Arguments have Context

What’s wrong with this picture?

The road sign claims that you can only go in two directions, but the landscape shows that all directions are possible. In this context, the road sign does not make sense. Context is, literally, what surrounds an argument. Think about it like this: if the road sign is your argument, it has to make sense where it is placed. The same is true for other arguments. In order to make an effective argument, you need to think about the immediate context – the format, the location, the audience – and the larger cultural context.

An argument’s format – how it reaches its audience- is part of its immediate context. Newspapers feature certain kinds of arguments like articles, letters to the editor, and advertisements. News websites have similar content but in different formats: video coverage, audio interviews, or animated pop-ups. Format affects what shape an argument takes!

LOCATION Where an argument takes place also changes the way an argument is delivered. If you are standing at a podium on a stage, you would deliver a formal speech. But at your kitchen table you would argue more conversationally.

AUDIENCE Who you want to reach can also change an argument’s content. You wouldn’t want to make the same kind of argument to kids as you would to a group of doctors. Your language, the format, your delivery – all of these will change depending on who you are trying to reach. Otherwise you might not get their attention, you might not convince them, or they might not even understand your point. You need to know your audience, and you need to shape your argument to fit your audience.

Location, format, and audience make up the immediate context for an argument. But context also has a broader focus – the larger cultural and historical stuff around an argument. Who you are (your age, your gender, your ethnicity, how much you make, and so on); who your audience is; and your shared cultural experience, references, or expectations all inform how an argument is shaped.

Consider this cartoon. It would not make sense to you unless you were familiar with two levels of context: The Aesop fable about the tortoise and the hare The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a cartoon that first aired in 1987.

This book cover relies on your familiarity with the cultural contexts of Christianity. You need to know who Adam and Eve are, and that they were kicked out of the Garden of Eden because they are of the Tree of Knowledge (that’s what makes the title I’m with Stupid ironic). The subtitle “One Man. One Woman. 10,000 Years of Misunderstanding Between the Sexes Cleared Right Up” is only funny if you understand the larger social context.

Class Activity Select a location and audience for your argument: Business People (A) in a Corporate Boardroom (L) Girlfriends (A) at a Bar (L) Pick-up Game on a Basketball Court (L) with strangers (A)