A brief guide to arguing about literature download free

Barno emphasizes community spirit as an American ideal, but many people in the United States cherish personal freedom as well.

On plenty of occasions, the American public has debated which of these principles to favor. Someone who prefers individual liberty might protest a military draft. Barno, however, favors one, asking his readers to put community ties over freedom of self. Identify words in the argument that can have more than one definition.

You can also grasp an argument better if you pinpoint words in it that can have more than one definition. Not everyone, that is, would give these words the meanings that the arguer does. Take, for instance, morality and seriousness. For him, both terms mean a willingness to share the risks of war. A similar difference of opinion may occur with the word caution. Barno believes a country that exercises caution would be reluctant to launch wars. Others might think that a policy of caution involves attacking potential foes before they can ever strike.

Someone might argue that the president and Congress rarely do what the public wants. Consider the various possible definitions of additional terms Barno uses, such as these: indiscipline para. We close this chapter by inviting you to practice these methods. Try applying them to the following opinion piece. In addition to her academic articles, she has contributed to the op-ed pages of the Los Angeles Times and to two philosophy blogs, Practical Ethics and The Splintered Mind.

Rini first published the following argument on December 8, , in Aeon, an online magazine that deals with topics in philosophy, science, psychology, health, technology, and culture at large. We all know what Juliet says about a rose: by any other name, it would smell as sweet. Across the country, student Juliets are asking their administrator Romeos to be newly baptized.

And why not? It is reasonable to wish not to study in a place that honors a man who would have you keep to your own, segregated end of the lecture hall. For students of color, living in a United States that preaches equality and practices something else, it is reasonable to expect an honest reckoning with our damaged patriarchs. But the problem is consistency. On any reasonable scale of evil, the segregationist Wilson cannot be as bad as George Washington, who owned hundreds of slaves.

So must we also rename several universities, a northwestern state, and the District of Columbia? The last, in fact, seems to require double renaming, as Christopher Columbus is now seen as a genocidal monster. Where does the bonfire end? Who has the time? But, in fact, we regularly give things new names. It would be worrisome if this reductio of name-changing was deemed absurd only when racism is the issue. Still, it is worth pausing to consider just what it takes to give something a name.

But not all attempted naming is felicitous. But unlike the Royal Navy, in schools and cities the authority to name does not entirely belong to a single person. Students and faculty, staff, and alumni have an interest in not seeing their college linguistically cavort with blackguards.

The citizens of a democratic state have a right to call themselves as they wish. And the procedure by which we determine how to re name our collective institutions has its own name — it is called debate.

Why not have this debate, openly and honestly, rather than dismiss the entire project? The US philosopher Saul Kripke is known for his causal theory of reference. But there is nothing in this story to prevent a re-baptism, or a displacement of the old name by the same causal channels.

We are links in a causal chain of reference, stretching back to institutional baptisms in and , when university administrators pointed to a college and called it Calhoun, or pointed to a school and called it Wilson.

These were performative utterances, issued with full authority, and part of their aim was to honor the legacies of dead racists. We do not have to be unthinking links in the chain. We, collectively, have the authority to pass on these names, or to replace them.

Whatever we do — continue the chain or disrupt it — we are making a choice about whether to uphold the honor intended by those baptisms. In fact, the students at Princeton are not asking us to make a comprehensive judgment: Wilson, good man or bad? The idea is to ask: does continuing to apply the name of such a person express our values, rather than the values of a gone generation?

We are asking whether we, who are the only ones with the authority to keep or change the name, have good reason to pass the name on to the next generation. We know that renaming tends to follow political revolution. Famously, Byzantium turned to Constantinople, which turned to Istanbul.

We are ready to accept that names change with the times and with the politics. Or would you insist that I am writing in New Amsterdam? So if renaming can follow political revolution, then why not moral revolution? Why are we not free to ask ourselves whether to uphold the values that led our ancestors to name in honor of slaveholders and segregationists?

Perhaps we will decide, together, that on balance the good done by Washington or Wilson outweighs the evil. But I think we should seriously listen to those whose histories are most in the weighing.

It can be hard, for some whose ancestors were not enslaved or segregated, to fully appreciate the pain caused by honoring these names. Yet even if you cannot understand it yourself, you can see it in others. And perhaps this will move you to agree, as an act of civic love, to accede to their requests. What do you consider her main claim to be?

Is it a simple yes or no answer to the question, or is it something else? Rini could have left the word dead out of her title. Why do you think she includes it? What are its main stages? For example, what is it doing in paragraph 2?

In paragraph 4? What are these issues? Aeon wants to make big ideas accessible to a wide audience. Why, conceivably, does Rini choose to begin this way? Where does Rini bring in evidence for her position? What kind of evidence is it? What does it consist of? In paragraphs 12 and 13, Rini uses the word values. What specific values does she promote in her essay? In paragraphs 9, 11, and 12, Rini uses the word authority. How does she seem to define this word? To whom is she willing to give authority?

