Understanding Social Problems: The Importance of Argumentation in Policy Debates

1. Argumentation

2. What it Entails Submission 2

3. THREE SECTIONS • Introduction to social problem • Background/history/ current policy • In-depth presentation of the sides

4. INTRODUCTION(approximately 3-4 pages) • Introduction • Social problem • Significance • Statistics • Targets • Definitions (as needed) • Brief overview of the controversy • Conclude with normative question

5. Your introduction should scare the reader by convincing him/her that the fate of the world depends on solving this problem

6. BACKGROUND/HISTORY(Approximately 5 pages) • Goal: historical context to understand current controversy • Starting place: it should be far back enough to describe the modern dilemma • Ending point: Most recent events

7. Section 3:What it Contains (4-5 Pages for Each Side) • Stakeholders • Arguments • Issues • Plans

8. Who are the Stakeholders? • Identify the General Stakeholders • Identify the Specific Stakeholders • Tell me why the group matters • Tell me what they value • Conclude by identifying their major arguments on the solution

9. MECHANICS • Approximately 14-16 pages long (Minimum of 12) • Works Cited • Correct MLA form throughout • Style • In accordance with Capstone guidelines • Polished, proofed • DUE: In Class 3/8/2013

10. The Parts of argument

11. Fallacies

12. Fallacies • A way of making a persuasive argument, via a mistake in reasoning • Faulty Logic

13. Ecological Fallacy • Using Aggregate Data to infer individual opinions. (taking means or grouped data and using it to explain the actions of individuals) • Also called the fallacy of division- if the whole possesses a quality, but the parts might not

14. An Example • On Mr. Burns Wanting to bowl: "Call this an unfair generalization if you must, but old people are no good at everything." Moe the Bartender from the Simpsons

15. Exception Fallacy • Taking individual behavior and applying to a group. • Stereotyping • Applying the preferences of one actor to a class of political actors • Using one extreme “story” to justify macro-level policy

16. How Others view Texas

17. How We View Others

18. Hasty Generalization • Using a small or non-representative sample to prove a point. (a type of exception fallacy) • Not looking at all the independent variables, to explain a dependent variable

19. Survey Says….

20. Baptist and Syphilis

21. Faulty Generalization • An example of the exception fallacy • Evaluating everyone with criteria that apply only to some • Be wary of saying that “Democrats”, “Republicans”, Liberals, Conservatives, believe something. Attach names with parties.

22. This was Real

23. AD HOMINEN ("to the man“) • Discredit a person's qualities or circumstances • It consists of citing irrelevant facts about a person's actions or character in an effort to undermine his position

24. An Example • You cannot trust Dick Cheney, everyone knows he worked for an Oil Company.

25. APPEAL TO AUTHORITY • Expert Authorities can be useful for argumentation (e.g. Federal Data). • Fallacious if the authority is not really an expert or when there are trust issues • Because Sean Penn likes Hugo Chavez, we must respect his foreign policy decisions.

26. An Appeal To Authority

27. EMOTIONAL APPEAL • Appeals to fear and pity with little relevance to the issue • Often Involve threats, pity, appeals to fear, evoke sympathy. • Cutesy stories • Here is a example

28. SLIPPERY SLOPE • One undesirable effect will automatically lead to another and another

29. Argument from Ignorance • In Logic, all hypotheses are false until proven true. • In this case, you assume something is true until proven false. • Kennedy assassination was an inside job • 9/11 was an inside job- prove me wrong.