Michelle Kuecks
COMP 2000 – 31341
January 8, 2008
Journal Entry #2
Claim:
In this article, the claim “In modern Washington, trillion is the new billion” which appears in the first paragraph, sets the tone and is the main point that the author attempts to convey.
Data:
Throughout the article, several figures are spewed out as examples of prior government spending on specific projects. In other words, data is used to show how the government is a well-oiled wheel when it comes to spending millions and even billions of dollars.
Warrant:
One example that the writer assumes the reader has is:
“The human mind is not well equipped to fathom a number that large. A check for $1 trillion -- a million million dollars -- would have 12 zeros to the left of the decimal point.”
Grounds:
Well, Thomas Jefferson purchased Louisiana for $15 million in 1803. In today's dollars, that'd be about $261 million; rescaled as a share of the current economy, it'd still be a steal at $409 billion.
Backing:
“From an historical perspective, $1 trillion is far more than the signature expenditures over the life of American government, the ones the politicians and columnists cite when they say we need another moon shot, Manhattan Project or [insert cliché here] for this or that priority.”
Qualifier:
What about other big-ticket items?
Conditions or Rebuttal:
“Leave it to Mr. Obama and Congress to make even WWII seem like a relative bargain.”
References
(2009). Feels like a trillion bucks. Retrieved January 6, 2009, from The Wall Street Journal. Website http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123120542333456031.html
(2009). The Toulmin Model of Argument. Retreived January 8, 2009, from The University of Oklahoma. Website http://students.ou.edu/S/Charles.R.Swadley-1/argumentation.htm
COMP 2000 – 31341
January 8, 2008
Journal Entry #2
Claim:
In this article, the claim “In modern Washington, trillion is the new billion” which appears in the first paragraph, sets the tone and is the main point that the author attempts to convey.
Data:
Throughout the article, several figures are spewed out as examples of prior government spending on specific projects. In other words, data is used to show how the government is a well-oiled wheel when it comes to spending millions and even billions of dollars.
Warrant:
One example that the writer assumes the reader has is:
“The human mind is not well equipped to fathom a number that large. A check for $1 trillion -- a million million dollars -- would have 12 zeros to the left of the decimal point.”
Grounds:
Well, Thomas Jefferson purchased Louisiana for $15 million in 1803. In today's dollars, that'd be about $261 million; rescaled as a share of the current economy, it'd still be a steal at $409 billion.
Backing:
“From an historical perspective, $1 trillion is far more than the signature expenditures over the life of American government, the ones the politicians and columnists cite when they say we need another moon shot, Manhattan Project or [insert cliché here] for this or that priority.”
Qualifier:
What about other big-ticket items?
Conditions or Rebuttal:
“Leave it to Mr. Obama and Congress to make even WWII seem like a relative bargain.”
References
(2009). Feels like a trillion bucks. Retrieved January 6, 2009, from The Wall Street Journal. Website http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123120542333456031.html
(2009). The Toulmin Model of Argument. Retreived January 8, 2009, from The University of Oklahoma. Website http://students.ou.edu/S/Charles.R.Swadley-1/argumentation.htm
Posts
I think in order to tease out the author's point, you realy need to put it into your own words. Especially with an evocative phrase like "trillion is the new billion," you, the reader, need to decide what it means.
ReplyDeleteYou shouldn't expect that every part of the Toulmin system will be represented by a sentence or two in an essay. Usually, persuasion is enthymemic, meaning that it often doesn't openly state its warrants, and sometimes not even its claims.
The article's claim might be stated something like this:
"The U.S. government is becoming more irresponsible with taxpayer money."
or
"Government spending is out of control"
or
"Crisis recovery is getting more expensive"
Sometimes authors leave it up to the reader to formulate the specific claim being made. This can sometimes be an effective strategy because each member of the audience can formulate the claim in the way they best understand (and most likely already agree with).