Purpose and Aim

1. Purpose and Aim Argument is not in itself an end or a purpose of communication. It is rather a means of discourse, a way of developing what we have to say. We can identify four primary aims that argument helps us accomplish: Inquiry, Conviction, Persuasion, Negotiation. ~ Timothy Crusius & Carolyn Channell

2. An Amalgamation • Of the ideas in • Aims of Argument by Timothy Crusius & Carolyn Channell • Reading Rhetorically by John Bean, Virginia Chappell, and Alice Gillam • Argument Culture by Deborah Tannen • Cali Linfor’s mind

3. Some Definitions of Argument from the Study of Critical Thinking • A claim or proposition put forward along with reasons or evidence supporting it. ~ Kathleen Dean Moore • An attempt to support a conclusion by giving reasons for it. ~ Robert Ennis • A group of propositions of which one, the conclusion, is claimed to follow from the others, which are premises. ~ Irving M. Copi • How Neutral!

4. To what purpose … “The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth.” ~ Frank Herbert And what do we do with this changed truth?

5. Aims of ArgumentsWhat do we hope to Achieve? • Inquire: the truth • Convince: agreement • Persuade: action • Negotiate: census

6. Comparison of the Aims

7. American Culture and Argument (See Deborah Tannen’s Argument Culture) • Competitive Arguing is emphasized. (Convincing and persuading) • Collaborative Arguing is not taught or often even recognized. (Inquiring and negotiating)

8. In elementary, school we learn about author’s purpose • To inform or teach • To entertain • To persuade/convince • Share feelings (Maybe)

9. As we age, the list gets bigger… • instruct, persuade, inform, entertain, educate, startle, excite, sadden, enlighten, punish, console, express, reflect, explore, analyze, interpret, take a stand, evaluate, judge, propose a solution, call to action, seek common ground… • And people begin to to confuse purpose with the patterns of organization: describe, compare, order, and so on. • Why are they doing that????

10. We need to move students to think about the process as much a the product.

11. My explanation of the aims is • to give you the theoretical basis to assist your students in understanding the role of author’s purpose in writing and reading • to assist you in teaching students to separate purpose from the other parts of an argument • to help you use purpose to assist students in finding the main argument and in seeing its connections to other elements of the text such as genre • to aid you in helping students use purpose to evaluate the success of a text • to model for you how be as exact as possible in the discussion of any text you present to students • to help you create stronger prompts and rubrics through a deeper understanding of the purpose you are setting for your students and what it takes to be successful in achieving the purpose

12. Do Not Abuse the Aims! • You do not need to hammer your students with the terms of aims. I will do that in college. • In most cases, a list of purposes will do (except inform—we hate inform and oh any of the ones learned in elementary school.)

13. Sorting the Purposes under the Aims • In pairs, place the listed purposes under the aims they likely serve. You can make an argument that some purposes have more than one aim. This is most likely true when a text has more than one audience.   • You may add more purposes to this list. (Just not the Patterns of Organization. They are not purposes. They are not genres.) • Instruct, persuade, inform, entertain, educate, startle, excite, sadden, enlighten, punish, console, express, anger, reflect, explore, analyze, interpret, take a stand, evaluate, judge, propose a solution, inspire, call to action, and seek common ground.

14. Inciting the emotions or a feeling as a purpose forarguing • Purposes • Entertain/Amuse • Excite • Sadden • Punish • Console • Anger • Inspire • Startle Why do you want to do that? • I assert • Most of these achievements of an argument could be sorted under any aim. • They would largely always be a part of a many purposed text and often secondary. • More dominantly, they are really a result of the appeals we make to forward our argument not the purpose or achievement of that argument.

