Stanley Fish's Argument Essay: Identity Politics

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When ‘Identity Politics’ Is Rational by Stanley Fish is an excellent example of an argumentative essay because it attempts to convince the reader that his claim is valid using a series of statements to support his argument while considering counter evidence. The essay contains common elements found in an argumentative essay. For example, the first statement of an argumentative essay should be a general statement, designed to attract the reader’s attention. Fish begins his essay, “If there’s anything everyone is against in these election times, it’s ‘identity politics.’”
For an argument to be constructive all participants must first agree on what they are discussing. What is identity politics? Fish answers this in his next sentence by presenting …show more content…

Non-group members are less likely to have had the same experiences as in-group members, therefore non-group members are less likely to share same viewpoint on an issue; furthermore, they are less likely to recognize the group’s issues as an issue at all.
Each controversial issue has two sides. Once Fish supports his position he explores what others think in his essay. For example, “Stanley Crouch believes that the project of liberal universalizing is now pretty much complete and that ‘elements of distinction’ have become secondary to the power of human qualities with which anyone can identify or reject.”
Each opposing argument is followed by a paragraph that addresses the opposition and explains why his position is better. “But his judgment is belied by almost everything that is going on in this campaign. As I write this I am watching the returns from the ‘Potomac Primary’ and the news is being presented entirely in racial, ethnic, and gender terms. Every newspaper or magazine article I read does the same thing. The Obama and Clinton campaigns accuse each other of playing the race card or the gender card. An Hispanic superdelegate warns that by replacing her Latino campaign manager with a black one, Senator Clinton risks losing his vote and the vote of other Hispanic delegates he is in the process of

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