Stephen Toulmin

Stephen Toulmin was an English philosopher who studied how to make an argument. He said that an argument should have three things: evidence, a claim, and a conclusion. Evidence means facts that prove your claim is true; a claim is the statement you want to prove; and a conclusion is what you think is true based on the evidence. For example, if you wanted to prove that dogs are smarter than cats, you could use evidence like doctors' studies and stories of people who had both animals in their home where their dogs were more obedient. Your claim would be "Dogs are smarter than cats," and the conclusion would be "Therefore, dogs are smarter than cats." Toulmin's ideas help us to make sure our arguments are clear, organized, and convincing.