Reading Response 1

In his article ´Argument as Conversation: The role of Inquiry in Writing a Researched Argument´, Stuart Greene explains to college students how scholarly inquiry is a different kind of research and argument from the kinds we encounter in our everyday lives or earlier schooling. He introduces the idea of writing as a dialogue, not only between author and readers but between everything that has been said  or written beforehand about the same issue.

Greene believes that whenever we write an argument, we join a conversation that has already began. In this conversation we'll find other people with different opinions that can agree or not with our point of view. That's why every time you write an argument, the way you position yourself will depend on three things: which previously stated arguments you share, which previously stated arguments you want to refute and which new opinions and supporting information you are going to bring to the conversation.

According to Greene when we develop an argument it is helpful to think of writing as a process of understanding conflicts and answering questions. In this process is really important to do three things. First, we need to identify an issue which the author defines as a fundamental tension that exists between two or more conflicting points of view. Second, we need to identify the situation to frame the issue in a specific context. Third, we need to frame a good question that can be answered with the tools you have. Framing is a metaphor for describing the prospective from which writers present their arguments. Greene compares writers with photographers arguing that writers want us to see the world in one way as opposed to another, not unlike the way a photographer manipulates a camera lens to frame a picture.

Stuart Green believes that there are four reasons to use framing as a strategy for developing an argument. First, because framing encourages you to name your position, distinguishing the way you think. Second, it forces you to offer a definition and a description of the principle around which your argument develops. Third, it enables others to respond to your argument and to generate counterarguments that you will want to engage in the spirit of a conversation. And fourth, framing helps to organize your thoughts and readers'.

I've always thought of research as a process of collecting information for its own sake. After reading Stuart Greene's article I realized that it's much more complex. I totally agree with Greene's concept of argument as a conversation. It's not just about writing and gather information for its own sake; we need to understand ourselves what we are talking about before we explain it to someone else. The most important thing about information is the use we give to it and how we shape it to enter conversations.


QD:

2. Greene uses Burke metaphor to support he's idea of argument as a conversation. In this metaphor the parlor represents the topic of the research. When it says that you arrive late and other are engaged in a heated discussion, he is referring to how when you start a research, this already has been started by someone else before and there already exist different points of view about it. Some of these opinions may or may not agree with yours. When he says that after you leave the parlor, the discussion is still in progress; he means that even though you're done doing your research about this specific topic, other people will continue doing theirs.

3. Framing is a metaphor for describing the prospective from which writers present their arguments. Greene compares writers with photographers arguing that writers want us to see the world in one way as opposed to another, not unlike the way a photographer manipulates a camera lens to frame a picture.
Stuart Green believes that there are four reasons to use framing as a strategy for developing an argument. First, because framing encourages you to name your position, distinguishing the way you think. Second, it forces you to offer a definition and a description of the principle around which your argument develops. Third, it enables others to respond to your argument and to generate counterarguments that you will want to engage in the spirit of a conversation. And fourth, framing helps to organize your thoughts and readers'.

AE

2. The article represents a conversation with the readers and also with others writers who have ever write about Arguments. I would say that Greene practices what he preaches in "Argument as Conversation". I thing he knows what he's talking about and explains it in a way that I was able to understand it. Also he quotes other writers to support his ideas and that's a way to show that there are other authors involved in this conversation.