Example argumentation skills in argumentative writing: What can examples prove?
I read in a composition anthology a 2012 College Entrance Examination essay written by a candidate from Gansu Province, titled "Focus Creates Success." The main part of the article cites four examples: Li He "carried poems on a thin horse", carried a "poetry bag" on his shoulders, concentrated on writing poems, and wrote eternal lines; Wang Xizhi forgot to sleep and eat, practiced calligraphy in the pond without any distractions, and became a famous calligrapher; Mrs. Li studied meticulously and concentrated when she was young, and became a famous scientist; Du Fu understood the sufferings of the people, devoted himself to poetry, and became a great poet. The comments after the article believe that the article "the materials used are very typical and give people a rich feeling."
Multiple examples = rich content
"Multiple examples = rich content", this understanding is deeply ingrained in the minds of some teachers and students. In actual teaching, "using multiple examples" is indeed the most frequently emphasized point by some teachers when guiding writing. During the college entrance examination marking, it was found that this type of combination of examples and splicing exercises has a lot of fans.
Of course you can use examples when writing essays. Well-chosen and skillfully used examples will undoubtedly enrich the content of the exercise and make the analysis more concrete, thus leading to an ideal score. However, good selection and skillful use of examples should help establish the Based on a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the essay questions. "Facts speak louder than words" does not mean that as long as you present examples, the other party will be convinced. You must conduct a rational analysis of the examples to reveal the inherent logical inevitability contained in the examples that enables your point of view to be established, or to help break through the problem. Talk about key points in understanding and understanding the topic. In short, it requires high-quality thinking and analysis. A composition written based only on "feeling" or "emotion" may become a simple superposition of examples, or even a shoddy text that may sound high on the surface but cannot withstand scrutiny.
The four "example" paragraphs in "Focus Creates Success" are basically the same in form. They all first outline the case and then conduct a simple cause-and-effect analysis of the case. If you dissect one section, you can see the whole leopard at a glance.
When Madame Curie was a child, she was meticulous and dedicated to her studies. While she was reading, her friends placed a pile of stools behind her that would fall down if she moved. But after her friends came back from playing, she was still reading and didn't notice the stool next to her. It was precisely because of her concentration that she was able to extract a few grams of radium from several tons of materials, and she became a famous scientist, overcoming obstacles and achieving brilliant achievements in her life.
“Focus creates success” is both the title and the central argument. This principle also belongs to the kind of axiom that everyone knows. It is said that there is no need to spend too much pen and ink to prove its correctness. The four examples cited in the article are basically from the same dimension and level, using the simplistic mechanical causal inference of "because so-and-so is focused, so they are successful" to prove that "focus creates success" The indestructible nature of "success" seems to be substantial and rich, but in fact it is just a stacked house and a monotonous list. Regardless of whether these four examples are "typical" and accurate, regardless of whether the order of the four examples is reasonable, or whether Li He and Du Fu both focus on poetry writing, whether it is a bit "crowded", just analyze and reason. In other words, these four paragraphs are basically at the same level of expression and repetition. In terms of the effectiveness of reasoning, there is no difference between one such "example" and ten. To put it bluntly, most of such "examples" are nonsense and useless words. Of course, they cannot be said to be "rich". But downright verbose.
There is definitely an inherent connection between Marie Curie's ability to immerse herself in reading as a child and her subsequent major scientific discoveries. The crux of the question is, why can she be "meticulous and dedicated"? Only by clarifying this problem can we help those who are suffering from the inability to "focus" in studying, working, doing things, etc. and thus miss success, and those who are unable to "focus" because their education targets (such as students and children) "And the people who are frowning and at a loss can provide useful inspiration. In layman's terms, when talking about "focus creates success", the focus should be on "how" to achieve focus. It is very simple to say, firstly, you must be interested, and secondly, you must have endurance. Only with interest can you develop endurance, truly sink in and enjoy it, and you will naturally be able to persist for a long time without getting tired. As for how interest arises, it is a topic that needs to be discussed in depth and will not be discussed here.
Discover the internal connection between examples and arguments
In actual writing, some candidates may only be able to think of specific examples after determining the central argument. what to do? The only way out is to learn to process factual materials, extract abstract key information from them, and summarize and condense them. This is actually the analysis method that people often call "from concrete to abstract".
There is an exercise titled "Believe in Oneself". After putting forward the point of view that "only by believing in yourself can you achieve glory in life", the author cited three examples (Lee Si, Beethoven, Tiger Woods) , but the author Xi's treatment of these three materials only stays at the point of "they all believed in themselves and succeeded". The analysis is superficial and gives people the feeling of piling up materials. This is a typical "opinion + example" writing method.
The advisable approach is to first make a concrete explanation and analysis of the key words in the basic point of view and the relationship between the key words, or decompose the central argument into several aspects with internal logical relationships, and then use these examples to Discover the inevitable connection between "believing in yourself" and "achieving glory in life", and try to make sure that each example has a different focus when explaining the truth. Only in this way can the article written be in-depth, profound and "three-dimensional". ".
