Sabrina, a student, and I, were working on arguments. She was writing one about government childcare benefits, and Adam, a Writing tutor, stopped by. Here is what happened:
Sabrina types her essay. Scott sits, waiting to answer her next question. Adam enters, sits down, and pulls up a website with some sort of virtual island on it.
Adam: You have to join this.
Scott: What is it?
Adam: You have to join it.
Scott: Again, what is it?
Adam: You have to get on here. Then I can take your loot.
Scott leans down to Sabrina, who is still typing
Scott: See, this is not a good argument. He's giving me no information about what I'm supposed to join, and the only information I have tells me that he will steal from me when I do join. That benefits him, not me.
Sabrina laughs a little, looks at Adam, and keeps typing.
Scene.
You should tell people basic information like what you want them to join pretty early in your argument. Also, you should tell the person you are trying to convince why joining will benefit them not you (especially if you plan on stealing from them once they do what you ask).
In Adam's defense, he was very excited because of the online pirate game he discovered (who wouldn't be excited about commanding tiny, virtual ships on virtual seas, firing virtual cannons and destroying other virtual pirates?). When he calmed down, he explained. Maybe that should is something you should do, too: calm down before you argue.
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1 comment:
Good advice. I would submit that the same benefits of patient and collected delivery would apply for other forms of verbal communication such as telling stories or jokes.
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