Topic 2 Making Claims
Topic 2 Making Claims
All that feed their young with milk are mammals. (P1)
All humans feed their young with milk. (P2)
Therefore all humans are mammals. (C)
ARGUMENT - EXAMPLE
“Memory isn’t that important for academic success.”
Is that sentence an argument? Why?
In this case, the first sentence is the conclusion, and the rest are premises.
This is because the other sentences give reasons that you should accept the first
sentence. Therefore, they act as premises, or evidences for the conclusion (You should
complete your college education).
Another way to see that this is the conclusion is to ask yourself: What is this person
trying to convince me of? It’s not “college graduates earn more money”. He is telling me
without any evidence how they earn more money. But if that’s true, that’s a reason for me
to graduate from college. Hence, earning more money is a premise that is presented as
evidence for the conclusion.
NON-ARGUMENT
oWhen people sweat a lot they tend to drink more water. [Just a single
statement, not enough to make an argument.]
oOnce upon a time there was a prince and a princess. They lived happily
together and one day they decided to have a baby. But the baby grew up to
be a nasty and cruel person and they regret it very much. [A chronological
description of facts composed of statements but no premise or conclusion.]
oCan you come to the meeting tomorrow? [A question that does not contain an
argument.]
oYou should bring your shoes. [An opinion without premise.]
oOh, my goodness! [An exclamation]
oLet’s go to Paradigm Mall. [Just a proposal]
INDICATORS WORDS
How do we identify arguments in real life?
We usually have to rely on the context (setting/situation) to determine
which are the premises and the conclusion.
The language in which an argument is presented often contains
words or phrases to help identify its part (premises & conclusion), and
these words are called premise indicators or conclusion indicators.
For example, if a person make a statement, and then add “this is
because…”, then it is likely that the sentence that comes before it is
a conclusion, and the sentence after it is the supporting
statements.
PREMISE INDICATORS
Often appears before a premise to show that the sentence(s) are premise(s).
This suggests that This proves that This demonstrates That is why
that
As a result This being so Accordingly For this reason
CONCLUSION INDICATORS - EXAMPLES
You want people to be honest with you (p), so be
honest with them (c).