Where, specifically, does she employ it? For what purpose, do you think? Apply the same questions to her use of you. In addition to her title, Rini poses several other questions in her essay. A different writer might have only made statements. What, if any, renaming events and controversies can you think of? In Texas, the name of Robert E. Lee High School was challenged. Also in Texas, the Board of the Houston Independent School District stirred debate when it expressed interest in renaming six of its schools that bore the names of Confederate leaders.

Central State University in Ohio, which had received more than two million dollars from Bill Cosby and his wife, decided to change the name of a communications building named after them. In this chapter, we refer back to those elements and to the arguments by Goldberger and Barno as we suggest ways to develop your own effective arguments.

Also good to study are features of an effective style. Try the following methods and techniques. Mark transitions. Readers want to know how each of your sentences relates to the ones immediately before it and after it. Usually a word or two can show this. Especially crucial is the language of shifts from one paragraph to the next. Create coherence by repeating words and by using similar words.

Readers appreciate signs that you have carefully focused and structured your argument. Through repeating its key words, you can show that it follows a coherent line of thought. Barno notably repeats the word national. It appears in paragraphs 1, 5, 9, 12, and He also uses the closely related word nation in paragraphs 10, 12, and These repetitions provide his argument with a unifying thread.

They emphasize that his readers should think about how to serve their country, not just how to satisfy themselves. Use patterns of sounds to give your sentences force. As you write a draft, read its sentences aloud. Listen to the sounds of each. Perhaps, by changing certain words in a sentence, you can create more compelling rhythmic patterns.

It uses these stylistic techniques: Alliteration. The repetition of consonant sounds at the beginnings of words. Both did and dodge begin with the letter d. Both seek and summons begin with the letter s. The repetition of vowel sounds. Tom, not, and dodge feature the same vowel. So do Ridge, did, and his. So do parts of the last two words: un, come, sum, and mons. Other consonant patterns. An m sound links the words Tom, unwelcome, and summons. A dg sound connects Ridge with dodge.

One-syllable words. Words that consist of just one syllable can have a punchy impact, especially if several such words appear in a row. Balance the parts of a sentence. Look at the following two sentences. Readers like rhythmic symmetry. Vary the lengths of sentences. A series of long sentences may confuse your readers while also losing their attention.

On the other hand, a series of short sentences may come across as choppy, obscuring how ideas connect. Try to mix sentence length, as Barno does in paragraph 8: Even in World War II, only a small fraction of our nearly 16 million uniformed men and women served more than three years in a combat zone, and the entire war was finished for the United States in 45 months. Even in long sentences, be as concise as possible.

Use active verbs, not just passive ones. Active and passive are terms of grammar. When a verb is in active voice, the subject of that verb performs an action. When a verb is in passive voice, its subject is acted upon. The active tends to make a sentence more dramatic and concise. Also, it better identifies who or what is doing something.

For instance, he repeatedly uses the passive form of the verb to call when he refers to the demands of military service: In his family, when you were called … para.

Neither is automatically preferable. But of the two, active voice is more dynamic. When responding to an argument, use verbs that pinpoint what the arguer does. Avoid vague verbs such as talks about. A more exact alternative would be this: Barno calls for a draft lottery to stir concern about war.

The verb calls will give your readers a sharper sense of what Barno is doing when he brings up the lottery as a topic. Arguments may register more strongly with their audience if they explain ideas through figurative language.

Such phrases can make concepts more vivid. Three main types are analogies, metaphors, and similes. An analogy calls attention to a similarity between two things while still regarding them as largely distinct. Barno uses this technique in paragraph Just as Americans take chances with money by investing in stocks, so should they morally consent to the possibility of being drafted.

Of course, moral codes can differ a lot from activities of the stock market. But Barno emphasizes that both require a willingness to take risks. A metaphor, on the other hand, implies that two things are the same.

To put a call on hold is to keep the caller waiting. Barno uses the term to suggest that when Ridge agreed to military service, he had to postpone the kind of living he actually preferred. A simile also equates two things but uses the word like or as to connect them. Yet soon they find themselves having to experience its terrors again.

Create perspective by incongruity. This term, coined by Kenneth Burke, refers to the move that arguers perform when they give language a strikingly unconventional meaning or application.

Throughout his essay, he suggests that the term better fits the present age. Structuring Your Argument: Beyond the Five-Paragraph Essay When writing an argument, you may feel tempted to follow an age-old format: the five-paragraph essay.

It works like this: Your first paragraph introduces three points. Each of your next three paragraphs develops one of these points. You conclude with a paragraph that repeats these points, reminding your reader of them. No wonder that, for generations, students have relied on it.

Many learn this stock procedure in junior high or earlier. Then they expect it to serve them forever after. But rarely does such writing delight teachers of college courses. For most of them, it reeks of formula. To see what we mean by the five-paragraph model, take a look at the following essay.

