Argumentation and Critical Thinking

This chapter examines the structure of arguments, and offers ways for public speakers to critically evaluate the arguments of others. Argumentation is a process of advancing claims supported by good reasons and evidence. An argument is built out of three essential elements that must work together: the claim speakers advance, the relevant evidence that they provide in support of that claim, and the reasoning pattern that they use to connect the evidence with the claim. A claim of fact asserts that something is or is not the case. When speakers claim asserts that something is good or bad, desirable or undesirable, or justified or unjustified, there are advancing a claim of value: a claim about the intrinsic worth of the belief or action in question. A claim of policy recommends a course of action that they want the audience to approve. Reasoning is a process of connecting something that is known to an idea that they wish others to accept.