What makes an argument worth making?

Recently, I was working with a colleague about getting students more jazzed to dive deep into building claims with supporting evidence.

My colleague stated:

“To be an argument, there needs to be a sense of “others” who are vying against our argument in ways that excite/worry us about our intellectual flanks. Moreover, to be an argument, one needs to have some skin in the game. Who wants to argue an argument that’s already been made/won, and that all sides know the answer to? In general, “how” questions …elicit procedures/summaries of what is known. “Why” questions generally do a lot better stoking argument.”

I took a few minutes this morning to pull together some resources that might help to create an audience of “others” or that could be used to generate engagement in the claims/evidence making process.

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