College Writing

College Writing Study Guide was to win arguments – to convince the opposition to agree with what he was presenting. Psycholo- gist Carl Rogers attempted to bring two sides together in a mutually bene�icial understanding. Here is a breakdown of how each method would handle the pizza scenario that we’ve been working with. Aristotelian Method Rogerian Method We should go to the pizza joint. We should go to the pizza joint. Pizza is one of our favorite foods. I understand that you would prefer the steakhouse. I understand that you want to go to the steakhouse. I would prefer pizza because it is one of my favorite foods. However, the new pizza joint is cheaper, faster, and more enjoyable. Perhaps we could either get the pizza and steak as take- out and eat at home, or we could �ind a restau- rant that we both can agree on. You got to choose the restaurant so many times; now it is my turn. It is important that we both get a good, healthy meal that we can enjoy. You can see the fundamental difference between the two methods: the Aristotelian Method is focused on winning while the Rogerian Method is focused on maintaining the happiness of both parties. What can you learn by developing your understanding of the Aristotelian Method? You will often be confronted with circumstances that demand decisive action, or there will be issues that you cannot morally compromise about. In these cases, especially when the situation is rhetorical, winning the argument is vital. Acknowledging the other person’s point of view is a jumping-off point for your own argument in the AristotelianMethod, andwhen the circumstances require that you win the argument, you should do the best you can to downplay the opposition’s validity. What can you learn by developing your understanding of the Rogerian Method? Sometimes the rela- tionship is more important than the argument. In these cases, deploying the Rogerian Method centers on compromise and preserving the mutual respect between the two parties. Overall, we have looked at the Five- Paragraph Essay, which is the preferred organizational structure for the test questions, and the Five- Part Essay, the Toulmin, Aristotelian, and Rogerian Methods of organizations – all of which provide an opportunity to expand your thought processes as you develop what text to insert in the organizational structure. You can think of each of these methods as vague outlines – like the lines in a coloring book – for you to �ill in the text with your paragraphs. 3.2 Paragraph-Level Organization Paper-level organization helps your reader follow the steps of your argument, and paragraph-level organization helps your reader take those steps with you. The basic format of a paragraph begins

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