In Chapter 9 of the Wadsworth reading, the topic most discussed was argument. The authors covered argument versus reporting, the steps to develop an argument, and ways to support the argument. Surprisingly this chapter was very familiar to me because in high school in my discussion and debate class, my teacher hammered into our brains how to properly conduct an argument. He presented us with a lot of the same ideas that the Wadsworth authors did. An argument all stems from the research question. From there a thesis must be developed and when presenting an argument, one must include appeal to the audience, through ethos (credibility), pathos (emotions), and logos (logic). Finally, another way to add to your argument is to identify counterarguments that opposing teams or people could possibly attack your argument with. This helps to prepare you to have something to say when they attack your argument.
Chapter 10 then discusses how to properly choose evidence. One thing that the authors emphasize is the impact the audience should have when choosing evidence. Relevance and timeliness are two other factors that must be included in the evidence searching process. Just finding evidence isn't enough; a writer must match reasons for using evidence found. Just throwing random facts that may or may not be relevant to an argument is not effective writing.
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