ARGUING RECOMMENDATIONS
Every people will have argued a
recommendation (sometimes called a proposal). Recommendations are the hybrid of
argument, drawing on the principles and practice of factual, causal, and
evaluate arguments. So, for the most part, writing a successful recommendation
is a question of applying what you have already learned about the different
kinds of argument and their support. All recommendations establish a current
situation (how things now) and a problem future situations (how they would be
if the change were instituted). In other words, recommendations rely on
arguments of fact and arguments of effect. How central either type is to your
recommendation will depend on the emphasis demanded by the particular
situation.
AUDIENCE NEEDS AND VALUES
Most recommendations ask readers
to do something, not merely to give their armchair agreement to a claim. Human
nature being what it is, people are more likely to take action if there is a
possibility that the action will benefit them in some way. Thus, a powerful way
to support any recommendation is to appeal to the needs, values, and desire
that you have identified in your readers. Making such an appeal means paying
particular attention to the early stage of audience consideration: who is your
audience? What are their needs and values likely to be regarding your claim?
When Your Values Differ from
Assumed Reader Values
Recommendation actually works
with two sets of values: the reader’s and the writer’s. While a successful
recommendation must appeal to the appropriate reader values, it will originate
in values held by the writer. Indeed, most recommendations are born in the
writer’s experience of dissonance,
that be sense of mismatch between one’s values and a current situation. Often
the values that move you to recommend a certain change will be the same those
that will move your reader to accept your recommendation. But sometimes writer
and reader values do not coincide. You do need to be aware of the difference
between them.
RECOMMENDATIONS EMPHASIZING THE
PERESENT
Some recommendations, construct
on problems and current situation, living a detail proposal for change to
another argument. The goal of such arguments is to demonstrate more that
something needs to be done than what exactly that something is. To except this
kind of recommendation, your readers need an accurate and usually, detail of
the current situation. They must grasp the situation as it before they can
agree or disagree with your evaluation of it. Recommendation emphasizing
represent usually open with a factual argument.
Establishing the Current
Situation
Establishing this detail is
critical to the recommendation for a couple of reason. First, readers are
likely to take exact figures more seriously than irate vagueness. Second,
misrepresenting the facts, where intentionally to strengthen your case or negligently
through sloppy research, will be detected.
Evaluating the Current Situation
All recommendations contain some
evaluate elements. In recommendations emphasizing the present, the subject of
the evaluation n is the current situation. If you have a good understanding of
your audience and their needs and values, you probably won’t need to write a
full-blown evaluation complete with a defined evaluative term. The transit
authority letter, for example, doesn’t require an explicit judgment of the
situation presented. Sometimes your recommendation will be addressed to reader
who may not immediately recognize the problems in the current situation. In this
case, you’d be wise to identify what is wrong by providing a clear and limited
evaluated term.
Applying the Toulmin Model
The Toulmin logical model is
especially useful when you’re composing
a recommendation/ Placing your claim and support in the Toulmin paradigm will
help you detect any weakness of reasoning or wording in your argument and will
suggest the secondary claims you’ll need to support the central claim. Remember
that in the Toulmin model, the warrant is equivalent to the major premise in a
syllogism; it is the general statement about a class that enables the data (or
the minor premise in a syllogism) to justify the claim (or conclusion in a syllogism).
One of the virtues of the Toulmin system is that once you have started your
argument in its terms, you can recognize what further support (backing) your
argument will need.
RECOMMENDATIONS EMPHASIZING THE
FUTURE
When your recommendation
emphasizes the probable future effect of its proposed changed, you’ll have to move
beyond the current problems and the general claim that something must be done;
you’ll also have to identify, reasonably convincingly, what that something is.
