Arguments + Cards
Summary
TLDRIn this video, Miss Trip introduces the Toolman model for constructing arguments, essential for all debate formats. She explains the four key components: claim, support, warrant, and impact. The claim states the position, support provides evidence like stats or expert testimony, the warrant connects support to the claim, and impact explains the argument's significance. Miss Trip also discusses 'cutting cards,' the process of condensing evidence into a debate-friendly format, and assigns viewers to cut cards on the economy's state.
Takeaways
- π The Toolman model is an academic standard for constructing arguments, commonly taught in persuasion classes.
- π An argument is composed of a claim, support, warrant, and impact.
- π A claim is a basic statement of the argument or position one is taking.
- π Support material is used to back up the claim and can include stats, surveys, expert testimony, examples, studies, personal experiences, analogies, or audio/visual aids.
- π The warrant explains how the support material proves the claim, making the connection between the two explicit.
- π The impact justifies the relevance and importance of the argument within the context of a debate.
- π In debate rounds, arguments are often supported with 'cards', which are pieces of evidence presented in a structured format.
- π A 'card' includes a tag (the claim), an oral citation, a full source citation, and the part to be read aloud during the debate.
- π The process of cutting cards involves summarizing evidence into a concise format suitable for quick reference in a debate.
- π The assignment given is to cut two cards: one arguing that the economy is improving and another that it is getting worse, focusing on steps one and two of argument construction.
Q & A
What is the Toolman model mentioned in the video?
-The Toolman model is an academic standard for constructing an argument. It includes a claim, data, and a warrant or backing for the data. In debate, it is often simplified to just these components, with the addition of an impact.
What is the purpose of a claim in an argument?
-A claim is a basic statement of the argument that states the position one is taking. It is the side of the argument that the person intends to prove, but it does not prove anything by itself.
How can one support their argument?
-Support for an argument can come from various sources such as statistics, surveys, polls, expert testimony, examples, studies, personal experience, analogies, descriptions, explanations, or audio/visual aids.
What is the role of the warrant in an argument?
-The warrant connects the claim and the support material. It explains how the chosen support material proves that the claim is true. It's a necessary part of the argument even if it seems obvious.
Why is the impact important in a debate argument?
-The impact is important because it shows why the argument matters or why it is important. It helps to ensure that the argument is relevant to the debate round and convinces the judge why they should care about the argument.
What is meant by 'cutting cards' in the context of debate?
-Cutting cards refers to the process of taking a piece of evidence, such as an article, and formatting it into a concise piece that can be used in a debate round. This includes a tag (the claim), an oral citation, and a source citation.
What does the term 'card' refer to in debate?
-In debate, a 'card' is a piece of evidence used to support an argument. Historically, this was an index card with written information, but now it refers to any formatted piece of evidence, often digital.
How does the speaker suggest practicing argument construction?
-The speaker suggests watching a video on how to cut cards and then practicing by cutting two cards: one arguing that the economy is improving and another arguing the opposite.
What are the different types of evidence that can be used to support an argument?
-The different types of evidence include statistics, surveys, polls, expert testimony, examples, studies, personal experience, analogies, descriptions, explanations, and audio/visual aids.
What is the structure of a card in debate?
-A card in debate typically includes a tag (the claim), an oral citation (to be read aloud during the debate), and a full source citation (for additional details). The card is designed to be concise and relevant to the argument being made.
What is the assignment given by the speaker at the end of the video?
-The assignment is to watch a video on how to cut cards and then to cut two cards on one's own: one card arguing that the economy is improving and another arguing that the economy is getting worse.
Outlines
π Introduction to Argument Structure
The paragraph introduces the concept of argumentation in debate formats such as Congress, LD, Policy, and PF. It explains the Toolman model, which is an academic standard for constructing an argument. The model includes a claim, support, warrant, and impact. The claim is the statement of the argument, support provides evidence such as statistics, expert testimony, examples, studies, personal experience, analogies, or visual aids. The warrant connects the support to the claim, showing how the evidence proves the argument's truth. The impact explains why the argument is significant. The paragraph uses the example of LeBron James being the best basketball player of all time to illustrate these components.