15. A closer look at the Aims of Argument Based on the work of Crusious and Channell

16. Common Purposes to Each Aim

17. Under what circumstances do we argue? Everyday: As a citizen, As community member, As a consumer, In relationships with family, friends, co-workers, and children School and Work: As worker and student

18. Arguing to Inquire It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it. ~Joseph Jourbert

19. Arguing as Inquiry

20. Your Examples? “Center of Attention: The Gender of Sports Media” by Michael Messner

21. Inquiry and its Purposes • Inquiry’s most common purposes are to • Express • Reflect • Explore • Analyze • Interpret

22. The Purposes of Inquiryblended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam Express and Reflect

23. The Purposes of Inquiryblended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam Explore

24. The Purposes of Inquiryblended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam Analyze and Interpret

25. Arguing to Convince “I am not arguing with you - I am telling you.” ~ James Whistler

26. Arguing as Convincing

27. Your Examples? • “Arrested Development: The Conservative Case against Racial Profiling," James Forman Jr

28. Convincing and its Purposes • Convincing’s most common purposes are to • Inform • Explain • Take a Stand • Evaluate • Judge

29. The Purposes of Convincingblended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam Inform and Explain

30. The Purposes of Convincingblended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam Take a Stand

31. The Purposes of Convincingblended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam Evaluate and Judge

32. Arguing to Persuade “To be persuasive we must be believable; to be believable we must be credible; to be credible we must be truthful.” ~ Edward Murrow

33. Arguing as Persuading

34. Your Examples? • Martin Luther King writes "A Letter from Birmingham Jail"

35. Persuading and its Purpose • Persuading’s most common purpose is to • Propose a Solution

36. The Purpose of Persuasionblended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam Propose a Solution

37. Arguing to Negotiate Usually more than two groups are engaged in a struggle. Also, people who might consider themselves to be within the same group can still disagree about how to approach a particular issue. And many people feel connected to more than one group, so when they present their ideas, they have to negotiate among their own multiple allegiances as well as their various readers’ needs and expectations. ~ Patricia Bizzelland Bruce Herzberg

38. Arguing as Negotiating

39. Your Examples? • NRA VS NEA • Sara Vowells radio essay “Shooting Dad”

40. Negotiating and its Purpose • Negotiation's most common purpose is to • Seek Common Ground (Not Compromise)

41. The Purpose of Negotiationblended with the work of Bean, Chappell, and Gillam Seek Common Ground

42. Applying the concept of purpose

43. Some helpful questionsJourney North Teacher • Based on the title, why do think the author wrote this selection? • Which words in the text do you think best reveal the main reason the author wrote this selection? • Why did the author write the article from a particular point of view? • How did the author influence your response to the selection • Was the author’s purpose specifically stated? • Do you think that the author achieved his/her intended purposes? • What examples from the text support your conclusions about author’s purpose?

44. What was the aim/purpose of the texts we have read together? • “Unsung Heroes” • “Black Men in Public Spaces” • “Joe and Jane Go To College” • “Don’t Let Stereotypes Warp your Judgments”

45. Free writing about Argument • Free write about an argument your recently had or wrote. • Now, go back and label the parts: Main Argument, Claims, Evidence, Genre, Purpose, Audience, Context • If you have excluded any of this information please fill in • If you had thought about your argument before you engaged in it through the lens of purpose, what would you change?

46. Purposes’ relationship to other parts of the text

47. Genres and the Aims • While text in genre can have a host of different aims, some genres can not meet certain aims and some genres are better suited to achieve certain aims. • Take this list of genres and place the under the aim or aims you think they might best serve. Discuss with your group why they might best serve that aim. Also, note what genre you feel can not be matched to an aim or that it would be very difficult to achieve that aim with that genre. Discuss this as well. • Please also discuss the power of this knowledge for our students. • Play, sonnet, editorial, public service Announcement, sitcom, text analysis paper, term identification, classroom discussions; journal writing; late-night bull sessions, autobiographical narrative, inauguration speech, sermon, closing arguments, short story, magazine article, personal statement, evaluation paper, reading response, eulogy, lab report, love song, a memorial, book report, personal letter

48. Our thinking about the purpose for a text assists students in • understanding the role of author’s purpose in writing and reading • separating purpose from the other parts of an argument • finding the main argument and in seeing its connections to other elements of the text such as genre • using purpose to evaluate the success of a text • applying exact terms and characteristics to what a text is trying to do in the world • thinking about they hope to achieve in their own arguments. • understanding of the purpose set for them in writing tasks and what it takes to be successful in achieving the purpose