How to engage in healthy civil dialogue …
In order to engage in any kind of meaningful civil dialogue, we must be sure to take into consideration multiple perspectives and be prepared to defend lines of argumentation with sound logic and reasoning.
From a rhetorical theory standpoint, a strong argument (also called a rhetorical proof) should feature the following elements:
Claim: your personal statement about the issue at hand
Support: Information/data from credible sources
Reasoning: Language that links your support to your claim
If you are missing any of these components (particularly the support) your argument falls into the realm of emotion appeal.
When emotional appeals are used as the primary defense for any argument, it is easy to internalize any questioning as a personal attack, which will likely result in the dissolution of any meaningful civil dialogue.
Unfortunately, this happens more often than not. We, as a populace, no longer know how to disagree with each other and still get along because we no longer exchange facts and information. It’s no longer a behavior that is adequately modeled.
So please, if you are going to engage in persuasive communication, know what you’re arguing for. Gather credible* evidence. Choose your words carefully and work to help others understand your point of view. Not everyone will agree with you, but at least there’s a better chance they’ll understand and respect your line of thinking.
*If you’re unsure of how to evaluate resources, no worries. I’ll be sharing some tips and tricks for that in the next post.
