Analyzing an Article Using Toulmin Method

Analyzing an Argument Using the Toulmin Method
When learning written argument, it is always helpful to observe how others argue effectively or ineffectively. The Toulmin method, based on the work of philosopher Stephen Toulmin, is one way of analyzing a text that we read, with an eye toward responding to that particular argument (as in a writing assignment that asks us to respond) and, ultimately, toward analyzing and improving the arguments we ourselves make.
PART I: UNDERSTANDING THE TOULMIN ARGUMENT
PART II: Toulmin Exercise
NOW IT IS AT THIS POINT YOU WILL NEED TO SELECT THE ESSAY FROM LIBRETEXTS YOU'VE READ THUS FAR AND WHICH YOU BELIEVE TO BE THE STRONGEST ARGUMENT ESSAY (DO NOT SELECT AN ESSAY THAT MERELY INFORMS). YOU WILL BE ANALYZING IT THROUGH A TOULMIN LENS!
This exercise is your opportunity to practice using the Toulmin Method of analysis on your own, using an argument in a text of your own choice. Remember, as you use this worksheet, that not all elements of an argument are nearly as formulaic as the sheet might suggest. The argument you use might, for instance, use more than three reasons, or it might use only one. Think of this worksheet as a starting point, and feel free to make whatever changes are necessary to incorporate the elements you identify in the argument you are examining.
1. Identifying the Claim
Our first step in the Toulmin Method is to identify the claim.
2. Examining the Claim for Qualifiers
Having identified and paraphrased the claim. It can sometimes be damaging to an argument to omit qualifiers, particularly if there are also no exceptions provided. It is up to you as a reader to determine whether the writer's unqualified claim is damaging to this particular argument.
3. Examining the Claim for Exceptions
After looking for qualifying words in the claim, the next step is to determine what the writer considers to be the situations in which the claim doesn't apply. In other words, it is necessary to identify any exceptions made to the claim. Are they explicit (direct) or implicit (indirect)?
4. Identifying All the Reasons
Once you have identified and examined the claim (for qualifiers and exceptions), the next step in the Toulmin Method is to identify and examine the reasons which support this claim.
5. Determining the Effectiveness and Relevance of all of the Reasons
6. Identifying and Examining Evidence
Once you have identified and examined the reasons supporting the claim in an argument, your next step is to examine the evidence which, in turn, supports those reasons.
7. Examining the Evidence:
We must first ask ourselves, "Is this evidence sufficient?" That is, we must determine whether or not there is enough evidence offered to support the reason the writer is attempting to use.
Our second step is to ask ourselves, "Is this evidence credible?" In other words, can we trust the evidence the writer offers us?
Our third step is to ask ourselves, "Is this evidence accurate?" This is perhaps the most difficult step in examining the evidence, simply because we can't always be sure of accuracy without having the writer's sources in front of us or without having experienced what the writer has experienced. Sometimes there seems to be no reason to question the accuracy of the evidence given, simply because it doesn't appear unrealistic or outlandish, and it has already been shown to be reasonably credible. Sometimes, however, you might suspect that the evidence offered in support of a reason is inaccurate, and that can be an excellent way to challenge an argument.
8. Analyze the Anticipated Objections and Rebuttal
When writing an argument, writers must anticipate any objections their audience might use to challenge that argument. In other words, they have to make sure, to the best of their ability, that they don't leave room for their audience to pull a card out of one of the levels of their "house of cards" (thereby causing the whole structure of the argument to tumble down).
Remember, too, that rebuttal evidence must be examined just like any other evidence. In other words, we have to judge whether or not the evidence offered in the rebuttal is valid in terms of sufficiency, credibility, and accuracy.
9. Draw Conclusions from a Toulmin Analysis
The first step in drawing conclusions is to collect the results of our analysis. To do this, we go back to our responses on the different levels of our "house of cards": claim, reasons, evidence, and anticipated objections/rebuttal.
10. Is the Argument Compelling to You?
The first question you might ask yourself when "interpreting" the results of your analysis is a very general (and emotionally based) question: Does this argument appeal to me? If it does appeal, then why and how does it appeal? In other words, how do the responses we made about the claim, reasons, evidence, etc. reinforce (or contradict) our "gut-level" response to the argument we have read?
11. What is the Overall Effectiveness/Ineffectiveness of the Argument?
In looking at the results of your analysis, it is important to notice how effective or ineffective the argument is based on the strengths or weaknesses you have noticed in the different parts of that argument. This is the part of interpretation which demands that you go beyond your gut-level responses to acknowledge (as "objectively" and as truthfully as possible) the parts of the argument which achieve their purpose effectively, and the parts which do this less effectively.
12. Writing a Claim
The last stage of your analysis (and the first stage of writing a response to an essay if you were asked to write one) is to formulate a claim of your own, based on your analytical reading of the argument. NOTE: This exercise ends here. you are NOT required to write an essay in response to the one you have analyzed.