Argumentation

        This reading taught me the processes of making a strong argument in an essay. It said that the essay should have a few methods of persuasion like appealing to emotion and reason. The purpose of the essay should be specific and the thesis has to be debatable. To determine if the thesis is debatable, you could make the opposite, an antithesis, and see if you could also try to prove it true. You should provide evidence to support the thesis through facts and/or opinions. Knowing the audience reading the essay, you might need more evidence to persuade them if it's a topic they might disagree upon. Evidence should be relevant, representative, and sufficient. When using evidence from different sources you have to document or cite where you have received the information or it might count as plagiarism. You can also try to show how opposing arguments are weak by refuting them. If the opposing argument is strong and hard to refute, you can concede it which shows that you admit that it is valid but you can show other weak opposing arguments to compensate. Also try to recognize fallacies which are illogical statements that might sound true but are really dishonest. Some examples are arguing from analogy, personal attack, sweeping generalization, misleading statistics, and red herring (changing the view to another issue). Transitional phrases also helps move the argument along. Lastly, structure the essay so it has an introduction, body, and conclusion which makes the argument well organized to follow a pattern. This reading was half review and half new material for me. I knew about the structure and basics about making an argumentative essay but I never knew the different kinds of argument types.  Fallacies are also a new topic I learned and it helped me recognize things I've done wrong is past essays. The reading taught me how refuting will help my essay have a stronger argument and show me which opposing arguments might be hard to argue against. Usually when I create essays, I tend to struggle making a thesis with a hook to grab the reader's attention. I also have problems making a strong conclusion paragraph since restating facts from the body paragraphs only end up as four sentences ending in an "all in all" or "in conclusion" sentence.