes

1. Material cause: the physical properties involved.

2. Formal cause: the aggregate of underlying properties which amount to its unique identity.

3. Efficient cause: the initial motion or action which began the event.

4. Final cause: the event's function or purpose -- its end.)

12

Aristotle’s Four Causes, con’t

Example: Game of Billiards

I pot the black in a game of billiards. Thwack! It's in; I win again.

1. Material cause is the solid construction of the table, balls, &c.: if the cue ball were tissue and the black jello, the effect (the potting of the black) would not take place.

2. Formal cause is the rules of billiards, the shape of the table, cue, rack, and all the other contributing elements that shape and frame -- i.e. that form -- the event

3. Efficient cause, of course, is the mechanics behind the cue hitting the cue ball.

4. Final cause is Stephen Ogden winning the match and having his universal supremacy at billiards re-affirmed for posterity . Or something like that.

13

Aristotle’s Four Causes, con’t

Explanatory power for a BIG effect: Causes of WWI

1. Efficient Cause: The killing of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Bosnian terrorist / freedom fighter Gavrilo Princip.

2. Material cause: includes 1914 Europe's demographics, military technology & ordnance, national-geographical, and perhaps the crossover network of treaties in effect.

3. Formal cause: the ethnic, cultural and political histories of the nations and Empires involved.

4. Final cause: …. for each historian, historiographer and theologian to decide and to argue individually.

14

Aristotle’s Four Causes, con’t

Explanatory power for a BIG Workplace

‘Effect” is …..?

15

Put events into a causal chain(SSW, p. 206)

At a key moment, labour, business, and government leaders abandoned ideological differences and constructed a shared socio-economic strategy. These factors, in concert with strategic investment in education and a focused effort to attract new foreign investment, produced over 500,000 new jobs in the 1990s. Ireland’s recent economic success has been achieved, in part, through a social or strategic partnership. Armed with a consensus on the problem, they took a long-term, strategic approach to economic and social change. The steps they took established a positive labour relations climate and stabilized the macro-economic and fiscal situation in Ireland.

16Cause & Effect-Reasoning Errors (SSW)

Ignoring multiple causes. “neither America nor the people who live in it will dream of

security before we live it in Palestine, and not before all the infidel armies leave the land of Mohammed,” (O.bin L.10/7/01)

“The only way to defeat terrorism as a threat to our way of life is to stop it, eliminate it and destroy it where it grows.” (GWB,9/20/01)

Mistaking chronology for causation. BC Liberals have caused increased waiting lists for medical

procedures (waiting lists might have lengthened no matter what party governed) (“Correlation is not causation.” Hospitals cause sickness

because hospitals are full of sick people.

They married because they were in love. (love may have developed because they married)

Depression causes a spousal abuser to increase abuse (the abuse may cause depression in the abuser)

17

How To Present Cause & Effect

a.k.a. rhetorical cause and effect To explore cause and effect, a writer

can organize (arrange) & present ideas:

1. in terms of causes2. in terms of effects3. in terms of the event itself as a cause or

an effect of another event or idea. A writer can choose to focus on just one

event or issue within the chain.

18

How Essays Present Cause & Effect (RCT, SSW)

1. from known cause to probable effect(s) The 2010 Winter Olympics will help the BC economy. Bad mortgages have caused bank failures. sample discourse (document / speech)

structure: Introduction: identifies cause Body

Effect #1 Effect #2 Effect #3

Conclusion

19

How Essays Present Cause & Effect, cont.

2. from known effect to its cause(s) e.g., medical diagnosis - from symptoms to suggested

cause; high debt load among post-secondary students, which results from …….

sample discourse (document / speech) structure: Introduction: identifies effect Body

Cause #1 Cause #2 Cause #3

Conclusion

20How Essays Present Cause & Effect, cont.

2a.from effect to effect: assumes that cause producing one effect will also produce others If you have a sore throat caused by a virus, you

may also develop a fever. Bankruptcies resulted from U.S. bad lending

policies (note: what’s the bias here?) Sample structure:

Introduction: identifies main effect Body

Effect #2 Effect #3 Effect #4

Conclusion: identifies cause

21

How Essays Present Cause & Effect, cont.

3. using a causal chain Because of a poor night’s sleep, a student wakes up late

and arrives late to an exam, on which she does badly.

Sample Structure Intro: poor night’s sleep can lead to poor exam

results Body of essay

A. Cause 1: little sleep B. Effect 1: late arrivalC. Cause 2: late arrival D. Effect 2: poor exam results

Conclusion

How and why can causal chains be reductive?

22

Why is gang violence on the rise in the Vancouver area?

Why did the federal election have the results it did?

Analytical Patterns- Cause(s) to Effect(s) – What type(s) of

cause?- Effect(s) to Cause(s) – how many effects?

What type(s) of cause? - Causal Chain: Effect Causing/Effect Causing

…

Causal Analysis - exercise

23

Midterm preparation: Outline a Causal Analysis of “It’s the Oil”

Consider the essay in context of Conspiracy TheoryExamples:

‘Truthers’—’9/11 was an inside job.’ ‘Birthers’—’Barak Hussein Obama is not an American The Da Vinci Code: ‘the Catholic Church is responsible for all the

ills of woman.’ Hillary Clinton: ‘a vast right-wing conspiracy

CONSPIRACY THEORY:Dogmatic reasoning—i.e. reasoning from pre-held opinionsUnfalsifiable: any counter-explanation is used as proof.Self-affirming: self-satisfied feeling of being in the know

24

KISS Principle of Essay Organisation

Keep It Simple Stupid

Four-part essay structureOne paragraph Introducing the essay to comeOne paragraph on the contrastOne paragraph on the comparisonOn paragraph to say what happen in ¶s 1. & 2.

Critique your partner’s essay against this form

25

Factor

A factor is a contributing cause to an effect.