Rhetorical Argument

Stephen E. Toulmin

philosopher and rhetorical theorist.

born in England in 1922 received his Bachelor’s

degree at King’s College. After World War II he obtained his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from Cambridge.

Toulmin cont.

Toulmin taught at the University of Southern California starting 1993 - 2009

gave the Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1997.

In 1958, Toulmin offered his model of argumentation that differed from the classical, Platonic absolutism. In other words, he created a system for comparing “truths.”

Claim

Toulmin’s Model

Toulmin’s model provides that there are three essential aspects to rhetorical argument:

Data

Warrant

Toulmin’s Model, cont.

Simply: A Claim is made. Data is provided in the form of

supporting facts. The Warrant connects the Data to

the Claim. For example:

Toulmin’s Model cont.

“I am an American.” (Claim) “My mother was an American citizen

when I was born.” (Data) Anyone born of an American citizen is a

legal American citizen. (Warrant)

Toulmin says that the Claim and the Data cannot hold without a sufficiently strong Warrant , or, the weakest argument is the one with the weakest warrant.

The U.S. Postal service is wasteful and inefficient. The proposed new mail distribution agency will be wasteful and inefficient.

Claim: The proposed new mail distribution agency will be wasteful and inefficient.

Data: The U.S. Postal service is wasteful and inefficient.

Warrant: the two situations are similar (Reasoning by analogy)

This is the coldest winter since 2000. My heating bills are going to be outrageous.

Claim: Data: Warrant:

The United States has the strongest military, a lot of international clout, and friends in the region. US intervention in Liberia would stop the fighting there.

Claim: Data: Warrant:

“My Cousin Vinny”

Establishing expertise http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h

votE-beoaI&feature=related

Claim, data, warrants http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y

-L_bJAJA-E

Types of Claims

fact: claims which focus on empirically verifiable phenomena

judgment/value: claims involving opinions, attitudes, and subjective evaluations of things

policy: claims advocating courses of action that should be undertaken

Types of Data

Fact or Statistic: a point of data that claims some objective

Expert Testimony: a stated opinion by a person experienced in the field

Personal Anecdote: personal experience gained from time in the related field.

underline a claim, warrant (if it states one) and data in the article.

create a diagram of the claim, warrant, and data that looks like the example below.

Claim: ------------------ Data: Smoking is bad It causes lung

cancer

Warrant: Lung cancer is bad.

Using these articles, divide up CDW

http://www.northjersey.com/news/education/listenupb0309.html

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/02/21/social-networking-sites-doubleedged-sword.html

http://charlotte.floridaweekly.com/news/2010-02-18/Business_News/Social_networking_gains_credibility_with_businesse.html

http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=4864