Welcome back to AP Daily.
We're going to talk today a little more about that skill 3C.
This is the one where we're looking at how authors qualify their claims.
And today we're going to look specifically at, I worded this how authors temper their arguments.
But basically what we're looking at is how maybe they try to offer it in such a way that it wouldn't incite someone who didn't agree with them.
They might try to offer words that would be a little calmer or would qualify their idea in ways that would make it seem more palatable to someone they're trying to bring over to their side to talk someone into agreeing with them.
Because always right we're trying to persuade we're bringing someone to our point of view.
I am again Stephanie Hyatt.
I am with you from Lee High School in Huntsville, Alabama.
And as always I'm thrilled to be here talking with you about this.
So let's look today what will we learn.
We're going to look at this particular skill framing an argument because arguments are usually part of an ongoing discourse.
Effective arguments often avoid expressing claims reasoning and evidence in absolute terms.
Okay, now there are two parts of that I want you to pay attention to.
Number one is this idea that arguments are part of an ongoing discourse.
And here's a lot of what you've got to think about with that is this idea that.
Any discussion that you're engaged in anything that you're writing about somebody's written about it before.
Someone's had a conversation about this before right so it's not like this is a brand new idea every time.
And you are bringing a whole new argument to the for every single time.
Here is an ongoing discourse an ongoing conversation that you are a part of.
Then we get to this idea of absolute terms and what I want you to think about with that we're going to look at some absolute terms here.
But basically absolute means what means complete final entirely right like in math when you talk about an absolute number.
It's a number line right into the absolute value of one can go in either direction because it is the defined version of what one is.
Absolute terms are the same way.
In our argument we want to avoid saying things are like no it has to be just this way my way is the only way.
So what we're looking at is words like oh sorry what we're talking about rhetorical analysis.
We're going to focus on rhetorical analysis though you're going to use this in synthesis and argument too and we'll look at that with our very next skill.
So looking at the rhetorical analysis and recognizing our absolute terms none if the author says something is none or no or nothing that's an absolute right absolute there's nothing there that's absolute always you always do this they always say this this always happens there's no room for wiggle and always completely right all.
Without question without a doubt never every absolutely these are all words that signify to the reader that there is no room for discussion on this topic and that's the sort of thing we want to avoid.
So let's look at a discussion where this would be recognizing absolute terms this example comes to you from a letter by Mahatma Gandhi and Gandhi is writing basically he's in the midst of you know this colonizing influence.
He is 100% certain that the British Empire needs to get out of India and you know let the people rule their own country.
And yet he needs to word this in a way that he can avoid that he can bring people over to his side and avoid those absolutes that would be like no it must be must be must be must be.
So he's avoiding that with his language and trying to clarify the argument where there is room for both of us think about it this way in any argument you want to give the other person room to agree with you.
And if the whole argument is I'm right and you're wrong and there is no middle ground then you have to basically convince the other person to give up everything they believe before they can agree with you.
Your job as a writer and our job as analysts is where reading something is to find that middle ground how do we give someone room where they can take those steps toward us.
So let's look and see how Gandhi gives room to take steps toward him I know that in embarking on non violence I shall be running what might fairly be termed a mad risk.
victories of truth have never been one without risks often of the greatest character conversion of a nation that has consciously or unconsciously prayed upon another far more numerous far more ancient and no less culture than itself is worth any amount of risk.
So let's look at his language he opens by saying things like fairly often unconsciously these are soft peddling words right like if we've done something fairly like we find that word again here.
What might fairly be termed a mad risk right like like we could we could agree on that often not always but often and look at that unconsciously when you say well perhaps this was done unconsciously what you're saying is well maybe it didn't really mean to do this you're giving the person the opportunity to take a step towards you and be like oh you're right no I didn't mean to you know I don't always do that maybe often but we can work on that.
That's not all of his language some of his language is a bit more absolute he does say never he does say gravest anytime you see an EST right that is a superlative that means you can't get any.
He is not trying to give a whole lot of room to come toward him because he's not willing to make a lot of steps in that direction himself he's not willing to say hey colonization is a great thing we're so glad you're here.
He can only give so much but in this opening part this is the second paragraph there's a little bit of give watch what happens when we get to the next paragraph though.
I have deliberately use the word conversion for my ambition is no less that to convert the British people through non violence and thus to make them see the wrong they have done to India.
I do not seek to harm your people I want to serve them even as I want to serve my own I believe that I have always served them look at this language no less than can't get any smaller always now that he's moving into his argument he is moving into this language of absolute.
So as we're analyzing it from a rhetorical analysis perspective we see that shift there's a big shift here from giving that room making those steps toward each other avoiding absolutes to now embracing those absolutes.
So what should we take away from this one in framing an argument there's a few things number one you want to pay attention to gradations of diction.
Notice in that first slide it didn't all start out where it was all absolute or all non absolute all qualifying the opposite of absolute would be qualifying.
He didn't qualify everything he had some absolutes but then as we moved into the argument he goes more and more into the absolutes that's because his argument is becoming more and more absolute.
Such for those shifts we saw that take place from the one paragraph into the next and then note those specific uses of absolute language when an author does use absolute language we want to pay attention to that and think about why they've done that.
That's it for today folks thank you so much for joining me and I'll see you on the next lesson on qualifying.
