Lab Activity 30: Textbook Skills <IMG SRC="/wps/media/objects/786/805726/tbskils

Chapter 6: Supporting Details
Lab Activity 30: Textbook Skills

Objective
To complete a summary after reading from annotations made during reading.

Step 2: Read the following passages from a college writing textbook, and then fill in the blank to complete the summary.


		8. Another popular image of argument is debate—a presidential debate, perhaps, or a high school or college debate tournament. According to one popular dictionary, debate is a "formal contest of argumentation in which two opposing teams defend and attack a given proposition." While formal debate can develop critical thinking, its weakness is that it can turn argument into a game of winners and losers rather than a process of cooperative inquiry. —Adapted from Ramage, Bean, & Johnson, Writing Arguments, 5th ed., p. 4. An argument is a process of cooperative inquiry and differs from a , which becomes a game of winners and losers.

		9. For an illustration of this weakness, consider one of our former students, a champion high school debater who spent his senior year debating the issue of prison reform. Throughout the year he argued for and against propositions such as "The United States should build more prisons" and "Innovative alternatives to prison should replace prison sentences for most crimes." We asked him, "What do you personally think is the best way to reform prisons?" He replied, "I don't know. I haven't thought about what I would actually choose." —Adapted from Ramage, Bean, & Johnson, Writing Arguments, 5th ed., p. 4. Although the student effectively argued the pro and con sides of , he had failed to form his own opinion about the issue.

		10. Here was a bright, articulate student who had studied prisons extensively for a year. Yet nothing in the atmosphere of pro-con debate had engaged him in truth-seeking inquiry. He could argue for and against a proposition, but he hadn't experienced the wrenching process of clarifying his own values and taking a personal stand. Argument entails a desire for truth; it aims to find the best solutions to complex problems. The goal isn't to win a game but to find and promote the best belief or course of action. —Adapted from Ramage, Bean, & Johnson, Writing Arguments, 5th ed., p. 4. Argument as a form of communication is more than a debate because it seeks and solutions to complex problems.