Overview
General Directions
You are to select an existent discussion board post of one of your classmates to use for analysis.Your main task is to shed light on of the line of argumentation put forth by the author and to provide your own perspective on the issue(s) under examination.
You can select any post that is in place at the time you are putting your essay together.However, you are urged to select one that contains subject matter of interest to you.Also, please make sure the post contains argumentation of a depth sufficient to comment upon at some length.While it is not necessary that you actually disagree with the thesis of your chosen post (although it is fine if you do), your assessment must present a counterargument/challenge to the main thesis put forward in the post under analysis.
Components
- Post under analysis:Please copy and paste the post you are analyzing in the beginning of your essay.The student whose post you chose will never be aware of this fact.
- Inductive argument reconstruction:The central way you will analyze your chosen post is to reconstruct the author’s argument by reconstructing it in standard form (i.e., numbered premises and conclusion) as an inductive argument (Note: Please do not select a post that already contains an argument in standard form!).Essays omitting this component will receive low scores.This reconstruction must be faithful to the intentions of the author.It should include the key premises that are used as support as well as a clear restatement of the conclusion the author is urging as true.It is not necessary to include every premise the author asserts, or to use the exact words of the original post (though you can, if they are stated in a manner that is conducive to analysis).In your reconstruction, you should strive to exceed the original passages in clarity and precision (while remaining faithful to the content) whenever possible.If what the author means to say can be stated differently to get her point across clearer, by all means do so.Also, make sure that you include any key unstated premises and/or conclusion (if there are any that are important to making the line of argumentation explicit) and if you add such premises, make sure to label them as such.Strive to make your reconstructions simple and to the point, and always make sure that all your premises are in fact claims (remember that questions, exclamations, and some other types of sentences do not qualify as claims).If the line of argumentation contained in the essay is complex, then you should reconstruct it as a complex argument.If the argument is simple (e.g., a number of premises leading up to just one conclusion), then reconstruct a simple argument.Note:In the case of complex argument reconstructions, please label the claim that you take to be a sub-conclusion.
- A critical analysis of the argument reconstruction:The bulk of your essay will consist of a critique of the author’s argument (as reconstructed by you).Each and every critique will be different, and the differences will be a function of the specific type of argument under analysis, as well as the content of each premise.Generally speaking, your critique will focus on either one or (preferably) both of the following:
- The “truth value” of the premises under consideration.Here you will provide various reasons why a given premise is false, implausible, unacceptable, misleading, unsupported, improbable, etc.You may discuss each premise successively, focus on just the key premises, and/or opt to critique just the premises that are most vulnerable to falsification.Regardless of the tactic you adopt, your job is to provide sufficient counterargument to persuade the reader that there is something wrong with the premises of the argument.
- The support the premises confer on the conclusion.This type of critique focuses on problems concerning the relation of the premises to the conclusion.As in (a), the specific details of your critique of the structure will vary, dependant upon the nature of your argument reconstruction.Generally speaking, you should point to factors such as premises that are not related to the conclusion, premises that are irrelevant to the truth or falsity of the conclusion, premises that contradict the conclusion, and premises that taken collectively, for some reason or other, do not make it probable that the conclusion is in fact true.
In both (a) and (b), be certain to use the appropriate terms for the specific type of argument you are analyzing (i.e., inductive arguments).Keep in mind that the terms of analysis of deductive arguments (e.g., “valid,” “sound,” etc.) are reserve solely for this type of inference and are not appropriate for this assignment.