NANCY SOMMERS: When we think about argument, I think there's all these negative feelings, as if there is something wrong when people disagree with each other, and that to disagree with each other always leads to something that is negative.

I think argument's not only fighting, it's more-- it can be a discussion.

SHAUNDEL SANCHEZ: So an argumentative paper doesn't necessarily have to be, I'm fighting with my 18-year old little brother. It can be something that's intellectual, something that you share between people. And not something that you have to end disagreeing on, disagreeing in a rude way. You can end saying, I respect your opinion, but I have my own.

NANCY SOMMERS: Argument is that the bases of academic writing, because that's the nature of academic writing, which is somebody has said one thing, and then somebody else might say something else, and that there's an attempt then to find where's the middle ground between these two things. Argument pulls you out of your own way of seeing it, your own limited narrow frame of reference. And it shows you that there are other ways of seeing things. There are other worldviews, that other people see the world differently.

And it expands your world. It really opens up the world, which is, that's what college is about, is to open up the world, to see that there are opposing points of view, that there are other ideas, that people disagree, that reasonable people can actually disagree about ideas.

SHAUNDEL SANCHEZ: You don't say I'm the only one who's right out there. I mean, there are plenty of other people who can be right about the same thing in a different way. So it doesn't necessarily have to be this argument where I have to be right.