Teaching Moment #481: Warrants and pictures of dogs

Rhetorical warrants, for those ignorant, backwoods simpletons who frequent this site, is the connection between the argument one makes, and the evidence one uses to make it. Sometimes stated, sometimes not, the warrant is often an argument in and of itself.

For example, when you tell the boss, "Sorry I didn't get those TCP reports done, but last night was two-for-one at the bar and grill," your (unstated) warrant is, "When choosing between doing my job or drinking, I choose drinking." Or when a kid tells me, "I don't have my book for this class; my mother never takes me to buy books until the last minute," the (unstated) warrant is that Mom's driving is the only way the kid can get his school supplies.

Or take Manny, in my comp class. He sees a picture of my pet Chihuahuas on my computer desktop and snickers, pointing at me. "You care more about those dogs than you do us, I bet," he jeered. "True," I acknowledge. "But what gave it away? The picture?" He nodded, and I immediately scrawled the argumentative map on the board:

CLAIM: Teacher likes dogs more than us.
EVIDENCE: The desktop picture of them.
WARRANT: ?????

Not more than ten seconds passed before Manny grabbed the chalk and stepped up for his generation:

WARRANT: Desktop pictures measure one's love for the living beings in his life.

"What can I say?" Manny tossed off at me on the way out the door that afternoon. "I rule."

Yes you do, Manny. By the way, you've got some toilet paper hanging out the seat of your pants. But still.