EXERCISES

1.  Name five questions the right or wrong of which you have been called upon to decide.

2.  Name five similar questions that are likely to arise in every one’s experience.

3.  Name five questions of right concerning which opinions very often differ.

4.  Is an action that is right for one person ever wrong for another?

+Theme CXII.+—­Write out the reasons for or against one of the following:—­

1.  Should two pupils ever study together?

2.  Is a lie ever justifiable?

3.  Was Shylock’s punishment too severe?

4.  Woman’s suffrage should be established.

5.  The regular party nominee should not always be supported.

EXERCISES

Give reasons for or against the following:—­

1.  We should abolish class-day exercises.

2.  The study of science is more beneficial than the study of language.

3.  Foreign skilled laborers should be excluded from the United States.

4.  Hypnotic entertainments should not be allowed.

5.  The study of algebra should not be made compulsory in a high school.

6. Uncle Tom’s Cabin should be excluded from school libraries.

7.  Physical training should be compulsory in public schools.

8.  High school secret societies should not be allowed.

+Theme CXIII.+—­Write an argument of expediency using one of the subjects named in the preceding exercise.

(What advantages have you made most prominent? 
To what feelings have you appealed?)

+Theme CXIV.+—­Write a narration in which the hero is called upon to decide whether some course of action is right or wrong.

(Consider the theme as a narration.  Does it fulfill the requirements of Chapter IX? (See Summary.) Consider just the arguments used.  Are the arguments sufficient to bring conviction to the reader that the hero decided rightly?)

+203.  Refutation.+—­No question is worth argument unless there are two sides to it—­unless there is a chance for some doubt in the mind of the hearer as to which side seems most reasonable.  Many questions are of such a nature that in trying to convince our hearers of some truth, we often find it necessary to show them, not only the truth of a proposition or the expediency of a course of action, but also the falsity of some opposing proposition or the inexpediency of the opposite course of action.  This tearing to pieces another’s argument, is called refutation, or destructive argument.  A successful debater shows nearly if not equal skill in tearing down his opponent’s arguments as in building up his own.