Page 43 - 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. l )
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

Using the above example about the Internet, briefly list the differences and
similarities between the two formats. Check the answers carefully.