3/6/2010

There are sometimes in communication where arguments that are weak and invalid can be repaired to be stronger. The book outlines that an argument can become stronger by adding a premise or conclusion so that the argument becomes stronger or valid, creating a plausible premise, and making sure that the premise is more plausible than the conclusion. As communications students, we have to learn how to analyze arguments and stay away from assumptions and jumping to conclusions. A personal example of a weak argument happened to me the other day. My friend stated that “Professor Z. is a socially conscious teacher because he marched in the rally yesterday”. This is similar to example four in the book. There is an unstated premise here that needs to be added, in that “almost any teacher that would march with students in the rally must be socially conscious”. While this argument is stronger, it is still not plausible, as there are dozens of reasons the professor might have been out there without a true concern for the students education (for example, to spy on the students or as a requirement). Adding additional and more specific premise help make the argument stronger because it is more specific. By considering all the ways in which the premise can be true and conclusion false, and adding more premise so those additional conclusions are not longer possible, we help strengthen the plausibility of the case.