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Chapter 6

Chapter six focuses on the importance of building a case and having a logical outline for the argument to follow.  I think we have all been in situations where we have taken a stance that we truly believe is correct, but we don’t have specific evidence or we aren’t organized enough to speak in an educated manner.  Unfortunately, while we mean well in these situations, they can often hurt our case. 
It is easy to get emotional in an argument and use invalid or unimportant facts in arguments when we feel trapped.  In my experience, this only makes both the people making the argument and the people hearing the argument frustrated.  In order to avoid this situation, we need to use the tactics described in this chapter like preparing an outline and also doing research on the opposing argument.  If our argument is a solution to a problem, we need to be prepared to present on why our chosen solution is better than other possible solution. 

Case building is important in all types of argumentation, formal or informal.  Being aware of the opposing side, or the position of the decision maker is the first step.  Then we need to be sure our research is sound and complete.  Finally, we need to have a well organized argument.  If we follow all of these steps, our argument will come across as stronger and we will be more convincing. 

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