Week 8 - Toulmin Method

The Toulmin Method is a more sophisticated way to construct an argument.  The typical argument may consist of a claim, reason, support, and warrant.  Toulmin's method adds in qualifiers and rebuttals to create and analyze a better argument.  There are six components to this method: claims, reasons, evidence, warrants, qualifiers, and rebuttals (page 318).  The claim is an opinion the author is asking the audience to accept.  The reasons are the facts, data or reasoning the claim is being based on.  Evidence is the data or ideals used to back up the reasons.  Warrants link the evidence to the claim.  Qualifiers point out where the claim may not be true all the time, or its limitations.  The rebuttals are when the author addresses opposing views.

An example of an article that used the Toulmin Method to argue against the term Gamification had an added bonus of discussing how they used Tomlin's Method of Argumentation in a game to teach kids the art of reasoning through argument while on Mars.

'Gamification' is Dead, Long Live Games For Learning

Citation:

Green, J. M. (2021). Communicating online. McGraw Hill Education Create.