Making Arguments

Now that students can represent the arguments of others accurately through citation, students will individually proceed to make arguments of their own. Using the simple logical construction p → q, or p implies q, students will build strong arguments based on evidence derived from the week’s prompt. This form of argument is implication, which is a dependency relation. Another way of saying p implies q is q depends upon p. So, for instance, if p = “it is raining” and q = “I bring an umbrella,” then, we assess the truth of the implication by assessing the truth of each term: if it is raining, then I bring an umbrella (if p is true, then q is true). And vice versa, if it is not raining, then I do not bring an umbrella. When we use an implication to make an argument, we are asking the question if this is true, then that is true. This is a vital element of basic logic. Students will submit a document including five arguments, written as complete sentences, that can be proved in this way.