Saturday, May 2, 2009

How to argue

So, you have some conclusions, and you want to convince your readers. You fear that some of them will not easily accept your results - perhaps they prefer a different theory or look at things differently. You also, as a minimum, want to establish that your conclusions will represent a real contribution to knowledge.
How do you proceed? The first thing to remember is never to attack other researchers or their ideas, however wrong you think they are. They are merely waiting for you to tell them what you have observed and what can be learned from it.
Secondly, remember that these are your peers: potential admirers and collaborators. Don't talk down to them. They are just as bright as you, but they haven't direct experience of the results of your investigation.
Thirdly, remember that the rules of the games allow for no speciall skills. Never suggest that you can see something that others cannot, or that you have access to evidence that is not available to others. Francis Bacon (p.350, 61) "Our method of discovering the sciences is such as to leave little to the acuteness and strength of wit, and indeed rather to level wit and intellect. For, as in the drawing of a line or accurate circle by the hand, much depends upon its steadiness and practice, but if a ruler or compass be employed there is little occasion for either; so it is with our method."
Finally, remember that we often see just what we expect. (ibid p347, 41) "all the perceptions, both of the senses and the mind, bear reference to man, and not to the universe, and the human mind resembles those uneven mirrors, which impart their own properties to different objects, from which rays are emitted, and distort and disfigure them." Our observations not not any truer than others.
Instead, think of it as a shared journey of discovery, where we build painstakingly on the results of previous work. As Francis Bacon (p.346, 32) said: "The ancient authors, and all others, are left in undisputed possession of their honours. For we enter into no comparison of capacity or talent, but of method; and assume the part of a guide, rather than of a critic." You must imagine the reader is accompanying you on a walk through the evidence. You are pointing out objects of interest, recalling what others have said about them, encouraging a closer look at certain aspects that you believe lead to new insights.
Because you have studied other academic writing in your discipline, you know the rules of the game, and you know what sort of presentation will be regarded as conclusive. You work with your readers, and avoid combative writing.
References:
Bacon, F (1620) Instauratio Magna
Rorty, R (1979) Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature 978-0631129615 (Wiley)

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