4.8 Crossing the Finish Line: The Academic Research Argument: End-of-Chapter Exercises

^[1]Review “Rogerian Argument” section 4.2: Give a Rogerian argument a try by taking your argument and doing the following items:

• summarize the opposing viewpoints
• determine if the opposing view’s argument is reasonable and if the author’s assumptions are valid
• present their arguments and supporting points or premises accurately making sure to keep your tone respectful
• acknowledge your shared concerns (the “common ground”)
• follow up with support for your own argument
• compose a stronger counterargument based on what you know about the opposing argument’s support
  • concede the opposition’s valid supporting points with which you found common ground
  • refute the weaknesses in the opposing view’s argument

^[2]Review “Structuring Argument in Your Paper” in section 4.2: Imagine that you are assigned an argument paper that must focus on an education-related issue, with the audience consisting of your peers. You select as your claim the idea that all undergraduate writing courses that fulfill a general education requirement should include a tutor, who would attend all class meetings and assist students as needed. As you plan your paper, you decide to use the following reasons to support your claim:

1. Students may be more comfortable seeking individualized help with their writing from a peer (advanced undergraduate student or graduate student) than their instructor.
2. The tutor could provide valuable feedback to the instructor to assist him/her with teaching that students may be uncomfortable  sharing or otherwise unable to do so.
3. Student grades and retention would improve.

To support the first reason, your evidence consists of anecdotes from fellow students. To support the second and third reasons, your evidence consists of published research that suggests these benefits. In what order would you place the reasons in your paper, and why.

^[3]Review section 4.3: Evaluating a Claim in Practice

Bias in the media has long been a topic of discussion, both popular and scholarly, and recently has even led to the creation of charts to show where news outlets fall on a spectrum from “conservative” to “liberal” ideology. Some people even claim that no media outlet can be relied on to report the truth.

Based on what you learned in chapter 4, is the claim, “Media cannot be trusted” effective? Why or why not?