December 1

Last reading blog post of the semester.  It was interesting how well thought out and organized Toulmin's model involving claims, data, warrants, and backing was.  Also interesting is that claims were qualified.  I feel the Toulmin model of argument would be a strong one considering nothing is left unsupported and not only is it supported it is backed up by information which is in turn backed up.  Another thing that would make the Toulmin model strong to use is the qualifier, though this may make one's point seem less strong and definitive it would allow the writer a way out for the outliers in the information, it's like that saying 'every rule has an exception' the qualifier would deal with the exception.  The Toulmin argument seems like a well backed up system of checks in which each piece of information is balanced by a large amount of back up and is proven to be true by such, if one piece of information is questioned the information to support it is included, as is the information to support that, and sometimes further still.

I also found Foucault's idea that knowledge comes from discourse interesting.  To me it seemed like the idea was that the more we consider something the better understanding we will have about it, this could imply that we never stop learning, which I completely believe is true.