Download Adapted from Toulmin on Argument: An Interpretation and

Adapted from Toulmin on Argument: An Interpretation and Application by Wayne Brockriede and Douglas Ehninger
An argument is movement from accepted data, through warrant, to a claim.
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Data (D) answer the question, “What have you got to go on?”
Evidence
Claim (C) term Toulmin applies to what we normally speak of as a conclusion. Explicit and potentially controversial.
Warrant (W) authorizes the mental “leap” involved in advancing from data to claim. Warrant answers the question,
“How do we get there;” it carries the accepted data to validate the claim, thereby certifying it as acceptable; true.
Backing (B) credentials designed to certify the assumption expressed in the warrant.
Rebuttal (R) serves as a safety valve; it recognizes certain conditions under which the claim will not hold good or will
hold good only in a qualified and restricted way.
Qualifier (Q) functions as a register to the degree of force which the maker believes his claim to possess. The
qualification may be expressed by a quantifying term such as “possibly,” “probably,” “to the five percent level of
confidence,” etc.
Toulmin Argument Diagrammed
Therefore
(Q)ualifier
Presumably, Probably
(D)ata
Since
(W)
Because
(B)acking
Unless
(R)ebuttal
(C)laim
(D)
Leaders of India,
Japan, Germany,
Sweden, and Ghana
Oppose U.S. nuclear
testing
Since
(W)
What is true of a representative
and adequate sample will also be
true of additional members of the
same class to which items in the
sample belong
Therefore
(Q)
Probably
(C)
Additional leaders
of world states oppose
U.S. nuclear testing
Unless
(R)
More leaders, or more representative leaders do not oppose
such testing
Because
(B)
The sample is sufficiently representative/large enough
(D)
Greater and more diverse concentrations
of creative capital lead to higher rates of
innovation, high-technology business
formation, job generation and economic
growth.
Therefore
(Q)
Probably
Since
(W)
Places with “low entry barriers for
people” gain greater numbers of
talented and creative people who
power innovation and growth.
(C)
Regional economic growth is powered by
creative people, who prefer places that are
diverse, tolerant and open to new ideas.
Unless
(R)
Certain instances of inequality exist, prohibiting “low
entry barriers for people,” thus not wholly fulfilling the
creative capital theory.
Because
(B)
Statistical research shows that creative people
are attracted to, and high-tech industry takes root
in, places that score high on the basic indicators
of diversity (Florida, et al research).
Ex. Based on class reading: Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class