Searching for Alternative Metaphors for Argumentation Beth Baker

“The language of argument is not poetic, fanciful, or rhetorical; it is literal.  We talk about arguments that way because we conceive of them that way - and we act according to the way we conceive of things” (Lakoff and Johnson, 5).

1. Question: How can the search for and creation of alternative metaphors for argument be applied to the WRIT 101 classroom?
Metaphor: “The term metaphor comes from the Greek words meta, meaning “beyond” or “above”... and pherein, meaning “to carry.”  A metaphor carries... another meaning beyond its literal one” (Keith and Lundberg, 68).

2. First, why is searching for alternative metaphors for argumentation important?

- As Lakoff and Johnson, above, and Tannen, conclude, the language we use shapes the way we think, and the way we think shapes the way we act.

- The argument culture tends towards polarizations and dualities, which do not present the full range of possibilities or view points.

- Criticism and attack, built into the metaphor of argument as war, become seen as the best means of critical thought.

3. Alternatives to argument as war.

- Argument as building, a metaphor already present in our cultural language, identified by Lakoff and Johnson. We construct arguments. We need a strong foundation. Sometimes arguments collapse, etc. This is a less harmful way of looking at argument, though it doesn't impart any notion of collaboration or movement away from dualities.

- Argument as ecology, as suggested by James Klumpp. “An argumentative ecology is an interaction of arguers and arguments sited in and producing a community of coordinated, reasoned action. Etymologically, "ecology" is the study of a "home." Argumentative ecologies are homes for argument. As a mode of study, argumentative ecology promotes study of argument as interconnected and evolving patterns of reason giving and coordination that structure human understanding and action. The study entails both the substance and the structure of arguing in particular human communities” (Klumpp184)

- Argument as balance, as is suggested in Chinese philosophy, as identified by Tannen in a chapter on other cultures' understandings of argument. Chinese philosophy sees “a diverse universe in precarious balance that is maintained by talk. This translates into methods of investigation that focus more on integrating ideas and exploring relations among them than on opposing ideas and fighting over them” (258).

- Argument as smoking a hookah, as suggested by Beth Baker. Drawing on my cultural references for an image, an idea is passed around the circle, inhaled, or mused over by each participant, who is allotted time to contribute or exhale, which perfumes the air, making the general atmosphere more pleasant. This draws on collaboration and listening.

4. Practical applications of alternative metaphors and moving away from the culture of argument:

1. Deborah Tannen suggests something as simple as presenting concepts not in dualities, presented not in opposition to each other, but in threes, so that each concept is given its own weight individually, rather than in comparison to the other.

2. Play the “Believing Game,” with drafts of student work, as recommended by Peter Elbow via Tannen. “Elbow recommends learning to approach new ideas, and ideas different from your own, in a different spirit - what he calls a “believing game.”... Elbow is not recommending that we stop doubting altogether. He is telling us to stop doubting exclusively. We need a systematic and respected way to detect and expose strengths, just as we have a systematic and respected way of detecting faults” (Tannen, 273).


3. As a part of the Op-Ed unit, students read excerpts of Tannen's The Argument Culture. As homework, identify and bring in to share with class examples of culture which reflect the argument as war metaphor.

4. Students read work which utilizes alternative forms of argumentation, then construct their own metaphors for argument, and practice building arguments using their own metaphors. Nicholas Kristof wrote an Op-Ed for the NYTimes called “Test Your Savvy on Religion,” which utilizes a quiz in order to demonstrate common mis-perceptions about religion, which operates by using readers' own knowledge or ignorance to convince them that their stereotypes about others based on religious beliefs are unfounded.

5. Other uses of metaphor in the classroom: Metaphors, as long as they are well crafted and explored in the classroom, can offer new ways of understanding assignments and concepts, in addition to argument. For example, many of my students had trouble understanding how to weave the personal and the academic elements together for the PAA, how much weight to give to each in the paper. I came across a metaphor used by Patricia Dunn, in her book Talking Sketching Moving: Multiple Literacies in the Teaching of Writing. Students were to think of themselves in the driver's seat, and they should put the academics in the backseat, or better yet, the trunk. The student drives the car, they decide the direction. If they get lost, then and only then do they stop the car, go and check in with the academics in the trunk.



Resources
Patricia Dunn, Talking Sketching Moving: Multiple Literacies in the Teaching of Writing
Nicholas Kristof, “Test Your Savvy on Religion,” NYTimes
George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By
Deborah Tannen, The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War of Words