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Chapter 7

Chapter 7 establishes one of the most important parts of your argument, the evidence you present and how you present it. Without evidence it is safe to say that your argument isn’t going to be the strongest it could be, you could even say that without some sort of evidence your argument will be very weak. Evidence is “the support for a claim that the arguer discovers from experience or outside authority.” (103) and can be put into three categories: examples, statistics, and testimony. All of these are important in supporting a claim but I think statistics in particular are crucial to the evidence you present, although it should not be the only form of evidence you use.

Statistics provide formal proof for your claim, in my opinion statistics are one of the most important forms of evidence one can use for their claims. Official statistics cannot be refuted therefor making the evidence to your claim rock solid, but the issue with statistics is that they can often be misused. In certain arguments, people will try to incorporate too many statistics causing confusion and making your claims and arguments seem invalid. Also, the statistics used in your argument can’t be coming from nowhere, for the evidence to be taken into consideration the statistics have to be real and also have an effect on your audience. The most useful way to use statistics in an argument in my opinion is to use raw numbers because it can make a big impact in your audience, using numbers to show how significant an event or situation was in an effective way to move your audience. The credibility of statistics is what makes them such a good form of evidence for a claim.

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