3.12 Evaluating Evidence

CONNECTION House of Cards—something built on an unsound foundation Build a house of cards and it falls down easily. In fourth grade you learned that writing an essay is like constructing a building. Essayists cement together a variety of reasons and evidence. Without a solid foundation, your argument will collapse.

TEACHING POINT Today I want to teach you that some reasons and evidence are better than others. To be sure you have the strongest possible reasons and evidence, it helps to ask “How do I know?” and be sure you can give precise, exact answers.

TEACHING EVALUATING OTHERS’ ARGUMENTS CAN HELP YOU EVALUATE YOUR OWN REASONING Scene from Legally Blonde—you need to think like a lawyer! How do we do this? Evaluate the arguments of others. Ask “How do you know?”

ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT People in a town gathered for a town meeting to discuss whether it is a good idea for the town to build a skateboard park. People spoke for both sides. I’m going to hand each partnership a stack of things people said at the meeting, sometimes for and sometimes against the skate park. Go through the statements together and weigh the arguments.

ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT What reasoning did you use to evaluate an argument as strong or weak? Why did you make the choices you did?

TEACHING Common Flaws in Reasoning Generalizing (assumes specific example will be true everywhere) Discrediting (insults people’s character rather than taking issue with their points) Assuming consequences (implies cause-and-effect relationship that isn’t proven) Questionable Assumption (argument founded on something that might not be true)

LINK Look at your own arguments. Are you building a house of cards or a house of stone?