Demonstrate specifically. The first step is to determine the basic point of view that "only by believing in yourself can you achieve glory in life", you should also consider the following questions: ① In what aspects should you "believe in yourself"? That is, what do you believe in yourself? ②What is the connection point between "believe in yourself" and "achieve glory in life"? That is, what positive effects will “believing in yourself” have and will lead to “achieving brilliance in life”? ③ What is the practical significance of writing this article? That is where the article ends.
The selection of the three examples of Li Si, Beethoven, and Tiger Woods is relatively appropriate and novel. If processed properly, you can write a masterpiece with substantial material, concrete analysis, and strong sense of hierarchy. The next step is how to deal with these three materials. Li Si was originally just a small jailer in Shangcai, but later became the prime minister of Qin. There are many reasons for his sudden turn in life, such as personal talent, unremitting efforts, God-given opportunities, etc., and it also has a lot to do with his mentality of "believing in yourself"; Beethoven wrote a large number of immortal musical works after becoming deaf. There are many reasons, such as superb musical attainments, tenacity to seize fate by the throat, etc., which are also closely related to the spirit of "believing in oneself"; Tiger Woods became the king of golf because of his own talent and scientific training. , excellent calculation ability, and the psychological quality of "believe in yourself", etc. What you need to consider when writing is, what are the differences in the "focus" of the phrase "believe in yourself" in the success of three people? "Believe in yourself" allowed Lisi to set lofty goals in life, allowed Beethoven to withstand the test of fate, and allowed Tiger Woods to devote himself to scientific training. In this way, the three materials explain the center of "only by believing in yourself can you achieve the glory of life" from different angles, and the article is three-dimensional.
Don’t generalize
When talking about examples and arguments, we have to mention a common method of analyzing problems-induction, that is, from the specific to the general, through Many individual cases summarize their unique characteristics and draw a general conclusion. Under normal circumstances, the induction method should first give examples and then draw conclusions. However, if the connotation and denotation of concepts, as well as the logical relationship between concepts are not clearly positioned, this kind of inductive analysis based on examples may be one-sided or absolute. ization errors.
Give me an example. In the 2009 Tianjin College Entrance Examination, the essay required the topic "I say the post-90s generation." An article titled "The Taking-off Post-90s Generation" used three examples of the post-90s generation to conclude that the post-90s generation is the "take-off generation." Three examples are: Lin Hao, a young hero who bravely saved people in the face of danger during the "5.12" earthquake, Zi You, a post-90s youth writer who wrote "Whose Youth Is Crazy About Me", and Long Qingquan, the 2008 Olympic weightlifting champion.
The author did not grasp the common basic characteristics of the "post-90s generation", so the characters selected are biased. This is also related to the essay question itself. The material provided in the essay question mentions three attitudes towards the post-90s generation in society, but it is not clear what society praises, what it worries about, and what the post-90s generation’s “own way” is. Clarity and clarification of these issues will determine The writing direction is clear and the content is substantial and concrete. There is another most basic issue that needs to be clarified, that is, the "post-90s" mentioned in the essay title should refer to the vast majority of teenagers born in the 1990s (those who are particularly outstanding, those who are successful as teenagers, those who are particularly incompetent, and those who are particularly incompetent are not included) Those who are eating cornbread in prison are not counted). Praise, encouragement, criticism, denial, justification, etc. should all be for these people. Therefore, we must not use the performance of the "small group" of people born in the 1990s (i.e., the "best" and the "least outstanding") to "generalize" the performance of the post-90s generation. For example, Lin Hao, Ziyou, and Long Qingquan are the best among the post-90s generation, but we cannot say that all the post-90s generation are like that; just because there are suicides, drug abuse, criminals, and perverts among the post-90s generation, we cannot say that all the post-90s generation are like that. How the same. The two endpoints of a group of people in an age group are actually "special molecules" in this group of people. Generally speaking, they cannot be used as "samples" to dissect the basic characteristics of this group of people.
In short, there is no doubt that to prove the characteristics of a certain set, most of the elements of this set should be used as a reference. To prove that "we Chinese people have backbone", we must take the majority of Chinese people from ancient times to the present for thousands of years, and use their performance in pursuing the truth and not being afraid of difficulties to prove it. If we only use Wen Tianxiang and others The examples of the eater and Wen Yiduo can only prove that "some Chinese people have backbone", because I can also cite the examples of Qin Hui, Wu Sangui, and Wang Jingwei to prove that Chinese people have no backbone. Of course, the objects of my proof are also the same. It can only be "some Chinese". In fact, the purpose of these three examples cited by Wu Han in "Talking about Integrity" is to provide a specific "explanation" or an image "demonstration" of the connotation of "Integrity". Providing specific explanations or demonstrations of the essay question (or key words in the question) is another role of "examples" in the article.
Taking a step back, it is not absolutely impossible to use the three examples mentioned above when writing "I say the post-90s generation", but if it meets the standard of "use skillfully", it is necessary to improve the quality of thinking. effort. It is necessary to explain the reasons why Lin Hao, Ziyou and Long Qingquan can achieve "excellent performance", that is, what role factors such as family education, social environment, personal perseverance and will play in their growth. With these analyses, we can It will give readers, especially those born in the 1990s, inspiration for life and help them navigate the future.