Presenting the Recommendation
The recommendation itself—the
proposed plan for change—must be crystal clear. Some situations will call for a
rather general recommendation, leaving the details to others, whereas in other
cases, particularly when you have some responsibility for implementing the
plan, a detailed recommendation will be necessary. Generally, the more concrete
your recommendation, the more effective it will be, provided your plan reflects
a sound understanding of the operations of the group that will implement it.
But there are times when a great deal of detail is inappropriate.
Arguing the Effects of Your
Recommendation
Recommendations with future
emphasis always and evaluate the probable effect of the proposed plane. Your
recommendation will know strong if you can show that the proposed changes (the
causes) are related to the results you predict (the effects) through
established causal principles.
Judging Effect in Terms of
Assumed Need and Values
In developing your
recommendation, you will probably identify several probable effects, only some
of which will meet the needs and values of your readers. Suppose you support
your recommendation to faculty of a pass-fail grading option by predicting the
effect of students’ doing less work in their courses.
When some effects are undesirable
Few recommendations can promise
exclusively positive result. But as long as the desirable effects outweigh the
undesirable one, your recommendation is worth making. If you are on a committee
recommending the building of a new expressway, you should admit that the
building of the new expressway, whatever its ultimate advantages, will cause
inconveniences. This will be more effective and responsible approach than
ignoring altogether the obvious negative consequences of your recommendation.
Implementation
Your recommendation the building
must pass one further test, it must be feasible. A crucial element of a general
or detailed implementation plan is an analysis of costs.
Applying the Toulmin Model.
The Toulmin model will help you
evaluate the reasonableness and completeness of recommendations emphasizing the
future. Depending on your assessment of the readers’ needs, that backing may
follow at least two directions. On the one hand, you’ll probably want to
support the generalization with a secondary factual argument that compares the
number of student-faculty contact hours in semester and trimester systems.
A second issue raised by the
warrant is the unstated assumption that student-faculty contact is a good
thing.
RECOMMENDATIONS THAT CONSIDER
PRESENT AND FUTURE
The two types of recommendations
we have discussed rarely occur in pure form, many recommendations contain some
discussion of both the current situation and the future possibilities. The
strategies present and evaluate the current situation, lay out the
recommendation, and finally identify and evaluate the probable results of the
recommendation.
The Format of Recommendations
I.
STATEMENT
OF PROBLEM
II.
STATEMENT
OF RECOMMENDATION
III.
ADVANTAGES
OF RECOMMENDATION
IV.
DISADVANTAGES
OF RECOMMENDATION
V.
COSTS
AND IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
WRITING AND IMAGE
The concept of image has
developed something of a negative flavor, suggesting superficiality and
deceit. But the image here’s differently
and more positively, to suggest the ways in which writing honestly reflects to
the reader the kind of person the writer is. In arguments, writers project an
image of intelligence, probity, and trustworthiness. The qualities cannot be
created out of thin air; they must be true reflections of the writer and thus are
developed over time and through experience. The writer must be aware that this
image will need to be slightly adjusted to fit the context of a given argument.
Image consists of many elements.
Its intelligence, honesty, and accuracy, word choice, sentence construction,
figures of speech, spelling, punctuation and physical format, and sounds.
THE ROLE OF VOICE
A writer’s voice is the role
that he or she takes for a particular occasion, almost like an actor taking a
part in a new play. Voice is simply the written manifestation of this
adaptability.
The Importance of Ethos
A major element of a successful
image is the ethos projected by the writer. The ethos is the impression of the
writer’s character that the reader gets; a positive ethos is one reflecting sincerity
and trustworthiness.
THE VIRTUE AND LIMITATIONS OF
PLAIN WRITING
The most
famous advocate of his plain style was British writer George Orwell, who
formulated the following six stylistic rules in one of the most famous essays
without writing style. “Politics and the English Language”:
i.
Never
use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing
in print.
ii.
Never
used a long word where a short one will do.
iii.
If
it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
iv.
Never
use the passive where you can use the active.
v.
Never
use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of
any everyday English Equivalent.
vi.
