The Making of Arguments Part 9

Notebook. Enter those of the essential facts and definitions in the case which would be agreed to by both sides, and which are needed for an understanding of the brief.

Ill.u.s.tration. Agreed Statement of Facts. For many years the tax rate in Wytown has been high, and in the last ten years has not fallen below twenty-four dollars on one thousand dollars. The city water supply is of doubtful purity, and nothing has been done to improve it, chiefly because the city debt is now close to the limit allowed by law. The police service has been inadequate, especially in the region known as South Corner. Though two hundred thousand dollars have been spent on the streets in the last five years, the main street of the city is still unpaved, and none of the other streets are macadamized. Though under the local option law the city has uniformly voted for no license, yet there is much liquor selling. The city officials have regularly been nominated at Democratic and republican conventions.

The question has arisen at the present time because of quarrels between the mayor and aldermen, because of the pet.i.tion of the city government to the legislature to issue bonds for new waterworks above the authorized debt limit, because the tax rate last year was higher than ever before in the history of the city, and because of the formation of a citizens' a.s.sociation which has been instrumental in securing from the legislature a bill authorizing the citizens to vote on the adoption of the proposed plan.

Points which are not discussed here will be taken up in succeeding papers.

The definitions on page 70 are to be taken as part of this agreed statement.

EXERCISES

1. Criticize the following sentences for their fitness as parts of introductions to briefs:

a. It is agreed that the commission form of government has succeeded in Des Moines because it is simple and easily controlled by the people.

b. Summer baseball is to be understood as playing baseball for money, for a man who is given his board and lodging by a hotel for playing is taking the equivalent of money.

c. (As one of the contentions for the affirmative on the question whether a street railroad should be compelled to build a certain new line, which would not be immediately profitable.) The convenience of the public should be considered before large dividends, since the public grants the franchise.

2. Make an agreed statement of facts for an argument on one of the subjects in the list on pages 10-12.

NOTE. This is a good exercise for cla.s.s use: let the different members of the cla.s.s propose facts to be agreed on, and then put them before the rest of the cla.s.s for criticism.

23. Arrangement of Material. For the arrangement of the material in a brief, it is not possible to give much general advice, since this arrangement would change with the s.p.a.ce allotted to the argument, and especially with the audience. On this point knowledge of your readers, of their acquaintance with the subject, and of their prepossessions will count as much as knowledge of the subject when you come to the arguments of practical life.

In general, if your audience is likely to be lukewarm or indifferent, begin with a point which will stir them up. In the argument on the introduction of commission government into Wytown, for which I have constructed a brief, I a.s.sumed that the citizens were already aroused to the need of some change, and therefore began by showing that the evils of the present administration can be traced chiefly to the present system of government. If I had a.s.sumed that the people needed first to be aroused to believing a change to be necessary, I should have put at the beginning an exposure of the corruption and inefficiency of the present city government, with specific cases to establish the point.

Likewise for the close of your argument be sure that you have a strong and effective point. In the case of commission government for Wytown, by refuting the objection that too much power is given to the councilmen I provide a chance to show at the same time how completely the commission government keeps the control in the hands of the people; and the latter point is the strongest that can be made for the commission form of government.

24. The Place of the Refutation. The place of the refutation and its extent also differ greatly with the audience. Sometimes it may occupy practically the whole s.p.a.ce. A few years ago _The Outlook_ published an editorial opposing a change in the laws of New York relating to vivisection (for a part of it, see p. 44), in which it refuted the two arguments urged for the change, and then pointed out that the burden of proof still rested on the other side. Here the refutation occupied almost the whole of the argument. Huxley, in his three "Lectures on Evolution," of which the first is printed on page 233, gave the whole of this first lecture to a refutation of the alternative theories of the origin of plants and animals; since it was necessary to dispose of accepted theories before the new theory could get a hearing, he put his refutation first.

Where there are no such special reasons, it is safe to follow the principle that you should not draw more attention than necessary to the arguments on the other side. Refutation of less important statements and contentions will naturally come at the point of the argument which deals with that part of the subject. State them fairly always, but do not magnify their importance by dealing with them at too great length.

It is not often wise to lump the refutation at the end of your argument.

The last impression on your audience is the strongest: it is good strategy to keep it for your own best points. Sometimes, as in the brief worked out on page 90, it is possible to combine the refutation with positive argument which will be effective; but do not forget that negative argument makes much less impression than that which is positive and constructive.

