The Toulmin Method
What is The Toulmin Method?
The Toulmin Method per page 315 in our textbook is a technique based on the work of Stephen Toulmin that allows the analysis of logic in any argument, including analyzing your own arguments and using the technique as you draft and revise them.
While page 315 has a basic explanation of what the Toulmin Method is, I feel that pages 320-324 have more details for each step of the technique. These are to identify the claim, which is finding out what the author is defending or arguing, and then looking for qualifiers and exceptions. Then you analyze the reasons and evidence for the author's argument by stating the reasons that are used to justify the author's claim or argument, and then finding and examining evidence to support the author's claim or evidence. Then you want to examine any warrants to the author's argument, such as bias. You then want to follow the final step which is noting rebuttals. You want to find out if the author has written their argument with preparation to refute any counter arguments.
I read this argumentative article from the New York Times by Virginia Heffernan regarding the use of headphones. First of all, I did note that she is arguing against the use of headphones as per the title of the article, in regard to hearing loss in teenagers because of the volume that most listen at while wearing headphones. She also mentions that there are reasons that are acceptable to use headphones meaning that this is not absolute and does have exceptions. She also offers a lot of evidence to support her reasoning for being against the use of headphones. And the fact that she is using solid scientific evidence, supports her argument and where the information was collected. And it does not appear that she is writing this argument from a biased opinion, and she is very adamant that this is about protecting children. I think it is a very well written article, and if you would like to read it, please visit: New York Times: Against Headphones
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