Break
any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
But
plain writing carries its own risk, as Orwell notes in his sixth rule. Writer
who use the plain style exclusively risk prose that is clear but
undistinguished, serviceable but dull. To help you avoid this extreme, here are
some friendly amendments to Orwell’s rules:
i.
Don’t
be afraid to use metaphors, simile, or other figures of speech, provided they
are not overworked.
ii.
When
a long word is the best one, use it.
iii.
Use
long sentences for variety and when they best suit your needs.
iv.
Dare
to something different.
v.
Break
any of these rules rather than confuse your readers.
FIGURE OF SPEECH
Two of the
common figures of speech are metaphor and
analogy. A metaphor is an implicit comparison of two unlike subjects so
that aspects of one (usually concrete and familiar) illuminate aspects of the
other (usually more abstract or unfamiliar). Analogy is like metaphor in that
dissimilar subjects are compared, but in analogy, the comparison is usually
extended through several points.
Some cautions About Figures of
Speech
Metaphors, similes, and analogies can
illuminate and generate ideas, but they can’t prove a point; they offer
clarification, not evidence. Ultimately all analogies break down if persuaded
too far; the two subjects of an analogy are finally different subjects.
Analogies are risky if people take them too literally, as they did the “domino
theory” analogy in the 1960s and 1970s. The domino analogy compared countries
in Southeast Asia to row dominoes. When dominos are placed on their ends in a
row, they will fall down by one if the first in the series is pushed. According
to the domino theory, the countries would fall to communism in the same manner.
The domino theory may not always be this faulty, yet the theory cannot become
an excuse for falling to analyze the particular complexities of a specific
situation.
CONNOTATIVE AND SLANTING
Good
writers must be aware not only of the denotation of words but of their
connotations as well. The denotation of a word is its explicit meaning, its
dictionary definition; the connotation of a word is the meaning or meaning
suggested by the word, the word’s emotional association. Writer of arguments
need to be sensitive to the connotations of words and to use these connotations
appropriately. Writers are often tempted to use not only connotation but also
blatantly emotional terms as illegitimate supports for their arguments. As a
writer of responsible arguments, you must not fall into the trap of letting
such language suggest conclusions your argument does not support. The
temptation to slant is probably strongest in arguments of ethical evaluation;
of all the arguments you write, these are the most personal, the most self-revealing,
and thus the most important for you. Slanting, while almost unavoidable in such
cases, must not become a substitute for sound support of your argument.
THE MUSIC OF LANGUAGE
Less
obvious but powerfully convincing is prose that holds our attention because of
a fresh and pleasing combination of sounds. Such prose contains euphony and
rhythm. Euphony, a term that comes from Greek roots meaning “good sound,” is a
pleasing combination of sounds. Euphony, of course, depends on the ear of the
readers or listener, but ears can be trained to become sensitive to this
quality of prose, just as we learn to be sensitive to different qualities of
music. Rhythm is recognizable pattern of sounds through time. In prose,
rhythmical units are often divided by grammatical pauses such as commas or
periods, though a rhythmical break may also occur at some other place where we
would pause to catch our breath if we were reading aloud. Good prose writers
learn to know their prose rhythm, to develop them as they gain experience in
writing, and to recognize and use the appropriate rhythm for a specific
purpose. The sound of your prose will affect how readers react to your
argument, even if they are not conscious of the role sound plays in written
prose and even if they have not developed the skill to create sound-pleasing
prose themselves.
ESSAY WRITING ASSIGNMENT
SUMMARY OF ARGUING RECOMMENDATIONS and WRITING AND IMAGE
Summarizing by:
SITI NURFIQAH (F42111058)
UTIN NOVIANTI ALAWIYAH (F42111052)
YUNI SUSANTI (F42111064)
SILVIA ANGGRAINI (F42110034)
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM
LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION FACULTY
TANJUNGPURA UNIVERSITY
2013
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