Chapter 7&8 Quiz

According to Lunsford’s definition of an argument of fact vs. an argument of question, I would say that my argument best fits under the category of “argument of fact.” Lunsford says you a entering an argument of fact when you make a claim about fact or evidence that’s controversial, correct an error of fact, and challenge societal myths (195). Like in Malcolm X, my argument revolves around a set of facts. For my paper, the situation I described is the issue of race affecting digital literacy, when I noticed this issue it caused me to raise many questions about the cause of this and whether or not it actually existed. The error of fact/ societal myth I am looking to correct is that many people like to think we live in a perfect society where there is no racial discrimination or segregation, but there that is not true.

According to Lunsford, the issue should have the attention of potential readers, or in my opinion, should have their attention (186). This issue is definitely worthy of attention, because more people should be willing to put forth effort into bridging the gap of races. Also, another key feature of a factual argument is that it offers substantial and authoritative evidence to support the claim (194). I believe that my evidence is substantial and authoritative because all my sources are considered scholarly. I am using peer reviewed journal articles for all of my research; I think these sources can be substantiated.

In chapter 7, it tells me that it is difficult to distinguish between factual arguments and those offered for more public consumption in media. The journal articles I have found to support my claim are not entirely scientific but they do contain supporting charts and graphs of statistics. Because my issue is about society the evidence has to be collected from many different sources. I have to look at research that studied many different phenomena in society. The definitions of argument of fact more closely fit my argument than the others. I believe that the guide in “Everything’s an Argument” to construct an argument of fact will help me with the process of writing my final Core 4 paper.