Reading response to Curious Writer--arguments

There are many different methods to get an argument across, all of which require a good knowledge base on the subject. As Ballenger says, “Argument is really about trying to get to the truth”. Forming an opinion on a subject takes a considerable amount of study on that subject. Exploring a subject thoroughly may change your initial opinion or it may strengthen that opinion. Either way, knowing a subject well gives you a good basis for forming that opinion. All subjects have more than just two sides if you study them. They are more complex than that and the more you study a subject, the more you will see this.
The more you know on a subject that you have formed an opinion on, gives you a better chance at persuading your audience. Expressing why a subject matters to you, helps to get a reaction from the reader. “To argue well is an act of imagination, not a picking of sides”.
Ballenger describes many different ways of approaching an argument paper. All of them deal with taking what we already know, then going further by trying to find an answer to stated questions that are raised by that said knowledge. Finally, the revision. Revising a paper is as he says, “Literally re-seeing, and every time you recreate the conditions that allow you to discover something new about how you see or what you think about your subject, you are, in fact, engaged in the act of revision”. This reading gives many good ideas to work toward on my own argument paper. There are not just two sides to arguments. If you study a subject enough to get a good knowledge base, you will begin to ask questions of your own and form your own opinion on it.


Work cited
Ballenger, Bruce "Writing an argument, The Curious Writer"
2009 (concise edition)