Arguments and Persuasion...

As I reflect on the types of arguments that have happened around me in the past days I automatically begin to think of shouting matches I may have observed in my daily routine or in the media. However, I abruptly stopped my train of thought to allow myself to think of argumentation in a less ordinary sense. On Monday I spoke to an Eng 1000 class on the art and significance of graffiti. This course focuses on utilizing the hip-hop culture as a pedagogical device to teach students multicultural, practical, and theoretical approaches to writing. With that said I found myself in the middle of twenty students trying to persuade them that graffiti (‘tagging’ and ‘bombing’) was worth writing a five page paper on regardless of their personal view of graffiti being art or vandalism. First I was persuaded that this would be no easy task as I saw the blank, highly skeptical faces in the audience. Secondly I found myself being able to persuade them of the merit of this first paper by sharing my personal experience with graffiti and the hip-hop culture. Ironically the formal speech I’d prepared, supported by text citations throughout had no real effect on them; it actually left them somewhat bored and even more disinterested in the topic. Once I removed the suit jacket, threw my loaded jargon out the window (as well as broke down my theoretical cues), and utilized visuals to support my argument did the class take heed to my presentation. It seemed to me that the means of personal experience, as well as a tone that was informative yet non-intrusive seemed to be great persuasive tools. However, with all this said and whether or not I’ve really answered/addressed the topic at hand, the main question as raised by Rebecca earlier also arises in my thought process (and of course with no solution). Seriously speaking, how can we expect students to express their opinions supported by textual evidence if they haven’t been expected to previously and currently? Also how can we expect them to form an opinion about something that may not be of any interest to them and possibly over their heads? (Yes, we’ve all had to and we know that they must learn how to argumentatively write—but if it means nothing to them, in the end will they have learned the basic concept and carry it with them or will they continue the great perpetual cycle of unfounded speech?)