Position Arguments

Contexts for Position Arguments

A position argument starts with a desire to make your position known about an issue you care about, feel invested in, or find intellectually stimulating. Your sense of exigency, or motivated curiosity, drives you to learn more about the issue.

A position argument states a claim that reasonable people hold substantially different opinions about. For example, people might use words indicating value judgments about the issue, such as should be, should not be, the best, the worst, too much, and not enough.

Listing Topics You Care About

Answer the questions below to help you come up with a list of at least five topics that you could write about in a position argument.

  1. What are some problems or issues on my campus? In my hometown? In my state? In my country? In the world? What is my position on these problems?
  2. What are some issues or arguments that come up often in my community that I feel strongly about?
  3. What are some issues that have come up in the news recently that have made me react or respond?

Talk with classmates to decide which ones would make good topics for argument. From that narrowed list, choose one topic to write about.

Drafting a Working Thesis Statement

Develop a working thesis statement. Use the questions in the project checklist on page 195 to decide whether it is effective. Revise it as needed. As you work through your ideas, revisit your thesis statement periodically to see if it still represents your position accurately. You may need to revise it several times as you shape your position.

Identifying Other Perspectives

Think about your working thesis statement. Who would agree with it, who might agree with it, and who would disagree with it? Why? Divide the possible perspectives into at least two and preferably more than two camps. Fill in the chart below to help you keep track of them.

People who agree would think… / People who might agree would think… / People who disagree would think…

Then, using a key term on your topic, conduct an Internet search to find newspaper or online news source editorials that illustrate these positions.

For example, if you wanted to survey the range of opinion on “file sharing of music,” you could try these steps:

  1. Go to Google News:
  2. Type “filesharing” (in quotation marks) in the search box at the top of the page, and then click on Search News. Your search results will include a long list of editorials on this topic from various news sources around the world. You can tell from the title of the page and the brief summary whether it’s directly related to your topic. Even the first few search results for “filesharing” reveal a broad range of opinion, with headlines like “File sharing is not the problem” and “File sharing online: Good or bad for the local musician?”
  3. Add to your chart a summary of each position or each editorial that looks helpful. (Be sure to include the citation information.)
  4. Analyze an editorial on your topic from each camp, focusing on questions like these:
  • What position does the editorial take?
  • What evidence or reasons does the editorial provide?
  • What are the stakes of the argument?
  • Does the editorial address the views of the other side?
  • What doesn’t the editorial say that it might have said in the interest of arguing its position more effectively?

Thinking About Reader Motivation

Using your working thesis statement and the information you have gathered so far about alternative perspectives on your issue, answer the following questions about reader motivation as they relate to your topic. It is important to keep your answers in mind as you shape your content to suit the occasion (kairos).

  1. How do readers feel about the topic?
  2. What would catch their attention in an introduction?
  3. What background information will they need to grasp your claim?
  4. What points do the people involved in this debate seem to agree on, for the most part? What points do they disagree about? List these separately.

Use the project checklist on page 200 as you think about how you will motivate your readers to be persuaded by your argument. Be guided throughout by the contexts of your argument. (See chapter 1.)

Listing Your Reasons and Evidence

Use a chart like the one below to help you list the reasons and evidence that you have compiled for your argument.

My Claim Is: ______

______

______

Reason #1 / Evidence that Supports It
Reason #2 / Evidence That Supports It
Reason #3 / Evidence That Supports It

Shaping Your Evidence

Using the chart of evidence that you have created, look over the project checklist on page 205 and answer the questions about your current list of reasons and evidence.

Examining Ethos- and Pathos-Based Appeals

Take some time to write various paragraphs of your argument in ways that use ethos- and pathos-based appeals. Exchange paragraphs with a partner. Read your partner’s paragraphs and take notes on how they use ethos and pathos to appeal to the reader. (Use the project checklist on page 207 to help you think about these appeals.) Tell the writer how these appeals work (or don’t work) for you as a reader.

Conceding and Refuting Other Viewpoints

When you concede, you give credence to an opposing or alternative perspective, and you grant that some members of your audience might disagree with you and agree with another’s point. When you refute, you examine an opposing or alternative point or perspective and demonstrate why it is incorrect or not the best response or solution. If you have researched and considered your argument, you should be able to conceive of many of the opposing and differing perspectives within your ongoing debate or argument. Rhetorically, concession and refutation give your writing a gravitas, or vital weight.

Two methods exist for contending with readers with hostile or differing perspectives. You can demolish their arguments viciously (as many argument writers on unmoderated message boards do) or you can anticipate the objections some of your readers will bring to your argument and then refute them tactfully. If you address possible objections in a fair-minded but direct way, you increase the likelihood that the opposition will understand and perhaps be won over to your position. Your fair-mindedness also enhances your ethos with neutral readers, who will consider you a reliable and trustworthy source.

You should place your refutation in your argument where it will do the most good:

  • If your readers are likely to have a refuting point in the forefront of their minds, then you will need to address that opposing issue earlier rather than later. The longer you put off dealing directly with the likely objections of readers, the longer you postpone their possible agreement with your position.
  • If there are important contrary views that your readers might not have made up their minds about, then your refutation will likely work best later in your essay.

The important principle to remember is that effective writers raise issues (as in a refutation) at the opportune moment—just at the time when readers expect them to be discussed.