Quiz Ch. 7 & 8

I feel as if my research fits the definition of Fact. As it states in Lunsford's text, "Factual arguments tend to be driven by perceptions and evidence,” and in my paper, I definitely utilize statistics, studies, and research done by students and authors in order to solidify my factual argument. When reading the text, I found an interesting statement. The author states that in truth, a great majority of factual arguments start with society searching for a problem or working with something that will brew up a problem. My research question, ‘how has texting effected language as we know it today’ parallels this notion of people actively looking for a problem, (an interesting one at that) and then using hard evidence to solidify why language is evolving the way it is because of texting. Upon reading Lunsford’s ‘Everything’s an Argument,’ identifying an issue that already has a potential audience is key. He goes on to say that there are a plentiful amount of books floating in libraries that are written primarily to pursue these factual questions. By choosing the topic of texting and its effect on language, my paper is only backed by facts and “hard evidence”, not logic.
When I initially began my paper, I realized that my sources were going to be the key to a successful paper. It was imperative that I find scholarly articles that were peer reviewed by other universities, and then proven to be legitimate. Moreover, I needed to know what sort of content was included in these articles in order to make my paper and argument as strong as possible, which was not an easy task to complete. Reading Chapter 7 of our book, parts of the text soothed my worries. “Quite often, you may have only so many words or pages to make a factual argument.” This was my exact case in a few situations at the beginning stages of putting my paper together. However, my actions to produce a powerful argument in this paper and my next paralleled what the book suggested one do in this case. It is not how many words you have from articles and sources, it’s the detail and persuasive, factual evidence in the paper that really hit the ball home in creating a masterpiece paper.
Without researching a topic first, one cannot claim anything as a “fact” without legitimate evidence proving the reasoning. After researching texting and language evolution hours upon end, I feel confident enough to turn my hypothesis into a claim because I have found enough evidence to prove that there in fact has been an effect on language because of texting, and the slang and shorthand it involves. Overall, because my sources are scholarly and approved by peers, and they also incorporate the key features of a factual argument, I feel as if my topic vs the things I read in “Everything’s an Argument” agree that my paper fits in to the factual category.