Summary: Knowing how to argue

Knowing how to argue is a useful skill. We use it on ourselves in order to arrive at decisions; we use it with others as we discuss business strategies or policy changes on committees, as members of the local PTA, a law office, an environmental action group; we use it as fundraisers for a cause, like saving whales, we use it in applying for foundation grants and in drafting a letter to the editor of our hometown paper. We use it when we discuss child abuse, toxic waste, tax cuts, pothole repair, working mothers, and university investment policies. Our ability to express opinions persuasively—to present our views systematically as arguments—will allow us to make some difference in public life. If we lack the necessary skills, we are condemned to sit on the sidelines. Instead of doing the moving, we will be among the moved; more persuasive voices will convince us of what we must do.

Vocabulary
PTA = Parent Teachers Association
Fundraisers = charity workers (collecting money for a cause e.g. save the children fund)
Hometown paper = local newspaper
Pothole = holes in the road where the tarmac has come away (because of e.g. rain)


Topic Sentence: Knowing how to argue is a useful skill.

Choose the main points from the passage in the selection of sentences/phrases below.

1. “We must use it on ourselves in order to arrive at decisions”

2. “members of the local PTA”

3. “we use it with others”

4. “drafting a letter to the editor of our hometown paper”

5. “Our ability . . . will allow us to make some difference in public life”

6. “we are condemned to sit on the sidelines”

7. “saving whales”



In addition to the topic sentence, numbers 1, 3, and 5 represent the more important points in this paragraph.


Sample Summary

The ability to argue is valuable because we use it for so many reasons: both to make choices for ourselves and to persuade others. Without this ability to argue we lose our power to affect change.