How to Invent an Argument

How to invent an argument by formulating and testing a hypothesis

Definition of Concepts:

Inventing an argument is devising something by thinking. You can invent an argument by using what you find from testing your hypothesis.

A hypothesis is an assumption made for the sake of argument that can be tested. It is also an interpretation of a situation. In a hypothesis you have to be able to prove it right or wrong. An example of this is if skin cancer is related to ultraviolet light, then people with a high exposure to UV light will have a higher frequency of skin cancer. When creating a hypothesis you have to remember that is it an argument made up of two statements. The first is a claim, which is what you are trying to argue. The second part is a reason, which is why do you think that will happen. In the example before the claim is if skin cancer is related to ultra violet light, then the reason would be it was because of having a higher exposure to UV light will cause in increase in cancer risk. You can formulate a hypothesis by developing two original thoughts that can be tested using an if, then statement. An example of this would be, if UV light causes skin cancer, then a higher exposure to it will lead to an increase in skin cancer. Your hypothesis will essentially be made up of an independent and dependent variable. The independent variable being something you can control and then dependent variable being something that is being observed, you can not control or change this. In the example the independent variable is the UV light and the skin cancer is the dependent variable.

An argument is a reason given in truth or rebuttal. Based on what you find by testing your hypothesis, what can you now argue is true or false? An example, from the hypothesis above if you completed that study and found that people who had a higher exposure to UV light do have an increase in cancer than your hypothesis is correct. You can now argue from your findings that people with a higher exposure to UV light have a higher risk of getting skin cancer

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. You first need to decide what you want to test.

2. This has to be something with an independent and dependent variable.

3. What you want to test also has to be able to be proven correct or false.

4. Once this is decided you need to come up with a claim and reason for what you want to test.

5. After you come up with this you can put it in an original statement.

6. You can easily form your hypothesis by using an if, then statement.

7. This is when you say if this happens, then this will be the result.

8. After your hypothesis is created you can now come up with how you want to test it.

9. You can chose to test your hypothesis by using ethnographies, interviews, case studies, and library research.

10. Whichever test you think would be most effective for your research should be used.

11. Then you complete this test and record your results.

12. Once you have your results you can come up with a conclusion on whether or not your hypothesis was correct.

13. From this conclusion you can form for your original argument.

How I used this Concept in one of my Projects:

Hypothesis: According to Howard Rheingold’s Virtual Communities and Neil Postman’s Technopoly, the technological development of social networks has allowed people to become more informed and accessible around the world. The result of this has not only changed the culture of the people using these social networks, but has taken over them. Social networks such as Facebook, have allowed not only people’s social network to expand, but their real life network of people as well.

Results: Overall my results ended up disconfirming my hypothesis because in the end Facebook did not help expand people’s online or real life social networks. My results proved my hypothesis wrong because after observing my results I could see that Facebook has helped people stay connected as friends, but has not helped people make new friends. I could see this all over Facebook because everything that was posted by people was updates or their day and what events they would be attending. These posts seemed to spark conversations mainly between friends that talk on a day-to-day basis, so this shows me that Facebook is mainly a tool to help people stay in contact and socialize in a way they have never been able to socialize before. I did see a difference though in the conversations that was after the status updates and conversations after the events. It seemed that updates of people’s day allow them to converse with old friends, or maybe friends they do not see often. I could conclude this because most of the conversations were asking how the person had been and what they have been up to. This proves to me that Facebook helps people keep in contact even if it is just saying hello. Then the conversations after the events people are attending showed me that it helps people that see each other everyday communicate though a social network. When observing how many friends people had I was shocked because it would be impossible to stay closely connected to thousands of people. But after observing which people talked to who, I came up with the conclusion that people know almost everyone on their friend’s list from school, they just do not talk to them on a daily basis. I feel that people like the easy accessibility though if they wanted to talk to someone that hadn’t talked to in while. That is one of the benefits I could see from analyzing Facebook; you can have thousands of friends but only talk to them when you want to and they will still be your friends. I could conclude this from seeing how many friends someone has on their friend list compared to how many people he or she actually talk to on their profile and have pictures with. People had thousands of friends and only interactions and pictures with a handful of them. My analysis of my interviews gave me the same results as my ethnography. They both ended up disproving my hypothesis because they had no positive impact on people’s social networks. Everyone said that Facebook helps him or her stay connected to his or her friends and that is why they chose to be apart of the network. This goes against my hypothesis because I was expecting people to say they joined Facebook to make friends. Then I even found out that Facebook could have a negative impact on friendships because it had ruined so many. I feel that the reason for this is that information can travel at the speed of light, so nothing can be hidden from anyone on the network. Then next question I asked was if Facebook has ever made them more distant from their friends and people’s answers were very surprising. The answers were that Facebook did not make them more distant that anyone they had not been distant with. From all my interviews I can conclude that Facebook does not help people’s social networks because people only communicate with their close friends and sometimes friends from the past.

Original argument: My original contribution to Howard Rheingold’s theory that social networks give people the freedom to talk to who they want when they want is that virtual communities such as Facebook not only allow people to log on and talk to who they want, but almost forces them to once they join this virtual world. Once you are apart of these virtual communities they obligate you to communicate with the friends you have in these networks. What I would tell Rheingold that he does not already know is that you do have the freedom on in these virtual communities, but they also guide you to staying in contact with your friends you already have.

In class I used this concept to create my own argument to add to an argument that was already made. I first started out by researching how technology has changed the world by reading Howard Rheingold’s Virtual Communities. In this reading I found that the technological development of social networks has allowed people to become more informed and accessible around the world. The result of this has not only changed the culture of the people using these social networks, but has taken over them.

I then developed my hypothesis from here which was, social networks such as Facebook, have allowed not only people’s social network to expand, but their real life network of people as well.

· I then thought of how it would be best to test my hypothesis and I decided to use ethnographies and interviews.

· Once I decided this I used both to conduct my research.

· What I found was that the development of people’s social networks had no positive impact on their real life social networks.

· From these findings I was able to form my own original argument to add to Howard Rheingold’s findings.

· I did this by examining my hypothesis and results and coming up with something that I could add that would be original.

Assignment for the Class:

Pick an organization you are involved in on campus. Then I want you to try to find what this organization is trying to argue and form a hypothesis. I would like to you do this by going to meetings or events that this organization puts on and take notes. Once you have developed your hypothesis you need to determine how you are going to test it. Then you can test your hypothesis and review your results. From here I want you to develop an argument about this organization that you would not have found if you did not research them. This will hopefully help you understand your organization at a better level.

For this assignment I would like you to give me a plan with your hypothesis and how you plan to test it. Then I would also like a copy of all the notes you take while attending events. For your final part of the project you will write a 5-6 page paper explaining your argument and how you developed it by testing your hypothesis. The most important part of this paper is how you developed your argument, so be very specific.