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1、 Methods of developing argumentsExampleFrom a dictionary The Random House Dictionary defines a contract as “an agreement between two or more parties for the doing or not doing of something specified.“ By etymology A deductive argument (from the Latin de + ducere, “to lead away from“) begins with one
2、 or more premises (initial assumptions). It then “leads away“ from this starting point, using it to determine whether a particular conclusion is valid. From an authority “War“, Clausewitz famously observed, “is a continuation of policy by other means.“ By synonym Alienation is disaffection with or i
3、solation from society. By example The Indo-European group includes such languages as English, French, Russian, and Hindi. By context Indo-European, the world”s largest family of languages, includes languages spoken by about half the world”s population. By function A cyclotron uses magnetic fields to
4、 accelerate nuclear particles along circular paths. By contrast Terrorism differs from other kinds of political protest in three main ways: . . . The biggest problem students tend to have with using definitions is drawing them too narrowly. In college essays good definitions are those which suggest
5、further lines of inquiry, not those which close off further thinking. As you write a definition, remember that it is perfectly reasonable to think of it as provisional and something to be fine-tuned rather than the last, graven-in-stone word on the subject. Description Description is in a sense pain
6、ting a picture with words. This is obvious when you think about describing a physical object like a tree or a building, but it applies even to descriptions of abstract things. As with pictures themselves, space is the essential dimension for most descriptions. As you write, think spatially. Follow s
7、ome sort of order: from high to low, left to right, front to back, most easily seen to smallest detail, light to shadows, etc. Not all orders are equally good; think about which one might make the most sense given your argument, or which might be easiest for your reader to follow. In describing abst
8、ract things the idea of finding some sort of quasi-spatial order holds: go from big to little, obvious to not-so-obvious, ideal to actual, formal to informal, general to specific, positive to negative, and so on. Often the abstract thing you”re describing will give suggest its own ordering principle
9、. A description of the American Constitution, for instance, would probably work best by respecting the document”s own organization. The Constitution”s first clause discusses the Congress; the second clause discusses the presidency; and the third clause discusses the judiciary. Following this order i
10、n a description, rather than jumping around, will likely make the description easier to follow by giving its abstract content a more concrete, spatial quality. Good ordering principles help turn descriptions from static records to engines of further thinking. Consider that possible description of th
11、e U.S. Constitution. Attuned to the document”s own organization, we might start to muse on the significance of the order: Does the fact that the Congress is discussed before the presidency imply something about the founders” view of the balance of power in the federal government? Does it say somethi
12、ng about their attitude toward representation and democracy? Does being sensitive to this ordering principle help us understand the document and its ideas better? （Yes, yes, yes.） One suggestion about descriptions of abstract concepts and things: human beings crave the concrete. No matter how abstra
13、ct the thing you”re describing, try not to go too far （no more than two or three sentences） without anchoring the description to some vivid image or example. If you”re writing about the nature of male friendship in Hemingway, for instance, don”t stray too far from examples from the text. Narration N
14、arration describes not a single event or idea, but a sequence over time. Time is the critical factor in narration, and chronological order is the natural way to organize a narrative. You need not slavishly follow chronological order, though; playing a bit with flashback and reordering may be a good
15、way to emphasize key concepts. For instance, a paper on the rise and fall of the Aztec Empire need not begin with the earliest historical records, but at some critical moment chosen to illustrate a major theme or themes in the argument. Nor do you need to cover the whole chronology: feel free to cut
16、 and compress the flow of time to give the argument maximum impact （in practice this tends to mean focusing more on change than on continuity）. Analysis Analysis means breaking something complex down into simpler parts. It”s one of the most important intellectual skills for making sense of the world.
