In Class: Changing Definition of Argument

It was obvious what most of the class thought an argument was after entering the classroom. It was something that was combative, verbal and quite possibly heated. However, after the first two meetings of this class paired with the reading of the first chapter in our textbook, there is much more to an argument than what the average person imagines it to be. The idea that "everything's an argument" is changing the way I view things. Because of this I realize that most arguments are not things that are disagreed with but are accepted as a general whole. For example, when we were discussing the idea of the stop sign, that shifted my thinking to include things that direct us in everyday life that most of us follow. The fact that it raised the argument that it was a good idea to stop is something that almost every driver will comply with.

To dissect the book a little as well, there are a few examples just on the front cover that pose arguments in themselves. The one that I found most interesting was the fish that appears to be in a graduated cylinder. This could be a realistic representation asking people to accept the thought that the goldfish is really that small, or it could be asking you to believe the picture is just a photo shopped representation. Either way the picture that I would have never given second thoughts to shows that the subject matter of this course is slowly changing my perspective as what writing arguments should look like.

In Class: Show and Tell (It's a freewrite: DON'T JUDGE ME!)

The article was about pirates and the existence of personal responsibility in different cultures. The thought here was that a many was reading the article and decided to blog on the star telegrams website. the sum up version of what he said was that because this uncle of a dead pirate discussed so many of the reasons pirating occurs and how people get into it, that it displayed a lack of social and self responsibility. I found that to be more of a statement about the writer's inability to get on a different cultural level and that he was arguing that this way of life was so far from his own that he would not see it as something in any way good. The uncle of the pirate also posed an argument in the form of a justification of the life of a pirate and gave reasoned details on why this was fine. Whether or not it actually is socially acceptable is debatable, but there were no real down cast eyes at the life choice. the differing in cultures in this example was what turned me on to this argument as something that should be brought into class. the argument here is a statement of opinion more than a combat gesture, but I also feel that there is more to be learned for me in this area seeing as how the ease of a heated discussion could rise out of these differing opinions.