π The Importance of Warrants and Impact
This paragraph discusses the necessity of stating warrants and impacts in debate arguments. A warrant is the logical connection between the support material and the claim, proving why the evidence supports the argument. The impact justifies the relevance of the argument in the debate round. The speaker uses the example of LeBron James' scoring record to argue his status as the best basketball player, emphasizing the need to establish why this claim matters. The paragraph also touches on the historical practice of using index cards for evidence, which has evolved into the modern practice of 'cutting cards' for debate rounds.
ποΈ Cutting Cards for Debate
The final paragraph focuses on the practical aspect of preparing for debates by cutting cards. A card represents a piece of evidence or support material for an argument. The speaker instructs viewers to cut two cards: one arguing that the economy is improving and another arguing the opposite. The process involves summarizing an article or source into a format that includes a claim (tag), oral citation, and the part of the source to be read aloud during the debate. The speaker provides a link for further instruction on cutting cards and assigns the task as a practice exercise.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Argument
π‘Claim
π‘Support
π‘Warrant
π‘Impact
π‘Toolman Model
π‘Debate
π‘Evidence
π‘Card
π‘Citation
π‘LeBron James
Highlights
Introduction to the Toolman model as the academic standard for constructing an argument.
Explanation of the basic components of an argument: claim, data, warrant, and impact.
The necessity of making a clear claim to state one's position in an argument.
Importance of providing data or evidence to back up the claim in an argument.
The role of a warrant in connecting the data to the claim to prove the argument's validity.
The concept of impact and why it's crucial to demonstrate the relevance of an argument.
Examples of claims and how they set the stage for proving an argument.
Various types of support material that can be used to strengthen an argument.
The significance of using stats, surveys, and expert testimony as support material.
How personal experience or stories can be utilized as evidence in certain arguments.
The use of analogies, comparisons, and descriptions to explain and support an argument.
The allowance of audio and visual aids in debate as a form of support material.
The process of cutting cards or using evidence in debate rounds.
Historical context of 'cards' in debate and the transition to digital formats.
The structure of a card including the tag, oral citation, and source citation.
The importance of minimizing evidence for timed debate speeches.
Assignment to cut two cards: one arguing the economy is improving and one arguing it's getting worse.
Instruction to watch a video on how to cut cards and to practice cutting cards independently.
Transcripts
all right hello ladies this is Miss trip
here and in this video we're going to
talk a little bit about how to make an
argument which of course as you know an
argument is the basis of all debate no
matter what format you're doing Congress
LD policy PF they are all based on
arguments so I'm going to start here
with this image this is called the
toolman
model this is kind of the academic
standard of what makes an argument so if
you take a persuasion class in college
you'll probably see the toolman model
so this is the basics of an argument you
have to make a claim you have to State
your position okay you have to give data
and you have to have a
warrant or backing for that data okay so
this is kind of a it has a bunch of
other parts to it as well but in debate
we usually simplify it down to just
these okay and then we add this down
here the impact so let me go through
those so the first is a claim a claim is
just a basic statement of the argument
okay so for example if I have this first
claim all schools should require
students to wear uniforms that is a
claim that is the position that I am
taking on school uniforms okay have I
proven anything yet no I've just stated
the claim I've stated the the side of
the argument that I'm going to take this
is what I intend to prove all schools
should require students to wear uniforms
LeBron James is the best basketball
player of all time all of these are
claims you're not proving anything yet
but you're stating your argument
okay step two is support you have to
back up that argument okay if I just
make a claim LeBron James is the best
basketball player of all time I haven't
proven anything okay that's just step
one if all you have as a claim you don't
really have an argument and that
argument can't really stand up in a
debate round okay so the second thing we
have to do is support your argument okay
how can we support an argument well
we're going to need support material so
we could back it up with stats or
surveys or polls maybe I have stats
about um how many times LeBron James has
scored okay maybe I have expert
testimony or quotes So maybe I find a
basketball expert who says why he or she
thinks LeBron James is the best I could
give examples I could say for example
LeBron James has won X number of NBA
championships I could cite studies or
scholarly research or empirical tests I
don't know if these exist for LeBron
James but generally in debate this is a
very strong type of evidence when you
have studies or academic research on a
topic
you could give personal experience or
tell a story about yourself so maybe I
could tell a story about how you know I
met LeBron James and he was awesome or
something obviously depending on the
argument that you're making this might
not be the strongest type of support
material okay in some instances um
personal experience can be a strong way
to support an argument but not
always you can use analogies or
comparisons maybe I could compare LeBron
James to Michael Jordan you could use
description or explanation maybe I could
