Читать книгу The theory and practice of argumentation and debate - Victor Alvin Ketcham - Страница 17

In the beginning there is always a tendency to make the proposition cover too broad a field. This is rather a defect of wording than of subject-matter. Let us take a proposition which is too broad, and narrow it so that it will contain but a single idea. For this purpose we may select the proposition, “Resolved, that freshmen should not be permitted to take part in athletics.” As it stands, this proposition includes all freshmen everywhere and prohibits them from taking part in athletics of every kind. In other words the field which it covers is too broad. The proposition treats of two things, freshmen and athletics. Let us first make the provision in regard to freshmen definite, that is, narrow it down to a field with definite limits. We can do this by making it apply only to the freshmen of Columbia University or of any other specified institution. Thus the collecting of material as well as the determination of the issues involved becomes a much simpler matter. In the second place let us make the provision in regard to athletics more definite. As the proposition stands it excludes freshmen from all athletics whatsoever, including inter-class and inter-society as well as intercollegiate. Here again the field is too wide and some restriction must be placed upon the subject-matter. Therefore we insert the word “intercollegiate” before the word “athletics” in order that the field for discussion may be narrowed down to a single, definite issue. With these modifications the proposition now stands, “Resolved, that freshmen at Columbia University should not be permitted to take part in intercollegiate athletics,” which is an entirely satisfactory proposition because it narrows the field of discussion to one definite, central idea.

Though this difficulty will doubtless present itself in a variety of forms, the principles stated above as well as the illustration, if kept in mind by the student, will enable him to keep clear of this fault.