Purpose and AimArgument is not in itself an end or a purpose of communication. It is rather a means of discourse, a way of developing what we have to say. We can identify four primary aims that argument

helps us accomplish: Inquiry, Conviction, Persuasion, Negotiation.

~ Timothy Crusius & Carolyn Channell

An Amalgamation

Of the ideas in Aims of Argument by Timothy Crusius & Carolyn

Channell Reading Rhetorically by John Bean, Virginia

Chappell, and Alice Gillam Argument Culture by Deborah Tannen Cali Linfor’s mind

Some Definitions of Argument from the Study of Critical Thinking

A claim or proposition put forward along with reasons or evidence supporting it. ~ Kathleen Dean Moore

An attempt to support a conclusion by giving reasons for it. ~ Robert Ennis

A group of propositions of which one, the conclusion, is claimed to follow from the others, which are premises. ~ Irving M. Copi

How Neutral!

To what purpose …

“The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth.” ~ Frank Herbert

And what do we do with this changed truth?

AIMS OF ARGUMENTSWHAT DO WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE?

Inquire: the truth

Convince: agreement

Persuade: action

Negotiate: census

Comparison of the Aims

Purpose Audience

Situation Method

Inquiring(Collaborative)

Seeks Truth Oneself, friends, and collogues

Informal:A dialogue,A safe place

QuestionsPrompts

Convincing (Competitive)

Seeks agreement to thesis

Less intimate:Seeks careful reasoning

More formal:A monologue

Case-making

Persuading (Competitive)

Seeks action, to influence behavior

More broadly public,Less academic

Pressing needfor a decision

Appeals toReason andEmotion, uses the resources of language fully

Negotiating (Collaborative)

Seeks consensus Polarized by differences

Need to cooperate,and preserve relations

Finding common ground

American Culture and Argument (See Deborah Tannen’s Argument Culture)

Competitive Arguing is emphasized. (Convincing and persuading)

Collaborative Arguing is not taught or often even recognized. (Inquiring and negotiating)

In elementary, school we learn about author’s purpose

To inform or teachTo entertainTo persuade/convinceShare feelings (Maybe)

As we age, the list gets bigger…

instruct, persuade, inform, entertain, educate, startle, excite, sadden, enlighten, punish, console, express, reflect, explore, analyze, interpret, take a stand, evaluate, judge, propose a solution, call to action, seek common ground…

And people begin to to confuse purpose with the patterns of organization: describe, compare, order, and so on.

Why are they doing that????

We need to move students to think about the process as

much a the product.

My explanation of the aims is

to give you the theoretical basis to assist your students in understanding the role of author’s purpose in writing and reading

to assist you in teaching students to separate purpose from the other parts of an argument

to help you use purpose to assist students in finding the main argument and in seeing its connections to other elements of the text such as genre

to aid you in helping students use purpose to evaluate the success of a text

to model for you how be as exact as possible in the discussion of any text you present to students

to help you create stronger prompts and rubrics through a deeper understanding of the purpose you are setting for your students and what it takes to be successful in achieving the purpose

Do Not Abuse the Aims!

You do not need to hammer your students with the terms of aims. I will do that in college.

In most cases, a list of purposes will do (except inform—we hate inform and oh any of the ones learned in elementary school.)

Sorting the Purposes under the Aims

In pairs, place the listed purposes under the aims they likely serve. You can make an argument that some purposes have more than one aim. This is most likely true when a text has more than one audience.  

You may add more purposes to this list. (Just not the Patterns of Organization. They are not purposes. They are not genres.)

Instruct, persuade, inform, entertain, educate, startle, excite, sadden, enlighten, punish, console, express, anger, reflect, explore, analyze, interpret, take a stand, evaluate, judge, propose a solution, inspire, call to action, and seek common ground.

Inciting the emotions or a feeling as a purpose for

arguing Purposes

Entertain/Amuse Excite Sadden Punish Console Anger Inspire Startle

Why do you want to do that?

I assert Most of these achievements

of an argument could be sorted under any aim.

They would largely always be a part of a many purposed text and often secondary.

More dominantly, they are really a result of the appeals we make to forward our argument not the purpose or achievement of that argument.

A closer look at the Aims of Argument

Based on the work of Crusious and Channell

Common Purposes to Each Aim

Under what circumstances do we argue?

Everyday: As a citizen, As community member, As a consumer, In relationships with family, friends, co-workers, and children

School and Work: As worker and student  

Arguing to Inquire

It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.

~Joseph Jourbert

Arguing as InquiryCircumstances

Motivation Audience

Examples

Seeking information Finding solutions Forming opinionsrequiring some kind of research

Questioning opinions we already have Confronting basic philosophical dilemmas Resolving dilemmas  Meeting new and often unexpected challenges

To make an intelligent decision, reasonable to us and respected by those we respect.

To increase our ability to face complicated decisions.

