An argument is a claim or
assertion which may be believed or disbelieved. The speaker must support such
claim with reason and evidence if the listener may be expected to accept them
as true.
Too often, however, speakers
forget that understanding is the first step in the process of creating belief.
Here is a simple design for the building of a sound argument.
STATE THE ARGUMENT CLEARLY
IN YOUR OWN WORDS
EXPLAIN the argument IN YOUR
OWN WORDS
EXEMPLIFY the argument
(i.e., give an example of the fact or condition claimed, of the value
supported, or of the likelihood of a proposed effect).
EVIDENCE the argument, citing
your source of data.
EXPLICATE the argument
(i.e., give a brief summary statement of the importance of the truth or your
argument to your topic, purpose or objective in speaking). IN YOUR OWN WORDS
Here is a brief example of
this method put to work in a speech urging tougher laws against drunk driving.
STATE Thousands of people die needlessly on America's highways each year
because of drunk driver's.
EXPLAIN All of us have read accounts of
terrible traffic accidents caused by
someone "driving while intoxicated." Sadly, many of us know someone
who was killed or maimed by a driver who shouldn't have been allowed behind the
wheel. When we remember that such driving is never essential to the well-being
of the driver or passenger, we realize that these deaths are the cruelest or
all--they are needless.
EXAMPLE Such was the case recently reported
by the Associated Press in Kentucky. Ten-year-old Teresa Wilson was riding with
her mother to enroll in swimming classes for the summer. As they entered an
intersection with the green light, a pickup truck travelling at an estimated 60
miles-per-hour, sped through the intersection against the light and slammed
into the Wilson car. Teresa was killed instantly. Even more terribly, perhaps,
her mother was only slightly injured. She is left to live out her life with the
memory of that awful day. As you might expect, the police report charged the
driver of the truck with "DWI"--Driving While Intoxicated.
EVIDENCE The National Safety Council
estimates that more than one-half of the nation's 55,000 annual traffic
fatalities are caused in some way by drunken drivers--and those are only cases
in which the use of drugs or alcohol can be proven in court.
EXPLICATION Surely, anyone who is drinking has no need to operate ton's of speeding
machinery on the public highways. Accidents at home and on the job take enough
lives each year without adding to that toll the thousands of lives lost to the
careless, willfull, self-indulgent driver who drinks, drives, and kills.