Respond: Determining Warrants

Respond: Determining Warrants

RESPOND •

Question 7.3

At their simplest, warrants can be stated as “X is good” or “X is bad.” Return to the letters to the editor or blog postings that you analyzed in the exercise on “Making Claims” in Chapter 7, “Structuring Arguments,”, this time looking for the warrant that is behind each claim. As a way to start, ask yourself these questions:

If I find myself agreeing with the letter writer, what assumptions about the subject matter do I share with him/her?
If I disagree, what assumptions are at the heart of that disagreement?
The list of warrants you generate will likely come from these assumptions.

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