Chapter 16

Chapter 16 talks about evidence for an argument and basically explains what counts as evidence. It starts off by explaining that evidence is everywhere and we are constantly finding new things to prove ourselves/arguments. It goes into detail with firsthand evidence and research. Firsthand means firsthand... aka what you experience or are more closely interacted with. The most common types of firsthand research we use are observations, interviews, surveys and questionnaires, experiments, anddd personal experience. So now I get to go into detail about all of them. Observations.  Pretty easy. The idea behind this is that when people look at the same thing, they will describe it differently. So if Brooke and I were to see a man riding his bike, I might be looking at his clothes while Brooke was looking at his bike. The book then goes on to explain that you have to be careful with what you are choosing to observe. Decide exactly what you are looking for so you are relevant to your argument. Interviews. If I wanted to do research on clothing, I should stop the biker we mentioned above, and ask him why he chose to wear the outfit. Direct quotes in an essay show more examples and credibility. Surveys and Questionnaires. Surveys most likely require the use of questionnaires. Obviously when making a survey, you should make sure that the information is relevant and important. I could take a picture of the biking man, show the picture to friends, and ask them if they think his outfit is hot or not. Experiments. When I think of experiments science comes to mind. Since writing a paper is not science, you can use a more informal experiment. Experiments are risky because some audiences may not see the importance. Personal Experience. This can be the most powerful when it is completely appropriate. It will draw in the reader. However, when you are only using personal experience then it is not sufficient enough to carry the argument. In the end, you can use any of these firsthand evidences to  make your argument awesome.

chapter thirteen.

Chapter thirteen is all about style and presentation in arguments. What it is basically trying to say is how to form an argument but with more of an in depth style including word choice, punctuation, and other ideas. I responded most to the section, “ Special Effects: figurative Language and Argument.” It starts off by giving examples of figurative language as well as defining it as “language that differs from the ordinary - language that calls up, or “figures” something else.” An example of this could be if I were to say that our English class produces happiness. We all know that it is not physically producing bags of happy, but rather it would then infer that our class is a fun class and the students are happy coming out of it. It then goes on to explain that all language produces the idea of something else. So pretty much all language is an argument. Crazy stuff. 

Then the chapter goes on to talk about how figurative language can draw parallels between an unknown and a known. They used the example of DNA and related it to a spiraling zipper. Now personally I don't know jack about DNA. However, hearing that it looks like a spiraling zipper makes me understand it more. I know zippers and I know spirals. Figurative language makes the argument more memorable too. They used the example of slang. In an everyday conversation, I know almost all of us use slang words, even if you might not consider it slang. By using these words or phrases, the listener then may get the picture more. 

The section then goes on to talk about how figures of speech are classified into two main types: tropes and schemes. “Tropes involve a change in the ordinary signification, or meaning, of a word or phrase, and schemes involve a special arrangement of words.” Obviously with such fancy smancy definitions, they help improve an argument and make it more memorable/inspiring.