10.4.4 Toulmin’s Rhetorical Strategy
When you make an argument in a persuasive speech, you will want to present your position logically by supporting each point with appropriate sources. You will want to give your audience every reason to perceive you as an ethical and trustworthy speaker. Your audience will expect you to treat them with respect, and to present your argument in a way that does not make them defensive. Contribute to your credibility by building sound arguments using Toulmin’s rhetorical strategy.
Stephen Toulmin’s (1958) rhetorical strategy, another persuasive strategy, focuses on three main elements: a claim, data, and warrant. Claims are the statement of your position that you will prove. Data is the evidence that you provide to support and offer proof for your claim. Finally, the warrant ties up your ideas—it is the analysis including reasoning that summarizes your thoughts and reinforces the validity of your claim. An illustration of the claim-data-warrant structure is provided in Table 10.1 below:
| Element | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Claim | Your statement of belief or truth | It is important to spay or neuter your pet. |
| Data | Your supporting reasons for the claim | Millions of unwanted pets are euthanized annually. |
| Warrant | You create the connection between the claim and the supporting reasons | Pets that are spayed or neutered do not reproduce, preventing the production of unwanted animals. |
This three-part rhetorical strategy is useful in that it makes the claim explicit, clearly illustrating the relationship between the claim and the data and allows the listener to follow the speaker’s reasoning. You may have a good idea or point, but your audience will be curious and want to know how you arrived at that claim or viewpoint. The warrant often addresses the inherent and often unspoken question, “Why is this data so important to your topic?” and helps you illustrate relationships between information for your audience. This model can help you clearly articulate it for your audience.
This section is adapted from Informative and Persuasive Presentations in Communication@Work – Simple Book Publishing by Jordan Smith licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
