Critical Thinking Skills - Developing Effective Analysis and Argument(2)

Emotive language; Attacking the person
Emotive language
Emotive language uses words, phrases and
examples that intend to provoke an emotional
response. Some subjects such as children,
parents, national pride, religion, crime and
security are emotive. Using these unnecessarily
as arguments can manipulate the audience's
emotions.
incident was very sad but its relevance to the
current argument is not clear. That accident
happened away from the area, and when there
was already a community centre where children
could play. There may be a good case for
keeping the community centre open, but the
author does not present a reasoned argument to
support it.
People tend to trust their own emotional
responses. Strong emotions are usually a signal Passage 7.18 Identity cards (p. 7 15)
to the body to act quickly rather than to sGw This passage attacks everyone who opposes the
down and use reasoning. If an author can elicit introduction of identity cards on personal terms.
an emotional response, then the audience is It also makes unsubstantiated assumptions about
likely to be less critical of the reasoning. Where the backgrounds and economic circumstances of
subjects are emotive, it is particularly important opponents, in order to undermine their
to check the underlying reasoning carefully. credibility. As the passage relies on these
unacceptable methods rather than reasons and
evidence, it demonstrates flawed reasoning.
Attacking the person
The passage also encourages complicity in the
audience (see page 114). By abusing opponents,
We saw in Chapter 3 that an argument should the author encourages a division between intake
counter arguments into consideration. This groups and out-groups, or 'people like them' and
means making a critical analysis of the line of 'people like us'. Furthermore, the passage draws
reasoning, not using personal attacks on those on emotive subjects, referring to crime and
with opposing views. Attacks on the person security to win over the audience.
rather than the argument are often used to
undermine the credibility of an opposing point
of view - but it is not a valid method of critical
reasoning.
Passage 7.79 (P. 7 15)
The managing director
The exception is where there is a valid reason
for showing that the opponents either have a
history of being dishonest or have not revealed
their vested interests in the debate.
Passage 7.15 Community centre (p. 1 15)
In Passage 7.15, Community centre, the author
appeals to the emotions using words such as
'poor little children' and references to 'feelings
running high' and 'suffering'. The passage
reminds the audience of a disaster that had
happened to other children in the area. The
This passage attacks the person of the manager
rather than evaluating his judgements about the
likely impact of the new players. It attacks the
manager on the grounds of his personal life, not
his expertise in managing a rugby team. We
may not agree with decisions the manager takes
in his personal life, but the passage does not
show the relevance of this to managing the
club. As the manager denies what is in the
media, it may not even be true. The use of the
term 'seedy' is emotive, suggesting there is an
illicit side to the relationship, but this is not
substantiated.
O Stella Cottrell (2005), Critical Tlzinkii~g Skills,
Palgrave Macmillan Ltd
Does it add up 1 1 7