Page 92 - Smart Thinking: Skills for Critical Understanding and Writing, 2nd Ed

MORE EFFECTIVE REASONING II: BETTER LINKS 79

want to develop an effective argument or explanation, we have to decide which
premises need to have their relevance substantiated and which premises do not.
Making this decision requires that we understand what is expected of us in reasoning.
We must also consider the degree to which our audience will accept that what we
claim to be relevant really is, even though we give no evidence for its relevance.
Decisions about what to include or not include to establish relevance can only
be made by thinking about the context. Imagine if I were to argue that 'all
Australians should give due recognition to Aboriginal native title claims' (claim 1)
and I gave, broadly, three reasons to show why:
2. Both common law and legislation demand such recognition.
3. Aborigines were the first inhabitants of the continent we now call
Australia.
4. Henry Reynolds has written an excellent book on the history of
Aboriginal-European relations called The Other Side of the Frontier
(1980).

For claim 2, I would not consider it necessary to explain the relevance of the
legal position; I would simply assume that my audience would see that a legal
requirement was relevant to what all Australians should do. For claim 3, I would
consider it necessary to explain to some audiences (perhaps those ignorant of such
matters) the relevance of the claim (by adding the claim 'The first inhabitants of a
land mass have inalienable rights to that land', claim 5); I would assume that other
audiences would see the relevance. For claim 4, I would always seek to explain the
relevance of this unusual premise (by adding the claims 'This book incontrovert-
ibly demonstrates the need for reconciliation' and 'native title claims are essential to
reconciliation', claim 6).

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