Mastering Argumentation Techniques and Text Structures

Types of Argumentation and Text Structures

Understanding how arguments are constructed and how texts are structured is essential for effective communication and analysis.

Key Types of Arguments

• Existential: Preferring the real, true, and possible compared to the non-existent.
• Personal Experience: What is seen and experienced personally also works as an argument, though we should not abuse this type of argument.
• Data: Based on verifiable evidence, percentages, and statistics.
• Hedonistic: Identified with the Latin carpe diem; the idea is justified by the need to live life.
• Justice: The belief that justice should prevail over injustice.
• Moral: Socially accepted ethical beliefs can help justify an opinion.
• Progress: Novelty and originality are key to progress and are valued over tradition.
• Health: Ideas that are socially accepted as authoritative statements regarding health and well-being.
• Tradition: The weight of tradition can confirm our ideas. The opposite is the argument of progress.
• Utility: An appreciation for the useful, necessary, and effective, as opposed to the useless, ineffective, or dangerous.
• Exemplary: Ideas supported by examples carry more weight.

Understanding Deixis in Texts

• Personal Deixis: The sender is included in the social pronoun of the text; the sender establishes differences with the receiver. This involves the use of "you" (singular) or "you" (plural).
• Spatial Deixis: Shows the place where the sender is in relation to objects (e.g., "In Rwanda...").
• Temporal Deixis: The sender references the current time, moving forward and backward in time using adverbs.

Expressing Personal Opinion

Personal Opinion: In my opinion, saying that the linguistic register (standard, religious, vulgar) facilitates or does not facilitate understanding, and provides convincing arguments to the reader, such as... defending that thesis or not, because... (exemplify).

Textual Analysis and Structure

Summary: (First author) is manifest in the journalistic text (opinion) ... to ... (lines 8-12).

Topic: The topic referred to could be the following...

Structure: The text (argument-exhibition) with a specific structure (framing...) consists of (x) paragraphs, whose thematic development is as follows: in the first paragraph... (introduction, theme, development with examples, conclusion).

Four Main Structural Patterns

• Analytic (Analysands): Starting at the beginning of the text to introduce the topic to be developed throughout, without a final conclusion.
• Synthesizing: From the beginning, a number of ideas are presented that lead to the determination of the issue at the end of the text, coinciding with the conclusion as the definition of the subject.
• Framed: First, the theme is presented, then developed throughout the text, and finally, there is a final conclusion that reinforces and complements the main idea.
• Parallel: Ideas succeed one another without a need to coordinate among themselves. All have the same level of importance.

Classification of Text Types

• Argumentative: Expresses an opinion.
• Expository (Exhibition): Provides information on a topic.
• Descriptive: Represents reality.
• Narrative: Presents facts and fiction.
• Dialogic (In dialogue): Multiple partners exchange information.

Arguments for Conviction and Persuasion

• Authority: Turning to an expert or well-known person to support the view.
• Quality: An appreciation for the good versus the abundant.
• Quantity: What the majority thinks or does, which can function as an argument (and common sense).
• Scientific: Authority and prestige used to support scientific thought.
• Aesthetic: Beauty is judged over the ugly.