He worries that this policy allows the rest of the country to overlook the sacrifices that soldiers make. Barno wants the United States to be more cautious about committing itself to wars. He thinks that we will be more restrained if more of us might have to serve in the military. First, the American people will probably never agree to it. Much of the country will object to it and demand that legislators fight against any effort to establish it.

Ever since the United States declared its independence from Great Britain, our society has valued individual liberty. They would oppose a new draft. But he is too optimistic. In recent years, the federal government has been plagued by intense disputes.

The president, the Senate, and the House of Representatives seem unable to agree on any issue. The same thing is likely to happen now. Even if they wind up with a high lottery number, rich people will use all sorts of excuses to beat the system. Everyone else will notice this and point out that the lottery is not fair. One is that the public will not appreciate it. We think our essay makes some good observations. But its five-paragraph scheme harms it. Such limited treatment seems superficial; readers will want greater depth.

Each seems a mini-essay set apart. The final paragraph seems wasteful, for it echoes points already made. So focus your essay on one main claim. Take several paragraphs to develop and support it. Link these paragraphs to one another. Put them in an order that makes sense. We could have spent an entire text on any of the flaws we found. Think of the various questions we might have addressed. For example, what are some past governmental debates over the meanings of words? What meanings might this term have?

They call for abundant explanation, reasoning, and evidence. The author, Justin Korzack, composed it for a course on debating social issues. To support his response, he investigated presidential history. Nor, probably, is it the finest response ever written. But it does perform moves worth adding to your rhetorical repertoire. Barno is a retired lieutenant general with a substantial combat record.

Therefore, you might assume that he himself is comfortable with war. But this is not so, at least with respect to our recent long-term conflicts. He feels that these engagements have had serious consequences for the professional soldiers required to carry them out. Also points out which claims are his. Makes him the subject of several active verbs. Obviously this measure would disrupt the lives of many people.

Whether or not they ever planned to become soldiers, they might now be forced to serve. Nevertheless, Barno believes, this threat would be worthwhile, for it would function as a brake. He expects that it would make Americans more reluctant to send troops into extensive and deadly combat campaigns.

Identifies main issue by phrasing it as a question. Not really, because Barno misdiagnoses the problem in the first place. What needs more attention and criticism is not public apathy.

The President should consult more widely and thoroughly before dispatching Americans to the battlefield. The first of several concessions in this paragraph. Barno makes a valuable contribution when he reminds his readers of how terrible war can be. Using the appeal of pathos, he stresses the suffering undergone by soldiers who have had to serve several tours of duty in deadly, traumatic places like Iraq and Afghanistan. He contrasts their experience with that of people like former governor Tom Ridge.

Even though Ridge was, after being drafted into the army, sent to fight in Vietnam, at least his time there lasted only one year. In light of this unfortunate trend, it would be understandable if Barno called for reviving the draft as a gesture of fairness. He could argue that exempting civilians from military service is morally wrong, given that the professional defenders of our nation have had to fight so much.

Not everyone would agree with him, but his position would be credible. Clear transition from previous paragraph. A somewhat different motive, however, leads Barno to suggest that a draft lottery be held every year if a military action extends beyond two months. He makes this proposal because he feels that Americans outside the military have grown indifferent to the challenges it faces.

In his view, the lottery would make civilians more conscious of combat deployments. At the same time, they would question more the necessity of going to war, for they might be drawn into combat themselves. This skepticism is something that Barno would welcome. To him, the government has grown too inclined to hurl troops into conflicts.

He wants our leaders to make such decisions more slowly and carefully. He expects the lottery would achieve this goal, by raising public awareness and concern. Another concession, just before criticisms begin. Probably Barno is right to sense that exposing significant numbers of Americans to a draft lottery would make the country uneasier about entering into war. Some greater unrest would most likely occur.

Why must his readers assume that the public is, at present, absolutely indifferent to the ordeals faced by our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan? Provides supporting examples. Figurative language. Barno appears to forget that when the invasion of Iraq was beginning, thousands of people marched in several cities to protest it.

Moreover, critical attitudes toward current American wars have certainly mounted in the last few years. Perspective by incongruity. He knows that we have woken up to how fatigued we are. Begins another set of examples. Beginning with Harry S. President has asked Congress for an official declaration of war. Instead, each President has essentially used the military as he has seen fit, seeking Congressional permission only at times and only in thin ways.

Identifies two possible meanings of the same word. Richard Nixon ignored massive antiwar protests and continued to bomb the same region. Balances the two halves of the sentence.

George W. But that campaign was never officially declared as a war, even though it has managed to become the longest war in American history. Moreover, the current president is similarly determined to act independently. His recommendation is thought-provoking and based on vast military experience, but probably his readers would do better to focus on Presidential power.

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