• All claims must be supported.

• Support for a claim answers the questions "How do you know this?" or "Why do you say this?"

• Support falls into to one of two general categories: Evidence and appeal.

  • Evidence

    • Facts: examples and statistics

    • Inference (opinion): "'a statement about the unknown on the basis of the known'" (S.I. Hayakawa qtd. in Rottenberg 26). Although inferences—speculation about causes, predictions about the future, solutions to problems—can appear factual, they are less reliable than facts, so writers must help readers to differentiate between the facts and inferences.

  • Appeal: The strongest arguments appeal to readers in several ways. They appeal to logic by making a sound, well-reasoned, and well-supported argument. They appeal to emotion by making the reader share the writer's concern about the issue. They appeal to the reader's ethical sense by establishing the writer as fair and reasonable and by basing the argument on a common set of values and beliefs. (Axelrod 123) 

    • Needs: requirements for physical and psychological survival and well-being. In 1954, psychologist Abraham H. Maslow developed "[t]he most familiar classification of needs" and "arranged them in hierarchical order from the most urgent biological needs to the psychological needs that are related to our roles as members of a society" (Rottenberg 124-25).

      • "Physiological Needs. Basic bodily requirements: food and drink; health; sex" (Rottenberg 125).

      • "Safety Needs. Security; freedom from harm; order and stability" (Rottenberg 125).

      • "Belongingness and Love Needs. Love within a family and among friends; roots within a group or a community" (Rottenberg 125).

      • "Esteem Needs. Material success; achievement; power, status, and recognition by others" (Rottenberg 125).

      • "Self-Actualization Needs. Fulfillment in realizing one's potential" (Rottenberg 125) 

    • Values: "the principles by which we judge what is good or bad, beautiful or ugly, worthwhile or undesirable" (Rottenberg 126).

    • Logic or Reason (Logos): an appeal to readers' intelligence and common sense. Logical appeals do not depend heavily upon personal feelings or emotionally charged language but rather upon historical precedence, facts and statistics, comparisons, and cause and effect.

    • Authority or Ethics (Ethos): an appeal based upon your authority or qualifications. Ethical appeals require that you demonstrate your qualifications, sincerity, reliability, knowledge, humanity, credibility, and genuine care for your audience's welfare; in short, you must prove to your readers that you are worth listening to before you can expect them to listen to you. Be careful, though: do not rely solely on your reputation to carry the argument. Cite examples, provide sound reasoning, and recognize and address opposing viewpoints.

    • Emotion (Pathos): an appeal to readers' personal biases or prejudices. Emotional appeals depend upon connotative and figurative language, words that elicit strong feelings in readers.

• The above categories of support often wear many guises, including:

  • specific examples

  • observation

  • personal experience

  • expert testimony

  • definition

  • cause/effect analysis

  • compare/contrast analysis  

Updated: 08.20.07