My writing students -- I teach English Composition -- have a great deal of trouble filling the middle of their paragraphs. They have no trouble delivering their opinions. They can tell me what they believe -- for instance -- that television is the cause of violence on the streets of our cities -- or the very opposite -- that television is not responsible for the violence, but parents are responsible -- they have no trouble delivering an opinion. What they have trouble with is backing up an opinion -- or filling the middle of a paragraph.
A quotation I came across recently explains their problem. "Assertion is the logic of ignorance & prejudice; argument is the logic of wisdom & truth."
To assert something -- to merely deliver an opinion, is to reveal ignorance, prejudice. I know you believe blacks are inferior to whites -- or I know you believe television is the cause of violence on our streets -- but merely to assert -- merely to deliver an opinion, is useless. If all you do is tell me what you believe, you are giving me the logic of ignorance, prejudice. In other words, you are not being logical, you are not giving me reasons to believe what you believe -- you are merely asserting -- delivering an opinion -- and that is what marks ignorance & prejudice. You have no arguments, no proof, no examples. All you have is your opinion.
Wisdom & truth come into being when you try to argue, when you try to explain to me why you believe what you believe -- and to do that, you must give me examples, you must cite statistics, you must go to history, scientific research, the words of others, the examples in your own life.
I am not saying that if you argue, rather than assert, I will agree with you. I might find your arguments illogical, your examples insufficient. You might tell me you believe what you believe because everyone else believes it -- or you believe what you believe because your friend watched one violent TV show and went out and hit people. Your arguments may not be good enough to convince me -- but at least you are arguing -- presenting to me the evidence that made you jump to a conclusion. You are not merely asserting -- throwing out opinions, you are arguing, giving the basis of your opinions.
And that is what my poor students fail to do -- they fail to fill the middle of their paragraphs with the examples that made them arrive at the conclusions they have arrived at.
But I should not be angry at them. College is where they learn to not merely assert, but to assert and try to back up their assertions with some kind of evidence.
And finally what they need to learn is that an opinion, an assertion, is merely knowledge in the making. They are finding out why they believe what they believe by trying to back up their beliefs. they are learning that assertions are the logic of ignorance & prejudice & that argument is the logic of wisdom & truth.
Copyright © 2004 Henry Morgenstein