Writing Topic: Chapter 48

     The main focus in chapter 48 of Rules for Writers is to teach how to evaluate arguments.  The chapter teaches that there are several different ways to evaluate an argument to deteremine if it is fallacious, unfair, or both.  There are many different argumentative tactics that the writer can use, and a number of them are unreasonable, according to the chapter, these are called logical fallacies.  One of the things the reading states that all writers and thinkers do is generalizing, which is when the writer/thinker looks at a small portion of the information they are writing about and assumes that the rest of the information they get the portion from will be exactly the same and that's how they draw their conclusion.  By doing this, the chapter states that the writer is engaginig in inductive reasoning, meaning it deals with probability instead of certainty.  To ensure the argument is not unreasonable when using inductive reasoning the chapter gives three questions for the writer to ask him/herself: is the evidence sufficient? Is the evidence representative? Is the evidence relative?  When the writer uses insufficient or unrepresentative evidence to come to their conclusion, this is called a hasty generalization and is an unreasonable argument tactic.      Another of the tactics the chapter mentions is drawing analogies, which is used extensively in our court systems.  The chapter states that analogies "point out a similarity between two things that are otherwise different."(373)  When reasoning by analogy, the writer must consider that just because two things are alike in one way does not mean it will be a reasonable analogy to use in an argument, if the analogy is clearly off point, the chapter says it is a false analogy.  There are several other tactics the chapter mentions to conduct an argument including weighing options,  making assumptions, tracing causes and effects, and deducing conclusions.  The chapter also teaches about distinguishing between legitimate and unfair emotional appeals.  What it teaches in dealing with this is that many arguments attempt to win our sympathy instead of our intelligen agreement.  Some of the arguments that strive for unfair emotional appeals use biased language and attach the people who have a different feeling about the issue.  The final topic the chapter teaches is about handling the opposing views fairly.  To do this, the writer must fairly explain the opposing views when it is necessary and counter the views with their own facts.     I plan on taking all of the information from this chapter into account when it comes time for me to write an argumentative paper.  I've never had to write one, and I have never been taught about writing them, so all of the information throughout the chapter will be used in my writing of an argumentative paper.  What stuck out to me the most in the chapter was all of the different tactics one can use to develop an argumentative paper.  Some of the tactics I can relate to arguments that I have read in the newspaper, or magazines, and others I have probably seen but never realized.  The biggest thing the chapter has taught me, is to open my eyes and realize that there can be a lot that goes into an argumentative paper but more importantly, the writer should ensure that is written fairly and logically.