To help us think through personal and public dilemmas (two voices conflicting, inside or outside)

To determine our success or failure To clarify own ideasand understandings To gain confidence in the accuracy of our decisions To explore ideas,hypotheses, and systemsof belief

Oneself, friends, mentors, teachers, family members, colleagues, those we trust

Advice seeking

Philosophical questioning

Product analysis

Informational research   

Solution Meetings

Town Halls  Text Analysis Papers

Journals

(the formality of the inquiry is shaped by the the audience and genre)

Your Examples?

“Center of Attention: The Gender of Sports Media” by Michael Messner

Inquiry and its Purposes

Inquiry’s most common purposes are to Express Reflect Explore Analyze Interpret

The Purposes of Inquiryblended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam

Express and ReflectFocus Features Offers

ReadersDesired Response

Success Examples

Writer’s own life and experiences

Literary Techniques

Share emotional, intellectual experience

Readers can imagine and identify with author’s experiences

Depends on writer’s ability to create scene, dialogue, and commentary that engages

Nature writer’s essay narrates her discoveries when backbacking.

The Purposes of Inquiryblended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam

Explore

Focus Features Offers Readers

Desired Response

Success Examples

Puzzling problems while showing writer’s thinking processes

Delayed thesis or no stated thesis, examination of subject from multiple angles, writer’s thinking is fore grounded

Shared intellectual experience, new information, new perspectives

Readers will agree question or problem is significant , identify with writer’s thinking, and find new insights

Depends on writer’s ability to engage reader with question or problem and the exploration process

Nature writer’s essay puzzles over the impact of human use on natural areas

The Purposes of Inquiryblended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam

Analyze and Interpret Focus Featur

esOffers Readers

Desired Response

Success Examples

Phenomena that are difficult to understand or explain

Relatively tentative stance or understood to be so, thesis supported by evidence and reasoning, new and unsettling analysis, interpretations must be convincing, doesn’t assume evidence speaks for its self

New way of looking at the subject matter

Readers will grant writer credibility as analyst and accept insight offered or at least acknowledge value of approach

Depends on writer’s ability to explain reasoning and connect it with phenomena analyzed

Nature writer pursues ideas about wilderness to further in an article analyzing the work of several well-know environmental thinkers comparing those ideas to current laws

Arguing to Convince

“I am not arguing with you - I am telling you.”

~ James Whistler

Arguing as ConvincingCircumstances

Motivation Audience

Examples

Desiring of others to share a conviction or understanding

Creating a shared understanding to proceed

Needing agreement from others

Needing to make a case for our thinking—to defend it

Putting our ideas against others to win

To get others to accept the truths we claim to have reached

To gain assent from others

To secure the assent of an audience by means of reason rather than by force.

To defeat lesser ideas

To create order of operations or of a group

Can be the same as inquiry but tends to be less intimate.

More broadly academic.

Can be hostile, friendly or neutral

Seeks careful reasoning

A lawyer’s brief

Newspaper editorials

Case studies

Evaluation Paper

A Manuel

Recipe

Your Examples?

“Arrested Development: The Conservative Case against Racial Profiling," James Forman Jr

Convincing and its Purposes

Convincing’s most common purposes are to Inform Explain Take a Stand Evaluate Judge

The Purposes of Convincing

blended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam

Inform and ExplainFocus Features Offers

ReadersDesired Response

Success Examples

Subject Matter

Confident, authoritative stance, typically states point and purpose early, strives for clarity, provided definitions and examples, using convincing evidence without argument

Significant, perhaps surprising, new information ; presentation tailored to reader’s interest and presumed knowledge level

Readers will grant writer creditability as an expert and be satisfied with the scope and accuracy of information

Depends on writer’s ability to anticipate a reader’s needs and ability to understand

Nature writer prepares opinion piece arguing in favor of the proposed wilderness designation

The Purposes of Convincing

blended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam

Take a Stand Focus Features Offers

ReadersDesired Response

Success Examples

Question that divides a community

States firm position, provides clear reasons and evidence, connects with readers’ values and beliefs, engages opposing views

Reasons to make up or change their mind about a question or issue

Readers will agree with writer’s position and reasoning

Depends on writer’s ability to provide convincing support and counter opposition without alienating readers

Nature writer’s article presents rules and process of wilderness designation

The Purposes of Convincing

blended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam

Evaluate and Judge Focus Feature

sOffers Readers

Desired Response

Success Examples

Question about worth or value of a phenomena

Organized around criteria for judgment and the phenomena matches them

Reasons to make up or change their minds about the focal question regarding worth or value

Readers will accept the writer’s view of the phenomena’s worth or value

Depends on writer’s ability to connect subject to criteria that the reader will accept

Nature writer evaluates the consequences of designating wilderness areas in other states and argues that the benefits of preservation outweighs the negatives of limited access

Arguing to Persuade

“To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.”

