Analysis of an Argument - Essay Example

group meeting argument where Tannen defines agonism as a ritualized position for example in a debate whereby the competing groups are assigned positions and one group wins, rather than an argument resulting from the two groups natural disagreement. The book has been constructed based on the effects and roles of agonism in politics, journalism and law. A basic issue addressed in this book is the rampant agonism in the academic world. Many issues concerning academics are agonistics in nature, for example, when teachers and professors prepare the scholarly papers, they usually follow a framework that is in a position to oppose someone else’s work which they prove wrong.

In this book’s context agonism is well explained by the fact that teachers and lecturers train their students and usually don’t allow them to think and work hard to interrogate ideas because they assign them with researched scholarly works. This fosters narrow-mindedness and arrogance amongst the students and this does not implement the fundamental goals of education (Tannen 24). Tannen in her book explores the differences between a debate and a discussion in class in order to explain the Agonism culture deeply.

In a classroom, if students are engaged in a debate, few of them will participate in the debate, some will pay attention but many of the students will indeed get turned off. Those students who are arguing will tend to simplify their points and avoids complexity in thinking. They deliberately refuse to concede a point raised by their opponents, even if they are aware that it is valid, because such a concession would render them as uncompetitive in the debate. If a class engages itself in discussing a book which involves intellectual activities such as freedom in exploring ideas, comparing the different interpretations of the book by the students and uncovering nuances, more students participate and gains a deeper and accurate understanding of the book.

The students in a class discussion