Arguments

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"A persuasive paragraph is one which presents information to support or prove a point. It expresses an opinion and tries to convince the reader that the opinion is correct or valid."
(Sebranek et. al. 1992, p.48).


Aim:  To learn how to structure an argument
Read the following excerpt before you come to class.

 

Evidence for Position
(1)  The rainforest does possess assets, though, that are well worth mentioning. The first and foremost I have already expressed: the number and diversity of species it supports. Plants, insects, and monkeys have already been mentioned, but fish, amphibians, and birds also depend on the rainforests for survival. About one-third of the birds familiar to us in the United States winter over in the tropical forests of Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean Islands, and South America, including tanagers, thrushes, mockingbirds, warblers, and orioles (Norris 23). And largely because of the rainforests, the 3,000 freshwater species of fish in the Amazon (Caulfield Rainforest 244) are able to provide a full 50% of all animal protein required by the people who live there (Lovejoy "Conservation" 6). In 1980, a study was led by Dr. M. Goulding (American biologist) that showed an unusual relationship between approximately 75% of these fishes (Lovejoy Amazonia" 330) and the floodplain forests. It seems "many fishes swim into these forests at the time of high water and feed on fruits and seeds and other living matter which fall into the water. This transfer of nutrients from the terrestrial to the aquatic ecosystem permits a higher fish biomass than would otherwise be possible" (Lovejoy "Conservation" 6).

(2)  A second asset of the rainforest is its contribution to medicine. One quarter of all American prescription drugs contain some rainforest plant (Lee & Taylor 62), yet 'fewer than 1 % of tropical forest species have been screened for their use in life-saving drugs " (WWF 7). Imagine the potential! Seventy percent of the 3,000 plants identified by the National Cancer Institute as having anti-cancer properties are rainforest species. The Madagascar periwinkle alone provides chemists with sixty alkaloids from which medicines can be derived. Some of these medicines reduce blood pressure, some lower glucose concentration in the blood, and two are anti-tumor agents, one of which yields a 99% chance of recovery from lymphocytic leukemia, and the other allows 58% of all Hodgkin's disease patients' survival beyond ten years after treatment, compared with only 2% in 196 1. Derivatives from South American liana species are used to treat multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and other muscle disorders, and without them, tonsillectomies, eye surgery, and abdominal surgery would be impossible. South American ipecac cures amoebic dysentery; West African strophanthus gratus yields the heart medication strophanthin which has fewer side effects than digitalis; tetrodotoxin, which is derived from several Central American frog species, is an anesthetic 160.000 times as strong as cocaine, and wild yams in Mexico yield cortisone and diosgynin (the active ingredient in birth control pills) (Caulfield Rainforest 219-21). It's probably safest to say that just about everyone who has used Western medicine has benefited from the tropical rainforests.

(3)  Still another asset of the rainforest is its climate control. Scientists now "widely accept that rainforests directly influence climate and. indirectly, global weather patterns.... Some scientists believe that the spreading of the Sahara is due in part to the shrinking of equatorial forests " (Lee &Taylor 61-2). This theory is based on research that has proven that rainforests generate up to one-half of their own rainfall (Lovejoy "Amazonian" 33 1), and the fact that after a large area has been deforested, local rainfall is reduced ( In Central Panama, which has been totally deforested, the average annual rainfall has fallen 17 inches in the past fifty years ([Lee & Taylor 62].) In addition to helping control precipitation, the forests contribute to climate control. Forests, with their vast vegetation, are able to absorb more of the sun's energy than open land. Deforestation, then, can disrupt local weather patterns by warming air which was previously kept cool (WWF 9), but it may also have global implications. Forests, by their very nature, return water vapour to the atmosphere; the larger the forest, the greater (and faster) the return. This water vapour in turn determines cloud formation; where trees thin out, there is less cloud. Because cloud formation provides a major form of heat transfer, deforestation would affect the global heat balance, and the planet could experience a temperature increase of 2'-3'C, enough to partially melt the polar icecaps (Salati et al. 68) and endanger coastal cities worldwide.

(4) Yet another asset of the rainforests is the abundance and variety of food and consumer goods they can (and do) provide. From oils, gums, resins, latexes, waxes, rattans, bamboo, pesticides and dyes some such manufactured products as wicker furniture, lubricants, glue for postage stamps, golf balls, chewing gum, toothpaste, shampoo, and make-up (WWF 10). Perhaps more interesting is the fact that "all of the world's main crops have been derived from wild relatives. Of the dozen or so which provide 90% of the world's food, one-half are descended from tropical forest plants" (WWF 5). Rice and maize are two of them. Others include coffee, tea, potatoes, peanuts, chocolate, pineapples, bananas, oranges, and lemons (WWF 5-6). Rainforests also provide plants in the natural state for cross-breeding purposes in the never ending search for disease-resistant genes. A case in point refers to a project undertaken in the late 1960's by the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. Researchers screened 10,000 varieties of cultivated rice to find a gene that was resistant to grassy stunt virus, the only major rice disease for which there was no known protection. When this proved futile, they turned to their collection of wild rice seeds.