describe the way LeBron James shoots a
basketball and explain how that's the
best and you can also use audio or
visual aids maybe I have a video
of uh Lebron James or something like
that okay in debate we tend not to see a
lot of audio or visual aids but they are
technically
allowed so I'm going to have some
support material that's step two to back
up my claim okay
step three is the warrant
how does your support that you have
chosen prove that the argument is
true and this is kind of um hard
sometimes because it just seems obvious
right so I have this example
here my claim is LeBron James is the
best basketball player of all time my
support is he is the NBA all-time
leading scorer okay so the warrant makes
the connection the connection between
the claim and the support material how
does the support material that I have
chosen prove that the claim is true okay
so see see for a second if you could
figure out what my warrant here would
be the warrant here maybe it's hard just
because it's so simple I would need to
prove or make the argument that being
the alltime leading scorer makes you the
best basketball player of all time right
because maybe my opponent could say well
this other basketball player actually
has more rebounds than LeBron James okay
so then their warrant would be that like
being the best rebounder makes you a
better basketball player so I need to
prove that being the all-time leading
scorer is the best way or the best
metric for how to evaluate if you're the
best basketball
player again sometimes you might think
the warrant is so obvious that you don't
need to State it but in debate we do
want to state that warrant even if you
think it's
obvious so step four is the impact you
need to prove why does this argument
matter okay um regarding LeBron James I
honestly don't quite know what my impact
to that argument would be maybe my
impact would be and therefore he should
be a role model for your sons and
daughters who play sports something like
that but basically in debate rounds we
need to make sure that we State the
impact so the impact states why the
argument matters or why the argument is
important so basically why does this
argument matter in this debate round
sometimes you might be making arguments
that literally just don't matter okay so
that's why we need the impact to make
sure that what we're saying actually
matters in the debate round so you need
to tell the judge in a debate round why
they should care about this argument
okay
okay so in debate the way that we make
most of these
arguments is with evidence or using
cards in a debate
round
so okay so now we're going to talk about
how to cut cards or use evidence in
debate so it's kind of a confusing term
why we call it a card a card is just a
piece of evidence so remember we just
talked about support material right you
have to support your argument with
evidence okay back in the day before
everyone had computers you would
literally write your information on
index cards and you would carry them you
know and lay them out for the debate
rounds so people would say do you have a
card on that and a card would literally
be an index card nowadays we obviously
don't write down all of our stuff on
index index cards we still call them
cards but it looks more like this okay
so this is an article I have found
online an article about
decriminalization of drugs okay and I've
put it into this format that I can use
in a debate round and that's what we
call a card okay so I have this text
here this information from the
article I have what's called a tag up
here the tag tag is basically the claim
okay this is the claim or the argument
that I'm making and I am proving it with
this evidence okay and during the round
I also have a citation that I would read
out loud to say where that information
came
from so I have um this information here
of the process of cutting
cards I would encourage you to look
through this but the next YouTube video
actually kind of just shows you this
process so here is what it should look
like um we have the tag here in bigger
font we have the oral citation that's
the citation that you would read out
loud during the debate round to tell the
judge where you got this Source we have
the rest of the source citation
here to give all of the information
about where the source came from we're
not going to read all of this out loud
but we're going to have it with us um in
case somebody says hey what's what's the
name of that article or can you give me
more details on the source this is where
you would have that and then this is the
part that you would read out loud in the
debate round and in particular we have
it highlighted to make it shorter okay
as you know each speech is timed so you
don't have all the time in the world so
we've taken this long article and we
have minimized it down to just this part
that we would read in a debate
round so this is what I would like you
to do first I would like you to watch
the next video about how to cut a card
and then your assignment before the next
practice is to cut two cards I want you
to cut one card that says the economy is
improving and I want you to cut one card
that says the opposite a card that says
that the economy is getting worse now
all your doing here when you're doing
this is you're kind of just doing steps
one and two right you're making a claim
the economy is getting better and you
are supporting this argument with um
something you have found probably online
a newspaper article a website Etc okay
so you're not necessarily doing steps
three or four yet okay in a debate round
you would probably just say out loud why
does it matter if the econom e omy is
getting better or why does it matter if
the economy is getting worse so the next
thing I want you to do is to go to
Canvas and I have a link here for how to
cut cards you're going to watch that and
then you are actually going to cut two
cards on your own
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