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Chapter 10

Chapter 10 - Blog Post Opportunity 9
Chapter 10 was all about refutation, and learning about how to successfully, respectfully refute another's claim or claims. There is a crucial step you must take before refutation. You as the refuter must lay a “framework” from which criticism will emerge. As the textbook says, imagine you are an architect, you must change the layout and plans of a building to meet the demands of the area it’s being built and what the building will be used for. You as the arguer must tweak their practices slightly to the specific discussants whose arguments you are trying to refute. Another part of refutation I found interesting was the part about how silence is often the most effective way to refute a claim. This part is where you are met with a tough decision, to speak up or not speak up. If you don’t speak your mind there’s a possibility of not having your voice heard, and not having the best results for the group or the discussants involved. If this is the case you are actually hurting the group by not speaking up, even if it would cause a disagreement or unsettling feeling amongst people involved. On the other hand if you do speak out you can sometimes do more harm to the group than benefit the group. This is because it can cause the group to teeter on a decision and it can also cause them to resent your ideas completely. You must really consider who the decision makers are regarding the topic at hand and be sure not to offend them, or tailor your message in a way they will be able to appreciate. The book relates it to writing a college essay exam. You just must imagine every argument to be in this format, where you only have a certain amount of time to get the most crucial information to your argument into the forefront. Basically saying that you don’t always need to control the conversation and cut off the ideas of the opposing arguer. It can be more effective to be short and sweet and get across the most critical points and leave it at that. Refutation can be a useful tool for anyone that uses it, the key to refutation is to consider the decision makers, and how you will respectfully relay the fact that you’re refuting the claims at hand.

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