Only two seeds of one species found in India possessed the sought-after gene. So the researchers trekked to India to find more seeds, but to no avail. In the eighteen years since that discovery, no other source of resistance to grassy stunt virus has been found. Consequently, every modern rice plant (for cultivating) has a gene derived from one of those two seeds (Caulfield "Rainforest" 227-28).

Counter Argument

Unfortunately, the rainforests' assets have not been enough to convince the majority of the governments controlling them that they should be preserved. Most of these governments are struggling with problems of feeding their people and paying off their (usually very large) foreign debts (Channel 4 News), as well as colonizing for military and political reasons (WWF 11).

(1)  All of the reasons the rainforests are being destroyed lead back to economics. The two main culprits are logging, whether selectively or for timber, and ranching/farming. Selective logging for woods such as mahogany and teak is nice in theory, but doesn't work well in the real world. For instance, generally, when 10% of a stand of trees is selectively harvested, another 30-48% is damaged from bulldozing and other logging operations (Caulfield 162). The sad thing is, though, these harvested woods are used for luxury items such as hardwood veneers for furniture, house moldings and railings, coffins, and even chopsticks (WWF 18). Surely there are alternatives!

(2) More productive in the short term is logging for timber; the immediate financial return is simply higher. In fact, timber logging earns more money from the rainforests than any other activity. Twenty percent of the world's industrial wood comes from rainforests, and all hardwood logs and over half of hardwood sawn timber in world trade comes from rainforests (Caulfield Rainforest 150). Ironically, because the rainforest countries lack equipment to process raw timber, the income derived from exports must be used to import sawn timber, plywood, and paper (Caulfield Rainforest 152).

(3)   In Latin America, the main reason for clearing forest lands is to create cattle ranches. Now, with the forest taken away, the soil is very poor, mainly because the land here is billions of years old and has become weathered and infertile. Two-thirds of the tropic soils are acidic and low in nutrients, usually being hard and clay-like or sandy and shallow,
inviting erosion (Caulfield Rainforest 65). Consequently, cattle ranches must be very large; each head of cattle needs at least twelve acres to produce marketable beef (Caulfield Rainforest 145). And who buys all this beef. The United States buys 75% of all Central American beef exports. In 1960, the average annual beef consumption per American was 85 pounds, and we imported no beef. By 1978, we were importing 10% of our beef as we each consumed 122 pounds annually (Caulfield Rainforest 108).

(4)  Sadly, to create the large cattle ranches, many of the "developers" use the "slash-and-burn"
technique, which is to cut the trees and burn them in the field. The people just don't have the means or the time to clear the forest in a more conventional manner. So, not only are barren lands being created, but the original natural resources are being wasted! I say barren lands are being created because after three to five years, even these original twelve acres are not enough to sustain even one head of beef., the old "pastures" are deserted and new "pastures' are created; more trees are destroyed. Obviously, the soil here is not suitable for conventional cattle ranching, but as long as there is money to be made, the industry will continue. It should be pointed out that attempts have been made to improve the quality of the soil. But adding nutrients and otherwise incorporating temperate-zone farming have failed due to the amount and intensity of rainfall which causes massive run-off and erosion (Caulfield Rainforest 132).
 

 

Argument Lecture:  Arguments convince the reader that....

Types of Arguments

* Basic Arguments 'have a position for or against'
* Critical Thinking Arguments are less definitive
* Inquiries 'test the validity and strength of a particular position'
* Persuasive Arguments 'take a position and aim to convince the reader in whatever way they can'

A. Basic Features

1. Credible Assumptions (Premises)

Premise:                    Tropical Rainforests (R-F) are being threatened.
Position:           This is not good
Conclusion:           R-F should be preserved

2. Main Point

3. A Position

4. A Specific Audience

Inductive argument.   Specific examples --> general conclusion
Deductive argument.  General Assumption --> specific conclusion

5. Evidence

Weak Evidence
•  moral or ethical appeal:  "And who buys all this beef?"
•  analogy (compare rainforests to forests)
• testimonials

B.  Common Flaws in Reasoning
• Hasty generalisations
• Non-sequitur reasoning
• Bandwagon Effect: Everyone does this!
• Appeal to Tradition: Historically,
• Begging the Question

C.  BASIC ARGUMENT

* Main Point
* Position
* Evidence for Position
* Counter-Arguments (Evidence against Position)
* Refutations and Concessions

Guidelines for presenting evidence
1. Support your assertions with evidence.
2. Interpret the evidence for your readers, rather than leaving examples to speak for themselves.
3. Make explicit what is implicit.
4. State the connections between evidence and claims, rather than just putting next to each other.
5. Allow your evidence to shape your claim.
6. Focus on specific parts that provide perspective on the whole. Say more about less than less about more.
7. Explore both similarities and differences in examples.
8. Make your claims as broad as possible (without overgeneralising).
9. Find and use the best counter example, to qualify your claims. 
(Adapted from Rosenwasser & Steven 1997, p. 136)