What is an Argument Synthesis?
An argument synthesis has a persuasive purpose, so its thesis is a claim that reasonable people could disagree with. Your strategy in writing this essay is to find and use convincing support for your claim, so that your audience might be persuaded to agree with you.
The Elements of Argument
Claim—a proposition or conclusion
Support—facts or expert opinion
Assumption—an underlying belief or principle about some aspect of the world and how it operates
Analysis—applying the principles that underlie our assumptions to the specific evidence
The Three Appeals of Argument. When arguing, speakers and writers have never relied on logic alone to persuade an audience. Besides evidence (logos), speakers and writers must prove themselves credible (ethos) to the audience and may even attempt to affect the emotions (pathos) of the audience.
Logos (appeal to reason).
Deductive reasoning contains three parts:
a generalization
a specific case related to that generalization
a conclusion
-in other words, the claim, the support, and the assumption.
Inductive reasoning
begins with specific pieces of evidence and
draws a conclusion from the evidence.
The evidence used in inductive reasoning must be sufficient to support the conclusion.
Both types of reasoning should include sufficient facts and other supporting details to back up those claims.
Ethos (appeal to ethics). Ethos refers to how well the writer presents himself/herself. The person making the argument must be credible in order for the reader to consider his/her assumptions and conclusions credible. An audience also considers whether the person making the argument seems knowledgeable and reasonable. For instance, are counterarguments presented? Are opponents and their arguments treated with fairness and respect? As the writer of a persuasive synthesis essay, therefore, you must adhere to the conventions of ethos or risk losing your audience altogether.
Pathos (appeal to emotion). Pathos refers to the writer's ability to evoke the emotions of his/her readers. For example, a writer will present a story to illustrate an issue, such as a vivid description of the reactions of the fetus during an abortion procedure. The writer may tap into one or a few emotions such as sadness, fear, anger, patriotism, love, etc., but must do so effectively to avoid being too manipulative.
Developing and Organizing the Argument Synthesis
Purpose. It is crucial to always keep your purpose in mind when writing your argument synthesis because it will affect your claim, the evidence you select, and the way you organize the essay. Your purpose in writing your particular essay will emerge from your emotional responses and beliefs regarding your source material.
Making a Claim: Formulating a Thesis. Your claim is the conclusion you have come to after reading and responding to your source material. You can see, therefore, how your thesis is directly related to your purpose for writing. You will present this claim as a one sentence thesis in your essay. You will draw support from your sources as you argue logically for your claim. And, at times, you will employ the appeals of ethos and pathos when presenting your argument.
Counterarguments: You will find it will also be important in your essay to provide a counterargument (an argument opposite your own) so that you can demonstrate its weaknesses and strengthen your claim. The advantage to including the counterargument in your writing is that you demonstrate your awareness of the other side of the argument and show you are prepared to address their points.
Another variation of a counterargument is a concession. Rather than overturning the opposition's point, as you did in the counterargument, in the concession you concede that part of the opposition's argument has some validity or appeal. However, you also make it clear that your argument is the stronger of the two.
Organization: Inductive reasoning can be used in the organization of your essay by waiting to present your thesis last in the essay, after presenting your points of argument and support. In this way the claim flows naturally out of the argument and evidence you have presented throughout the essay.
Using deductive reasoning to organize your essay will be somewhat different. Here you will directly provide your claim in the introduction of the essay and then follow your claim with points of argument and evidence to support it. You are far more likely to see or write the deductive argument, but keep an open mind to the challenges writing can offer. More skilled writers should seek these challenges as opportunities to broaden their writing skills.
Fallacy: You will want to go back and review Chapter 2 for its very important presentation of fallacy when developing your essay. Assessing your own interpretation of information when using your sources will help you avoid committing fallacies. Also don't forget that you are responsible to cite your source materials using the format your instructor requests (MLA, APA, CBE).
How to use your source material. As you learned in Chapter 1, there are three ways to introduce source material into your writing: summary, paraphrase, quotation.
First you should categorize your evidence based on its type of appeal, either logical evidence or motivational appeal. Logical evidence, such as facts, statistics, and expert testimony, helps make the appeal to logos (reason), whereas motivational appeals to ethos and pathos are employed to persuade your audience to change their minds: to agree with the writer, or to decide upon a plan of action.
Develop an Organizational Plan. Next, you will want to consider carefully how to organize your evidence. We discussed earlier deciding on an inductive or deductive approach to your argument and categorizing your sources based on their evidence or motivational appeal.
Now, however, you will want to consider an argument strategy when ordering the placement of your source work in your essay.
For example, you may choose a climactic order where you save the most important source material for the end of the essay since your readers will most often remember what they have read last. You may also choose a logical or conventional order in which you establish a pattern in detailing your argument:
Problem/Solution Pattern: The essay opens by defining the problem and its origins; the body then develops one or more solutions.
Two Sides of a Controversy: The essay opens by introducing the controversy and your own point of view (claim), and then the body provides reasons why your point of view should prevail.
Comparison/Contrast: The essay is built on examining and analyzing two subjects in terms of one another and is organized either by subject or criteria.
Once you have made the various decisions regarding the placement of your evidence and the structure of your essay, it is a very good idea to create an outline before drafting your essay. Organization is especially important in the argument synthesis, and it can be more difficult to achieve because of the incorporation of so many sources, strategies, and appeals. You should have a very clear plan of action before you even begin drafting. In fact, it is also advisable to perform a reverse outline during your revision process as we discussed in Chapter 3.
"Argument Synthesis." A Sequence for Academic Writing. Pearson. 2010. Web. 20 Oct. 2010. http://wps.ablongman.com/long_behrens_saw_2/23/5948/1522821.cw/index.html