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How to Structure an Argument: The Abortion Debate Basically,
the abortion debate comes down to one issue on either side.
For the pro-life (anti-abortion)
position, the main argument is that the fetus is a human being.
All their literature and rhetoric will refer to the fetus as a child.
For the pro-choice (for legal abortion) position, the main issue is about
the value of women in society and their right to choose—and the point that a
fetus is not necessarily a human being.
To
structure your argument, you must first determine who your audience is.
Who is it that you are arguing against?
You must determine what claims this audience makes, what warrants
underlie those claims and what data they offer to back up those claims.
You have to understand the warrant because that is what you must refute. For a pro-choice paper, you might begin thinking along these
lines: Issue:
Should abortion remain a legal option for pregnant women? Audience:
Pro-life people who believe abortion should be made illegal. Their
claims:
Abortion is murder. Other claims
follow from this main claim, i.e., that the government does have the right to
interfere, that more lives will be saved than lost, that morality is legislated
in other areas. Also that many
unwanted pregnancies turn into wanted pregnancies or wanted children. Underlying
warrant: A
fetus is a human being and so killing one is tantamount to murder. For
the paper then, an outline might look like this: Introduction:
introduce
the issue Thesis:
Abortion should remain a legal option for women because the government has no
right to interfere with a woman’s body, illegal abortions result in far more
fatalities, many unwanted pregnancies result in economic deprivation and an
on-going cycle of poverty and despair, but most importantly, there is no
conclusive evidence or argument that a fetus is equal to a human being and
therefore, has equal rights. Evidence
for argument #1 Evidence
for argument #2 Evidence
for argument #3 Evidence
for argument #4—this argument will have the most written on it since this is
the one that refutes the warrant of pro-life. Opposition
Refuted:
Identify and respond to opposing arguments.
You may concede points here as long as you are able to overcome with a
strong argument. For example, you
might say that many unwanted pregnancies do have happy endings—no rise in
child abuse and parents accept the new child, but that this is by no means a
certainty. Just because a woman is
forced to carry to term and ends up loving her child does not mean the
government has the right to make that decision. Conclusion:
By this time, your conclusion should seem inevitable given your arguments.
Sum it up, leaving your reader with a strong impression, something to
think about. Ending with a question
is not the best option—all the questions should have been answered by now.
For
a pro-life paper, you might begin thinking along these lines: Issue:
Should abortion remain a legal option for pregnant women? Audience:
Pro-choice people who believe abortion should remain legal. Their
claims: A
woman has a right to decide what happens to her body; the government should not
interfere; women will die in large numbers if the option is not available;
abortion laws are discriminatory; unwanted children are a problem for families
and society; the poverty cycle remains unbroken; abortion is good for women’s
health. Underlying
warrant:
It’s a woman’s choice; not anyone else’s. Such
a paper might look very different since the argument rests on one main issue.
In this case, an outline might look like this: Introduction:
introduce
the issue Thesis:
Abortion should be illegal because whatever arguments the pro-choice side can
make, it does not matter when we are discussing the life of a human being. Abortion is murder. Opposing
Arguments:
go through what the opposition’s major arguments are. You may concede points here—yes, more children might be
abused; yes, women will lose the right to choose; yes, some women will die
trying to have an illegal abortion, BUT what we’re really dealing with
is allowing the murder of children because they are inconvenient or unwanted. Evidence
for fetus as human argument Evidence:
for any other argument Addressing
Opposing problems: to make your case stronger, you could give solutions for the problems
you outlined in the opposing arguments section. For example, if child abuse and unwanted children are a
problem, perhaps we could work on changing the adoption system.
This shows you are aware of the problems illegal abortion creates and are
willing to acknowledge those problems, i.e., makes you seem more reasonable, not
fanatical as many pro-life people are depicted. Conclusion: By this time, your conclusion should seem inevitable given your arguments. Sum it up, leaving your reader with a strong impression, something to think about. Other options are available.
You may find for your topic that going point by point would work best.
For example, give the opposing side’s strongest argument, then refute
it. Give their second strongest;
refute, and so on. This works well
if you can go point-by-point.
You also need to consider how to arrange the
arguments you have. You can go
strongest to least strongest or start with the second strongest, go down the
line, finishing with the strongest. You
may find that one point leads logically into another. Whatever you decide, make sure you put some thought into it.
Your reader should feel like she has been led to a logical conclusion,
not hop-scotched across one point to another without a clear organizational
pattern.
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