Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

30 SMART THINKING: SKILLS FOR CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING & WRITING

claims within claims, half-expressed claims, and so on. All the potentially

confusing 'short-hand' use of pronouns, such as 'this' and 'it', and implicit cross-

referencing is removed in favour of precisely written claims. Finally, the

diagram, with grouped premises, clarifies all of the clever ways of writing that

make English interesting to read but that mean it is hard to recognise just

exactly which premise leads to which conclusion, and in combination with

which other premises.

Here is a more complex example of how one argument can be expressed in

two different formats—as narrative flow and as analytical structure. While

there is much about this argument that you may not yet understand (and we

explore the details in later chapters), for the moment, just use it as a point of

comparison between the two formats. First, here is the underlying structure,

expressed as a list of claims and a diagram to show how they relate to one

another.

1. The Internet has no single regulatory
   body to impose censorship.


2. The Internet is hard to censor consis-
   tently and reliably.


3. The Internet is a new communications
   medium that is available for anyone to
   use.


4. Vast amounts of violent and porno-
   graphic material are available on the
   Internet.


5. Children often have access to the
   Internet.


6. Children will, sooner or later, view
   violent and pornographic material on
   the Internet.
   And here is how we might write this argument in natural language.

We need to be keenly aware that children will, sooner or later, view violent

and pornographic material on the Internet. It is a new communications

medium that is available for anyone to use. The 'Net', since it has no

single regulatory body to impose censorship, cannot be consistently and

reliably censored, meaning that vast amounts of violent and pornographic

material are available on it, and as we know, children often have access to

the Internet.

Exercise 3.3

l )

Using the above example about the Internet, briefly list the differences and

similarities between the two formats. Check the answers carefully.