~ Edward Murrow

Arguing as PersuadingCircumstances

Motivation Audience

Examples

Determining a public policy

Deciding right and wrong

Pressing need for action

Selecting a method Gaining permission

Receiving _____ to proceed

Connecting parties through activity

Closing the gap between assent and action

To call to action

To change a behavior

To encourage a behavior

To implement a solution

To cease a behavior

To establish and adhere to a policy

To enforce

Differ from us in beliefs, attitudes, and/or desires.

A spectrum of view points on the topic

More broadly personal or public but can be academic.

Political speeches

Sermons

Advertising

Proposals

Your Examples?

Martin Luther King writes "A Letter from Birmingham Jail"

Persuading and its Purpose

Persuading’s most common purpose is to Propose a Solution

The Purpose of Persuasion

blended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam

Propose a SolutionFocus Features Offers

ReadersDesired Response

Success Examples

Question about what action should be taken

Describes problem and solution then justifies solution in terms of values and consequences; level of detail depends on assumptions of reader’s knowledge

A recommend course of action

Readers will assent to proposed action and do what the writer suggests

Depends on reader’s agreement that a problem exists and/or that the recommended action will have good results

Nature writer urges state residents to support wilderness project, visit area, attend hearings, write leg.

Arguing to Negotiate

Usually more than two groups are engaged in a struggle. Also, people who might consider themselves to be within the same group can still disagree about how to approach a particular issue. And many people feel connected to more than one group, so when they present their ideas, they have to negotiate among their own multiple allegiances as well as their various readers’ needs and expectations.

~ Patricia Bizzell and Bruce Herzberg

Arguing as NegotiatingCircumstances

Motivation Audience

Examples

Convincing and persuading have been tried in order to have the conflict or dispute settled to our satisfaction with little or no effect. Or to someone else’s satisfaction with little or no effect.

Agreeing to disagree is not a practical solutionbecause we must come to some agreement in order to pursue a necessary course of action.

Requiring collaborative problem solving

To preserve a relationship

To prevent violence

To keep conversations about critical issues going

To create social and personal change

To cooperate

Polarized by differences

Diplomatic negotiations labor relations, collations, documents in organizational decision-making; essays seeking resolution of conflict between competing parties; also frequent in private life when dealing with disagreements among friends and family members.

Your Examples?

NRA VS NEA Sara Vowells radio essay “Shooting Dad”

Negotiating and its Purpose

Negotiation's most common purpose is to Seek Common Ground (Not Compromise)

The Purpose of Negotiation

blended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam

Seek Common GroundFocus Features Offers

Readers

Desired Response

Success Examples

Multiple Perspectives on a vexing problem

Lays out values and goals of the various stakeholders so that others can find commonalities to build on, does not advocate

New perspective and reduced intensity regarding difficult issues

Readers will discover mutuality with opponent, conflict perhaps not resolved: could lead to cooperative action

Depends on readers’ discovery of mutual interest

Nature writer undertakes project interviewing advocates and stakeholders about where wilderness boundaries should be drawn

Applying the concept of purpose

Some helpful questionsJourney North Teacher

Based on the title, why do think the author wrote this selection?

Which words in the text do you think best reveal the main reason the author wrote this selection?

Why did the author write the article from a particular point of view?

How did the author influence your response to the selection Was the author’s purpose specifically stated? Do you think that the author achieved his/her intended

purposes? What examples from the text support your conclusions

about author’s purpose?

What was the aim/purpose of the texts we have read together?

“Unsung Heroes” “Black Men in Public Spaces”“Joe and Jane Go To College” “Don’t Let Stereotypes Warp your

Judgments”

Free writing about Argument

Free write about an argument your recently had or wrote.

Now, go back and label the parts: Main Argument, Claims, Evidence, Genre, Purpose, Audience, Context

If you have excluded any of this information please fill in

If you had thought about your argument before you engaged in it through the lens of purpose, what would you change?

Purposes’ relationship to other parts of the

text

Genres and the Aims

While text in genre can have a host of different aims, some genres can not meet certain aims and some genres are better suited to achieve certain aims.

Take this list of genres and place the under the aim or aims you think they might best serve. Discuss with your group why they might best serve that aim. Also, note what genre you feel can not be matched to an aim or that it would be very difficult to achieve that aim with that genre. Discuss this as well.

Please also discuss the power of this knowledge for our students.

Play, sonnet, editorial, public service Announcement, sitcom, text analysis paper, term identification, classroom discussions; journal writing; late-night bull sessions, autobiographical narrative, inauguration speech, sermon, closing arguments, short story, magazine article, personal statement, evaluation paper, reading response, eulogy, lab report, love song, a memorial, book report, personal letter

Our thinking about the purpose for a text assists

students in understanding the role of author’s purpose in writing and

reading separating purpose from the other parts of an argument finding the main argument and in seeing its connections to

other elements of the text such as genre using purpose to evaluate the success of a text applying exact terms and characteristics to what a text is

trying to do in the world thinking about they hope to achieve in their own arguments. understanding of the purpose set for them in writing tasks and

what it takes to be successful in achieving the purpose