Personal Anecdotes
14.4 Discuss: How to Construct Arguments: The Use of Personal Anecdotes 20 20 unread replies. 24 24 replies. Since the purpose of many arguments is to convince readers to agree, its important to have a central idea for readers to agree with. An arguments main idea is its central claim or thesis statement. The central claim or thesis should illustrate a specific focus and purpose: To convince undecided readers to accept your thesis To make opposing readers less resistant to your thesis To convince readers who agree with you to take action. Since reasons often are opinions, they need evidence to show that they can be considered valid. Each reason needs to be supported with evidence which can include: Examples from personal experience or personal anecdotes Statistics Facts and quotations from your research Results of field research, such as interviews, etc . . . Your choices of evidence reflect your: Purpose Audience Context With this as background, in a post of at least 200 words, answer the following questions: When are personal anecdotes useful? What are the limits of personal anecdotes in formal arguments? What other kinds of evidence could be used to supplement or even replace a personal anecdote?
