Building Arguments
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The ability of an individual to present an idea or make a claim/statement, and then support it with evidence is known as his skill of building arguments.
Whether written or verbally spoken, an argument is a form of defense. Basically, whenever we feel the need to communicate and convince others of our ideas and opinions, we need to be able to prove to them the validity of our argument.
The ability of an individual to do so and explain the ‘why’ to all such people, using certain facts and evidences, is known as his skill of building arguments.
Why is building arguments important
It all begins at the time you make your first career move; the job interview. When you are attempting to sell yourself at a job interview, you are making claims that your potential employer may find questionable. That’s where your skill of building arguments comes in handy because you need to defend yourself and provide some logical reasoning.
Similarly, once you start working there are many instances where you might want to convince your manager of the wisdom and astuteness of your ideas and propositions. Again, your skill of arguments is what will prove helpful and probably take you to the path of promotions.
How to improve you skill of argument building
Following are some tips that can prove to be helpful in improving your skill of building arguments:
- Adopt the view of a skeptic. Whenever building an argument in an attempt to persuade, you should approach the issue from a skeptic’s view and raise doubts and questions just as those skeptics would. This leads to building the most persuasive argument because all the doubts and questions are anticipated and responded to well in advance.
- Research. First of all, identify your position and decide what exactly is your opinion or stance on the subject matter. Then do extensive reading on the subject to find the evidence that will back up your opinion. Meanwhile, you may also find contradictory evidence but make sure you don’t filter it out. You must use a balanced approach to note down every question or doubts raised and then look for evidence to address it, thereby, building your argument in the process.
- Organize your thoughts. The more your thoughts are organized; the better will be the effect of your argument. Structure your argument carefully by stating your conclusion right at the beginning and presenting all sides of it in a logical and coherent manner. However, you must make your stance clear to the audience throughout the explanation as well as at the conclusion.
