Chapter 12
Chapter 12 goes over the way you start to develop your argument. The first sub point is how you can support your thesis statement, and the other is how can you assess the integrity of your argument.
To start off with,
one way to support your thesis is by choosing reasons that back it up. The reasons that you place inside can help new readers understand your topic a little bit more and what you are hoping that they get out of it after reading. Next, you have to find evidence to back up your reasons, otherwise you can't build up credibility. Lastly, a good way to support your thesis is by making appeals to authority, emotion, principals,values, beliefs, and character. Depending on your paper, and the style that you chose to use, your choice of which appeal you will end up using will change.
When assessing the integrity of your paper, it's good to check for a couple of things.
1. Fallacies based on distraction. Avoid irrelevant and distracting points.
2. Look for fallacies based on questionable assumptions. ie. generalizations, hopping on the bandwagon, and citing inappropriate authorities.
3. Look for fallacies based on careless reasoning.