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.