Toulmin Model Argument Analysis

1023 Words3 Pages

Kendall Way
July 16, 2016
COMS 3314
Toulmin Model Assignment
First Question:

When talking about an argument, it should be written in a manner that unfolds both the strengths and limits of the argument. The point of an argument is to come to a conclusion as close to the truth or realistic solution. In the twentieth-century, British philosopher Stephen Toulmin asked the question of where is the love and what are the uses of an argument. Stephen Toulmin then conducted a method constructing and analyzing an argument. This method, named after Stephen Toulmin, is called the Toulmin model. The Toulmin model involves breaking down an argument into six basic parts, looking at all supporting points and views both for and against the argument. …show more content…

Stephen Toulmin noticed that good realistic arguments consist of six actual parts. The extended method includes claims, data, and warrants, but it includes backing, qualifications, and a rebuttal, which are used to test the authority of a given warrant. The backing takes the warrants and adds additional evidence and reasoning to validate the warrant. With backing a warrant, there must be a way of qualifying statements expressing the degree to which the speaker defends a claim or to limit the strength of the argument to its truth. There is never just one view or one side of an argument, there are counter-arguments or statements called rebuttals that indicate the circumstances when the general argument does not hold true.
The Toulmin model also tries to identify the assumptions, counter-examples, and implications. The model has a way of making very detailed analysis, in which we break an argument into its various parts and decide how effectively those parts participate in the overall whole. When we use this method, we identify the argument's claim, reasons, and evidence, and evaluate the effectiveness of each.
When looking at the Toulmin model and comparing them to how other models work in an argument, it can be said that Toulmin works like a formula to be applied to arguments. It is often not very well applied, for example, to arguments that are not themselves organized in a linear

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