Friday, September 12, 2008

Thesis Statement: "What's Happening" Was a Great Television Show

Topic Sentence #1: The Opening Theme Was Sublime

4 comments:

M said...

Your first topic sentence is an opinion, as is your thesis statement, and it, therefore, cannot be proven. Are you sure you're not running for office?

solon said...

Um....

I think I have to disagree with you M. You distinction between fact and opinion seems troubling.

Whether or not something can be "proven" is not possible for most arguments even less you stick to mathematics or the hard sciences. And, when argumentation is demonstration, it is rather pointless.

Besides Copernicus possessed an opinion as did Galileo. They became "facts" when people accepted them as facts.

The goal for argumentation is to gain adherence. Can Harrogate persuade an audience that the "theme was sublime?" That is the question...

Oxymoron said...

Cf. Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca's The New Rhetoric.

Anonymous said...

Did Harrogate not support his claim with indisputable evidence?