RESEARCH

RESEARCH METHODS
METHODS
Code
Code 3686
3686

Lecture
Lecture Four
Four

PROF. DR. NOMANA ANJUM

 Unit Four

NATURE AND USE OF ARGUMENT

4.1 Introduction
4.2 Use of Language
4.3 Components of Argument
NATURE AND USE OF ARGUMENT

4.1 Introduction
The basic components of an argument are its
claim, supporting points, and evidence.

Claim: Your claim states the primary argument you

are making in your essay. ...

Supporting Points: Your supporting points offer

reasons why the audience should accept your
claim.

Evidence: Evidence backs up your supporting points.

NATURE AND USE OF ARGUMENT

4.1 Introduction
The Purpose Of An Argument
Arguments can be used to entertain. They can be
used to baffle. They can be used to provoke
outrage or dismay. If arguments are spatial
objects like most people believe, they can be
used to fill books or prop up leaning tables. But
while arguments can be used for many purposes,
there is one purpose that is especially important
for people who wish to gain knowledge of many
truths. We call this purpose the “primary” purpose
of an argument.
NATURE AND USE OF ARGUMENT

4.1 Introduction
Why Argue?
Argument is not in itself an end or a purpose of
communication.   It is rather a means of
discourse, a way of developing what we have to
say.   We can identify four primary aims or
purposes that argument helps us accomplish:
Inquiry
Conviction
Persuasion
Negotiation
NATURE AND USE OF ARGUMENT

4.1 Introduction

Arguing to Inquire: Forming our opinions or questioning those we

already have.

The ancient Greeks used the word dialectic to identify an argument as

inquiry; a more common term might be dialogue or conversation.
  Arguing to inquire helps us accomplish the following:

to form opinions
to question opinions
to reason our way through conflicts or contradictions
NATURE AND USE OF ARGUMENT
4.1 Introduction
Arguing to Convince: Gaining assent from others through
case-making.
While some inquiry may be never-ending, the goal of most
inquiry is to reach a conclusion, a conviction.   

We seek an earned opinion, achieved through careful thought,

research, and discussion.   And then we usually want
others to share this conviction, to secure the assent of an
audience by means of reason rather than by force.

Arguing to inquire centers on asking questions: we want to

expose and examine what we think.

Arguing to convince requires us to make a case, to get others

to agree with what we think. While inquiry is a cooperative
use of argument, convincing is competitive.   We put our
case against the case of others in an effort to win the
assent of readers.
Examples: a lawyer’s brief; newspaper editorials; case studies;
NATURE AND USE OF ARGUMENT
4.1 Introduction
Arguing to Persuade: Moving others to action
through rational, emotional, personal, and stylistic
appeals.
While arguing to convince seeks to earn the assent
of readers or listeners, arguing to persuade
attempts to influence their behavior, to move
them to act upon the conviction. Persuasion aims
to close the gap between assent and action.  To
convince focuses on the logic of an argument; to
persuade will often rely on the personal appeal of
the writer (what Aristotle called ethos) and involve
an appeal to an audience’s emotions (pathos).
  In addition to these personal and emotional
appeals, persuasion exploits the resources of
language more fully than convincing does.
NATURE AND USE OF ARGUMENT
4.1 Introduction
Arguing to Negotiate: Exploring differences of opinion in the
hope of reaching agreement and/or cooperation.
If efforts to convince and/or persuade the audience have failed,
the participants must often turn to negotiation, resolving the
conflict in order to maintain a satisfactory working
relationship.
Each side must listen closely to understand the other side’s
case and the emotional commitments and values that
support that case.   The aim of negotiation is to build
consensus, usually by making and asking for concessions.
  Dialogue plays a key role, bringing us full circle back to
argument as inquiry.   Negotiation often depends on
collaborative problem-solving.
Examples: Diplomatic negotiations, labor relations, documents
in organizational decision-making; essays seeking
resolution of conflict between competing parties; also
frequent in private life when dealing with disagreements
among friends and family members.
 Unit Four
NATURE AND USE OF ARGUMENT
4.2 Use of Language
The Role of Language in Research Language is purely human and
non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and
desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols.

These symbols are auditory and produced by organs of speech.

We use language in order to communicate our thoughts and
feelings. Persons who use languages well are skilled equally in four
aspects of language skills. In the most general way we can identify
four major skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Speaking and writing involve some kind of production on the part of

language user. Therefore they are called 'productive skills' or 'skills
of expression'. Listening and reading allow the language user to
receive information which may be in spoken or written form. These
are called 'receptive skills' or 'skills of comprehension'.
 Unit Four
NATURE AND USE OF ARGUMENT
4.2 Use of Language
Language may be said to be any means of expressing mental
concept by any living being and of communicating them to and
receiving them from any other living being. Language is a
communication process, which functions through an encoder and
decoder.
The person has a message in his mind; he first puts it in either
spoken or written form. This message is then available outside his
mind as text. The text is now accessible to the mind of another who
hears or reads it- who decodes the message it contains. Once it is
decoded, the message enters the mind of the decoder. Next,
decoder plays the role of an encoder who gives feedback through
spoken, written form or through gesture.
Now encoder plays the role of a decoder by receiving the message,
only then the whole communications process is completed. In this
way a skilled language user is one who can convey his information,
message, ideas with ease and who can understand message,
information and ideas with ease.
 Unit Four
NATURE AND USE OF ARGUMENT
4.3 Components of Argument
•The innovator with respect to argumentation is Toulmin (1958;
2003) and he proposed the argumentation structure.
• Argument and dialogue are the processes by which we learn
(Andriessen, 2006).
•Knowledge construction for the learner requires the
opportunity to engage in critique and the higher order thinking
skills of synthesis and evaluation (Osborne, Erduan and Simon,
2004a).
•Argumentation is the means that scientists use to make their
case for new ideas (Latour and Woolgar, 1986).
•Relatively little opportunity is provided for argument and
discussion in school science lessons (Driver, Newton and
Osborne, 2000). 
•Resachers wishing to develop argumentation skills in pupils
should themselves give reasons for the explanations they give
(Simon and Maloney, 2007).
NATURE AND USE OF ARGUMENT
4.3 Components of Argument
• The task confronting the teacher is not solely one of convincing
the student of why the scientific account is correct but also one of
convincing them of why alternative theoretical accounts, including
their own misconceptions, are wrong’ (Osborne, 2011 p 100).
• Teachers whose lessons included the highest quality of
argumentation also encouraged higher order processes in their
teaching (Simon, Erduran and Osborne, 2006).
• Teachers report that they value argumentation as a way of
improving teaching and learning (Sampson, 2009).
• Explicit teaching about argumentation enhanced students’
biological knowledge (Zohar and Nemet, 2002). Argumentation
improves subject knowledge which was significantly better in the
argumentation group than the control group (Venville and Dawson,
2010).
• Passmore and Stewart (2002), Zohar and Nemet (2002) and
Venville and Dawson (2010) provide part of a growing body of
evidence suggesting that argumentation is better than other
approaches at preparing students for assessment.
Discussion