Argument construction and intellectual risk in research
Positing arguments involves an element of risk – learn how to balance this risk in our guide below.
- What is argument construction?
- What is intellectual risk?
- Why are argument construction and intellectual risk important?
- What are the different types of argument?
- How do you improve the quality of your argument?
- How can you improve your argument construction and relationship to intellectual risk?
How confident are you in your argument construction?
There are many ways to construct arguments.
Our guide below unpacks the methods to construct arguments, why they are important, and how to protect yourself from intellectual risk while challenging the status quo.
What is argument construction?
- An argument is a series of claims from which new knowledge, meanings and contexts can be inferred by applying reason.
- The claims in academic arguments usually consist of established facts from earlier research combined with new findings from current research.
- If the argument is strong, then it can lead to the establishment of new facts, or it may challenge the validity of previous facts.
What is intellectual risk?
- There is always an element of intellectual risk in the development of new academic arguments informed by new findings. This is due to competing theories and alternative explanations that can be found in any area of research.
- There is more of a risk involved when the findings and arguments challenge the accepted status quo.
- There is also risk if the arguments used to justify the conclusions of the research turn out to be flawed or incomplete, and in extreme cases, this could have an impact upon the researcher and their team.
- Competition between researchers can lead to increased risk, so risk and competition needs to be managed in healthy ways to ensure positive research cultures.
Why are argument construction and intellectual risk important?
- Arguments enable other people to take the same path the researcher followed, by laying out steps of reasoning to arrive at a conclusion.
- Arguments can influence the way we think – and are intended to reveal a truth about a subject under investigation.
- New knowledge needs to be integrated into the wider context of existing knowledge – narratives, formed of argument and counter-argument, are part of this contextualisation.
Arguments
What are the different types of argument?
To construct an argument, work backwards from the conclusion you wish to reach. Consider your premises that will consist of the evidence that supports your conclusion. Make it a fun exercise to construct arguments to defend many different conclusions.
We’ve outlined the different types of argument below – can you construct an argument for each of these?
- Deduction – this type of argument depends on the logic that if the premise is true, then the conclusion must be true too. For this, the truth of the premise needs to be established and there must be a strong logical connection between premise and conclusion
- Induction –this involves making several separate observations and arguing that they lead to a general conclusion. This relies on multiple observations being made and is vulnerable to counter examples
- Abduction – the conclusion is the best explanation of all the available facts. This is especially strong if your conclusion accounts for contradictory findings
- Analogy – your conclusion is derived by comparison with a similar issue. The strength of your argument will rely on how similar the issues are and how strong the evidence is for the issue you use as a comparison
How do you improve the quality of your argument?
- Validity – to test an argument’s validity, assume that all the premises are true and if so whether the conclusion logically makes sense from them. If the conclusion does follow, then the argument is valid, however this argument is then only internally consistent as the premises may not be true or represent all aspects of your issue
- Enthymemes – an enthymeme is an unstated or hidden assumption that leads to a premise being true. Be aware when you may be making assumptions as this could skew the outcome of your argument
- Correlation does not imply causation – showing that one thing follows another, or at the same time, does not mean that it is caused by it
- Use of counter arguments – this is a method to use counter arguments to make your own argument stronger – avoid the tendency to disparage or demean other peoples’ conclusions!
- Occam’s razor – this theory states that when competing hypotheses are considered alongside one another, the simpler hypotheses with fewer assumptions are better places to start than the more complex hypotheses.
How can you improve your argument construction and relationship to intellectual risk?
- Identify arguments– study existing arguments in publications. Controversial arguments can often lead to the most learning about argument construction.
- Use prompts – when developing or reviewing academic arguments, ask questions such as ‘What are the assumptions in this study?’, ‘Are there any gaps in the reasoning in the discussion section?’ , ‘Is there sufficient data to draw the conclusions stated?’ and so forth.
- Construct arguments – if the arguments you are reviewing are complex or inter-related, summarise the different arguments in the form of a table or matrix first to organise them and to get a clearer picture. You could use for headings the answers to the prompts asked above, or elements such as ‘assumptions’, ‘underpinning theory’, ‘research methods’, ‘variables’, ‘hypotheses’, etcetera.
- Managing risk – there is always an element of risk in presenting academic arguments. There is a abalancing act to juggle between pushing the boundaries of the status quo and the reputation of your career. To mitigate this risk, practice being even minded about alternative explanations, and being aware of issues that detract from objectivity.
Final takeaways
- An argument is a series of claims from which new knowledge, meanings and contexts can be inferred by applying reason.
- There is always an element of intellectual risk in the development of new academic arguments informed by new findings. This is due to competing theories and alternative explanations that can be found in any area of research.
- To construct an argument, work backwards from the conclusion you wish to reach. Consider your premises that will consist of the evidence that supports your conclusion. Make it a fun exercise to construct arguments to defend many different conclusions.