Basic Mechanisms of an arguement

Premise and Conclusion

The hip bones connected to the… Well, you pick a bone – hopefully you chose the right one, lest you have a dirty mind (then shame on you). Like the human body or a well tuned timepiece, arguments, at least good ones, have structure and follow through accordingly. The basic components of an argument are the premise and conclusion. Each of these parts serves different roles in an argument. They are also critical parts that work in concert to create an argument.

What’s the Point and how do you Support it?

That’s the question of the day and remarkably, the first step in every argument. The point of an argument is the conclusion. This is what you are trying to prove. It is imperative that you always have a point or you’ll be arguing about nothing. For instance, if someone says, “People are smart” but doesn’t add anything else. By itself, that cannot be an argument or even be a conclusion. That is merely a statement of fact (whether or not it is true).

Now if we say, “People can communicate and argue, therefore people are smart,” this is an argument. The phrase, “People can communicate and argue” is the premise of the argument. That portion served as the support needed to prove the conclusion that “People are smart”.

Including and identifying the premise and conclusion is an important aspect of arguing. This serves as the basic of the basic aspect of arguing. Now let’s practice by taking a look at the arguments below, both the crass and the academic. Identify the premise and conclusion and site which statements are not arguments:

1. Quote from some journal or something.
2. Your mama is so fat that when she..
3. Explanation
4. All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
5. Statement Only