25. The Brief Proper. We have seen on page 47 that the brief is in essence a statement of the logical framework of your argument. Its purpose is to lay out your reasoning in such a way that you can scrutinize each link and make sure that each a.s.sertion and each group of a.s.sertions is attached to a firm support. For this reason the brief for a written or spoken argument is best thrown into the form of tabulated statements marked with a series of numbers and letters which will show at a glance the exact place of each statement or a.s.sertion in the whole system of reasoning. When you can thus, as it were, strip your argument to its bones and tendons, you can go ahead with the confidence that your reasoning is logically coherent.

When you get out into the world you will work out your own way of making briefs for any arguments that fate imposes on you. The value of practice now is in being able to get at the work then without wasting time. The rules below are offered to you as the result of long experiment and study lay the best authorities. Moreover, if you are working in a cla.s.s you should remember that you will get a great deal more out of your teacher if you save his time by sticking closely to uniformity in outward form.

I shall first show how a brief is constructed, by following through part of the process for the argument on the introduction of commission into Wytown; then I shall give the rules, with some explanation of their working and of their practical expediency.

We have just seen that the brief is essentially a display of the logical framework of the argument: it should consist, therefore, of the main contentions in support of the proposition, with the reasons urged in support of these contentions, and of the facts and reasons brought forward in support of these reasons, this successive support of reasons being carried down to ultimate facts, wherever possible.

When you come to the working out of your brief you start with your main issues, stated now as a.s.sertions. Then for each of them you give one or more reasons.

In the brief for introducing commission government into Wytown, let us start with the main issues for the affirmative, transforming them from questions into a.s.sertions. The first main issue would then read:

The admitted inefficiency of the city government at present is due to the system of government.

The next step is to a.s.sign reasons for making this a.s.sertion.

Accordingly we should add a "since" or a "for" to the a.s.sertion, and then underneath arrange these reasons in order. Let us suppose that we put down three reasons:

I. The admitted inefficiency of the city government at present is due to the system of government; for

A. Partisan politics determine nominations to office;

B. Advantageous contracts cannot be made;

C. The responsibility for expenditures is scattered.

Each of these a.s.sertions clearly needs to be supported before it will be accepted. Let us follow out the support of the first one, and set down here the reasons and facts which will make it incontestable.

A. Partisan politics determine nominations to office; for

1. The organization of the national parties is permanent.

2. There has been bargaining between parties to reward political services with city offices.

Of these points the first is an obvious fact; in the argument it will need only slight development and specification to make its bearing on the case effective. The second, on the other hand, must be supported by evidence; and in the brief, accordingly, we should refer to the facts as stated in newspapers of specified dates from which full quotation would be made in the argument. Here then, in both cases, though in different ways, we get down to the bed rock of fact on which the reasoning is built up. At the same time, each joint in the framework of the reasoning has been laid bare, so that no weak place can escape detection. These are always the two main objects of making a brief--to get down to the facts on which the reasoning is built up, and to display every essential step in the reasoning.

26. Rules for Briefing. The rules given below are divided into two groups: those in the first group deal chiefly with the form of the brief; those in the second go more to the substance; but the distinction between the two groups is far from being absolute.

I

1. A brief may be divided into three parts: the Introduction, the Proof, the Conclusion. Of these the Introduction should contain noncontentious matter, and the Conclusion should be a restatement of the proposition, with a bare summary of the main issues in affirmative (or negative) form.

The introduction has already been dealt with at length (see pp. 48-81).

The conclusion brings the main points of the argument together, and gives an effect of workmanlike completeness to the brief. It should never introduce new points.

2. In the Introduction keep each step of the a.n.a.lysis by itself, and indicate the several parts by such headings as "The following terms need definition," "The following facts are agreed on," "The following points will be left out of consideration in this argument" "The chief contentions on the two sides are as follows," "The main issues on which the argument will be made are as follows."

It is not to be expected that all these steps, with the appropriate headings, will be necessary in every brief. The only use of a brief is to aid you to construct a specific argument, and you must consider each case by itself.

3. Follow a uniform system of numbering throughout, so that each number or letter used will show whether the statement is one of the main supports of your case, or in what degree it is subordinated.

In other words, the numbering should show at a glance whether a given a.s.sertion is a main reason, a reason for a reason, or in still more subordinate degree of support. The system of numbering in the brief on page 90 is convenient. Whatever system is adopted, it should be followed by the whole cla.s.s.

4. The refutation should have a distinct set of symbols.

These symbols may well be uniform with the others, but with the prime mark to distinguish them (see p. 93).

5. In briefing the refutation always state first the a.s.sertion that is to be refuted, with such connectives as, "Although it is urged ..., yet the contention is unsound, for ...," "Although the case is cited, ...

yet the case is irrelevant, for ..."