Note that all the examples try to offer something useful at the thesis position: an offering to the audience of sorts. I want to encourage everyone to try to pin down what’s most important to understand after having gone through the steps of reading a tex

Immigration-Time-Out-Example-Introductions.docx

Home >Business & Finance homework help >Management homework help >Note that all the examples try to offer something useful at the thesis position: an offering to the audience of sorts. I want to encourage everyone to try to pin down what’s most important to understand after having gone through the steps of reading a tex

Immigration Time Out Example Introductions

Persuasive and captivating political commentary often relies on logical, well-reasoned arguments. But sometimes, political commentators attempt to sway readers by presenting assumptions as facts in the hope that stereotypes and fear will overtake evidence-based analysis. Clearly, if we want to make good decisions, we must be able to identify good and bad logic, as well as evaluate the ingredients of logic that lead to good or bad conclusions. In a political essay entitled “Immigration Time-Out,” former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan offers a seemingly strong, logical argument that liberal immigration policies will yield catastrophic outcomes as it destroys America’s Anglo-European heritage. But upon further examination, the crafty conservative columnist seems to prey on his readers’ fears in order to whip up support for California’s Proposition 187, which eliminates social welfare benefits for “illegal immigrants.” Specifically, we will see a pattern of thinly-supported assumptions making suspicious conclusions appear more “obvious” than they really are. The text is a good example of how an understanding of logic is necessary to truly understand the arguments surrounding important social and political issues.

Every year, people around the country step into polling booths and vote for a candidate of their choosing. Some will vote for someone who looks like and speaks like them, while others will vote for the candidate with the best logical ideas. But it can be challenging to identify solid logical argument that we can rely on. This makes it important to understand how logic works, because logic is crucial to critical thinking. When evaluating an argument, it is helpful to recognize the use of deductive reasoning, or the logical process of one or more statements of truth (premises) leading to a conclusion that appears especially strong and settled. We can find many examples of deductive reasoning in political discourse. “Immigration Time-Out,” written by Patrick Buchanan, a conservative political leader and former presidential candidate, discusses the increase of immigrants in cities and how the only way “America is to survive as ‘one nation, one people’” is to call a “timeout on all immigration.” While Buchanan’s use of deductive logic follows the basic structure we expect to see, I expect that more careful readers will find it less persuasive due to numerous flaws and logical fallacies. Unfortunately, readers who are busy or less aware of how deductive logic works may still be swayed by Buchanan’s arguments—especially if they are prone to share his basic beliefs about the nature of immigrants and the fundamental causes of social conflict.

Persuasion, at simply put, is a process that attempts to change someone’s views and opinions towards a matter, usually to match those of the persuader. One of the most obvious ways to persuade someone is through logical thought. Good logic is very useful in shaping someone’s opinions, especially if the opinion is on an important issue that requires careful thought. Nevertheless, it can also appear that tricks and sophistry have equal persuasive power. This encourages us to learn more about what constitutes good logic, so we can identify it and explain its shortcomings. One obvious area where persuasion (and by extension good logic) is crucial to success is politics, where speakers must convince large numbers of people to support their ideas. In this essay, we will explore a political argument in Patrick Buchanan’s article “Immigration Time-Out.” A former senior advisor to several Republican presidents and presidential candidate, Buchanan aims to convince readers to temporarily shut down all immigration to the United States through logical reasoning. After reading the article, it appears that Buchanan’s use of deductive logic is actually correct in terms of how rational thought is supposed to be conducted. Many of the points he makes come from legitimate deductive reasoning, and at a first glance the logic seems to be sound. However, we will see that a chain of reasoning can include some logical steps, but not be entirely logical or even true. Many of the arguments he makes in this piece are inherently fallacious, and these points harm the overall message that Buchanan aims to get across to the audience. Thankfully, when we know what to look for, tricks will not hold up an argument for very long.