Week_5_2/13/16_How I Argue

            In my experience, arguing usually takes up majority of conversations I have with my friends. Most of the time we don’t care about whether we are right or wrong and it doesn’t matter if we agree or disagree with one another. We argue for the sake of arguing. As a result, the arguments I have in my daily life is more emotional based and has less logical grounding than how I would argue in an essay or a project. The purpose of the arguments is to refrain from losing rather than winning. I never want to give my opponent the satisfaction of winning so I argue my points to the bitter end. Therefore, subjects can vary from time to time, ranging from the quality of movies and shows my opponent and I watched to serious topics such as global economy and wars. Sometimes the arguments can escalate from first to the latter. These little disagreements I have with people around me hardly accomplish much. They seldom change my views because I know that none of us are very passionate about the topics and we did it just to pass time. However, they do help me organize my thoughts about the matters as well as become aware of different views and perspectives.

            Unsurprisingly, arguing in class is a lot different from arguing with my friends when we spend time together. The most prominent comparison is the purpose. A lot more is at stake when arguing in class than outside of it. I take care to make sure all of my arguments are supported with evidences and are organized in a way that’s easy to understand. This is even more so when written down on a paper. Doing so helps my writing skill very much. I have to take what may be a complicated combination of thoughts into clear and precise format of words. Most of the times, they have to be concise as well so I have to determine what it is I’m trying to say and what can relay that message in the most effective way. As a result, arguing has been encouraged by many of my English teachers. I have written many argumentative essays and projects arguing about the messages of texts, controversial topics in media, and reasons for recommending specific attractions. They all required me to give sources of my information and I had to stop myself from assuming what was common knowledge like I do with my friends. However, this helped me grow as a writer. I learned to argue with a background of knowledge and increase my credibility with researches. Most of my teachers did not argue back on what wrote on my papers when assessing them, but they gave criticisms such as its lack of use of pathos or how I could be contradicting myself. These were all helpful advices I could utilize in my next arguments.
             All in all, most of the arguments I have with my peers fail to make me change my views or let me change my opponents’ views, but are extremely helpful in making me a better writer and give me new perspectives of the topics in question. This is okay because that is my ultimate goal of having arguments.