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Argumentation & Persuasion:
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I. The difference between a formal debate/argumentation and an informal persuasion.
Argumentation, or debate, means that to argue for a certain position (or a certain statement) by
- offering strong evidence to support yourself,
- considering the current situation as well as your audience, and
- refuting your opponent's argument.
To win your case, you need to:
- Present your case clearly and support it sufficiently with statistics, evidence and examples,
- Consider and refute the Opponents's perspectives and their Counter-Arguments
- call the audience's attention to the importance of your issue amd make emotional appeal to your audience, .
Informal Persuasion: A debate usually ends with deciding which team wins the case. In real life, however, it's not so easy to decide who wins, and it's harder to make others agree with you in a short time and with only a speech.
It's sometimes not necessary or possible to present the full case with all the reasons and data. This is when informal persuasion is needed. You use informal persuasion when designing an ad, writing to an editor or to your friends and relatives.
In such informal persuasion, you need to:
- Finds ways to get the audience to listen to you; (for instance, to move him/her emotionally by presenting your own experience, by showing how you understand him/her);
- Consider more your listener's reasons, give them credits;
- Modify your statement, and sometimes --
- Compromise a little to find a solution acceptable to both sides.
In real life situation, your goal may not be to win the others to your side. You've achieved a lot simply by having them listen to you and think about the issue. However, don't forget that whether with informal persuasion or formal argumentation, you need:
I. a clear argument, as well as clear understanding and refutation of the counter-arguments.
II. The skills needed for argumentation:
- Definition-- you need to clearly define your position.
(For example, in a debate over whether women are losers in pre-marital sex, you need to define each of the important terms--sex, losers-- and the related terms of love, marriage, and virginity complex.)
- Classification: a statement implies not just this statement. Besides carefully defining it, we should also work on its premises, the related current situation, and its possible consequences. Take "women are losers in pre-marital sex" again as an example:
- premise: Virginity complex. a woman's body should be kept pure before marriage, should be a gift for her husband. But this does not apply to men. Men are not required to keep their virginity.
- current situation:
- how many men and women still keep this concept about virginity.
- the general views about sex and pre-marital sex.
- sex education and contraceptive measures available.
- recent events or arguments related to this issue.
- possible consequences:
- emotional,
- physical,
- on future relationships
The other necessary skills are:
- In-Depth Analysis of causes and effects;
- Narration and Description of concrete examples
- Research into social events and statistics needed for support
III. What to avoid: Generalization and absoluate statement
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