1.9: The Focus of This Chapter

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Jim Marteney
Los Angeles Valley College via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)

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We begin this book by examining personal argumentation. The goal of this book is to offer you critical thinking tools that you can use to participate more effectively in the many argumentative situations and environments in which you find yourself.

To reach that goal, this chapter wanted to focus on 3 key ideas:

Arguing is not to be avoided. We all have personal and professional disagreements. If we do not argue and instead cover them up, we just let hostility grow.
We all have a natural style of facing conflict. Each conflict style is useful given the situation of the disagreements. Your strength will occur when you become more flexible in your styles so you can use the most effective style in every situation you face.
You do not have to win every argument. The person, or people, you are arguing with just might have a better argument. You are not less of a person when you abandon your original position and accept another's. It is fine to lose an argument because that is when you learn and grow as a person.