The most common form of argument is confrontational in which opposing sides attempt to “win battle.”
However, Rogerian argument, based on psychologist Carl Rogers, points to the other aims of argument such as finding common understanding, acknowledging justified ambivalence toward an issue, and both sides reaching a shared solution to the problem they are trying to address.
In Rogerian argument, both sides search for common ground.
Rogerian Structure
Introduction: You introduce the problem and show both sides of the problem.
Body paragraphs: Present your opponents’ view of the problem and your antithetical view.
You show your opponents’ how they might benefit if they moved closer to your view.
You lay out possible compromises that would make people on both sides of the argument more satisfied.
Conclusion: You restate your thesis and emphasize the compromises made.
Examples
For the gay marriage debate, one side wants to forbid gay marriage; the other side wants gay marriage. A possible compromise is a “legal union” that gives gay couples the same legal rights as married couples.
For the death penalty debate, life without parole might appease both sides.
For the cell phone ban in the classroom debate, some instructors let students use cell phones for class exercises.
While you can write a Rogerian argument if you feel it’s appropriate for the topic, you will probably be using Toulmin argument.
Toulmin Argument
Toulmin argument, the most common form of argument taught in a critical thinking class, contains three essential ingredients:
Claim: Your thesis or main point of your essay
Grounds: The evidence you use and analyze to support your claim
Warrant: The logic you use that connects your evidence to your claim
Toulmin Essay Outline
Introduce the topic (get reader’s attention with a vivid image or scenario or anecdote)
State your claim (usually at the end of the introductory paragraph)
Body Paragraphs (about 75%) will show your grounds or reasons for supporting your claim
Body Paragraphs (about 25%) will show your rebuttal to your opponents’ objections to your claim.
Conclusion: Strong restatement of your thesis that reinforces the claim and shows possibly the broader implications of your thesis
Example: You introduce the topic of paying college football players.
Claim:
College football players should be paid like professional athletes.
Grounds:
College football players make colleges billions of dollars a year; in fact college football generates more money than the NFL.
Colleges pay their coaches salaries that are often bigger than the salaries paid to NFL coaches, so why aren’t they paying their athletes?
Very few (1 out of 100) Division I college football players make it to the NFL where contracts aren’t guaranteed anyway.
College football players risk brain life-debilitating brain injuries and other injuries to make money for their colleges and they deserve compensation.
Rebuttal Section
“But colleges pay for the players’ education, free room and board and books and tuition, all paid.” Rebuttal: But players work sixty hours a week with intense practices and cannot devote their time to school to do well because they’re too busy making billions for their colleges.
“But paying student athletes makes college football about greed and business when it should be about the love of the game.” Rebuttal: Love has nothing to do with it. If a college coach doesn’t perform to standards, he gets the ax. The same holds true with a college football player. He’s a piece of meat who’s only worth his ability to help his team win. College football is a multi-billion-dollar business and student players deserve a piece of that pie.
Conclusion: A powerful restatement of your thesis
Drafting a Thesis Statement
Your thesis must be a single sentence that makes a claim that you will argue in your essay. The thesis is not merely a statement of your topic.
Topic: The movement to get college football players paid like professional players.
The above isn’t even a complete sentence. Nor does it assert your claim.
Thesis: College football players should be paid like professional players.
Avoid a Thesis That Is Too Broad or General
Colleges need to pay their football players.
Revised
Colleges need to pay their football players if they want to avoid exploiting young men while filling their coffers with billions of dollars in treasure.
Colleges need to pay their football players because the current system is criminal in the wealth it generates for the colleges and the exploitation it exacts upon the players.
Paragraph Transitions for an Argument Essay
Second general transition list
Concession and Rebuttal Section of an Argument Essay
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