Rhetorical Analysis Of The Argument Culture By Deborah Tannen

Debate Language
“The Argument Culture” is a persuasive essay written by Professor Deborah Tannen. As a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University, Tannen experience in language leads her to write many books in this field. Tannen uses “The Argument Culture” essay to persuade her audience that this society’s way of looking at debate encourages an “adversarial frame of mind” (Tannen, 305). Three of Tannen’s main points include; polarized views in the news, the use of “war metaphors’ by media to catch the readers eye, and even in the language mankind uses in everyday life. Tannen’s essay also includes different ways to look at these each of these situations that may help reduce the debate language that this society uses every day. The first example Tannen shares is how this society assumes the best way to solve anything is through debate. Tannen explains, this society believes “the best way to cover news is to find spokespeople who
This is very important because “the argument culture pervades every aspect of [American’s] lives today” (305). As Tannen’s first main point informs the reader, the argument culture is especially evident when watching the nightly news and being bombarded by debate. Through Tannen’s examples of war metaphors she proves that the media uses these metaphors to encourage disputes. War metaphors can also be found in American’s everyday conversations; it is particularly used to emphasis or even exaggerate a point in a conversation. This also shows how the language that is used in describing a situation changes one’s perception of the said situation. Tannen’s essay should be read by everyone living in this argument culture so their eyes will be open to the “adversarial frame of mind” (305) that can be found in this society. Then maybe this “argument culture” can find creative “ways of resolving disputes and differences” (305) without