The shape of a good argument
Six lines of one person deciding, out of order. Put them into the order that argues rather than lists.
- Against that, I am currently paying somebody else to do the two things I would then do myself.
- So on balance I am going to ask, and I would rather be turned down than keep not asking.
- I have been considering going part-time since the spring.
- What tips it is that I am no longer any good at the job by Thursday afternoon.
- On the face of it the money makes it impossible.
- The downside is that part-time people are the first ones a company forgets about.
What a good four minutes sounds like
Rafaela, on whether to take the transfer
The offer is Curitiba, two years, and about thirty per cent more. On the face of it that is a straightforward yes, and everybody I have told has treated it as one.
Against that: my father is seventy-eight and my brother lives in Portugal, which means I am not one of two people, I am the one person. Nobody has said that to me. They do not have to.
The downside of refusing is real and I do not want to pretend it away. This is the second time they have asked. I would not expect them to ask a third.
What tips it is something smaller than either of those. I have realised I keep describing the move as something that would happen to me, not something I would do. I have never once said I want to go. In four months.
So, on balance: I am going to refuse, and I am going to ask them to keep me in mind for something in eighteen months, which may be nothing more than a way of refusing politely. All things considered, I would rather choose it now than have it decided by not answering.
Three questions about how the argument is built.
1. What does she do immediately after stating the offer?
2. What is the deciding factor, in the end?
3. Why does she admit the cost of refusing?
Four moves, and the phrases that make them
Rafaela made four moves, in this order: state it, concede the strongest objection, admit the cost of her own answer, name what actually tips it.
Each move has its own phrases. Use them and the argument builds itself.
Eight phrases. Match each to the move it makes.
Two minutes of assembly
One to three words per gap. Some gaps need a weighing phrase; some need a verb pattern.
On the of it, staying is obviously cheaper. Against , I have been avoiding at the numbers for three months, which suggests I already know what they say. The of going is that I would be the newest person in the room again at forty-three. What it is that I cannot imagine this same conversation next March. All things , I have decided .
Five sentences of the kind that appear when somebody is arguing and monitoring at the same time. One error each.
1. On the face of it, I cannot afford leaving.
2. Against that, I keep to avoid the conversation.
3. The downside is that it would mean to move twice in a year.
4. What tips it is that I have stopped to believe the numbers. — he no longer believes them
5. All things considered, I have decided asking for the transfer.
The adviser who argues the other way
How this runs. Three stages, twenty-six minutes. Stage 1 alone, stages 2 and 3 in pairs, then swap and run 2 and 3 again.
Stage 1 · Alone · 4 minutes
Prepare the decision you are actually facing — the one from Lesson 1, or a better one if it has arrived since.
Four minutes of notes. Not sentences. Five lines is enough.
- The two options, one line each. If you cannot state them in one line each, they are not yet two options.
- The strongest argument against the one you are leaning towards.
- The cost of your preferred option, stated without softening it.
- The factor you think tips it — and, separately, the factor you would tell somebody else tips it.
Stage 2 · Pairs · 4 minutes each · Speaking
Argue your decision to your partner. Your partner’s job is not to agree with you.
Four minutes, using the four moves in order: state it, concede the objection, admit your own cost, name what tips it.
- Use at least three of the eight weighing phrases, and mean them.
- Use at least four verb pairs from Lessons 3 and 4 — you will anyway; the point is to hear yourself do it.
- Do not conclude in the first minute. If your conclusion arrives early, you have not conceded enough.
- End with an actual position, not a summary of the difficulty.
Stage 3 · Pairs · 4 minutes · The adviser
Now the listener argues, seriously and in good faith, for the option their partner is not taking.
Four minutes. Not devil’s advocacy for sport — the best real case for the road not taken.
- Open by restating the decision in your own words. If the speaker corrects you, you had not understood it.
- Name the one factor that would have to change for their answer to change.
- Ask the question they have been avoiding. You will know which one it is; they went quiet near it.
- The speaker finishes by saying whether anything moved — and if nothing did, why not.
Listener’s sheet — three columns.
1 · Pairs. Every verb-plus-verb you hear, written as a pair.
2 · Moves. Tick the four moves as they arrive. Note any that never do.
3 · The unnamed factor. Write the one thing that would change their mind — and whether they ever said it out loud.
Column three is the one that matters. Most people can name what tips a decision for somebody else and not for themselves.
What column three said
Two questions. Answer for yourself, honestly.
1. Did your partner name the factor in column three before you did?
2. Which of the four moves went missing most often across the room?
Twenty-six minutes of your own patterns
Two questions. Twenty seconds.
1. Why does a reasoned turn concede before it argues?
2. What happens to verb patterns when the argument gets harder?
Next. Your own pairs, from today — the ones that arrived whole, the ones that stalled, and why the difference is about storage rather than knowledge.