Tannen Technique's

In her article “We Need a Higher Quality Outrage,” Deborah Tannen stresses the importance of genuine opposition. Throughout the article Tannen utilizes important writing techniques to help prove valid points and make suggestions in relation to developing proper opposition. In doing so, she expresses some of her own ideas in the article. She believed citizens of America should create logical questions, investigate the motives of politicians, include their voice on important issues, ignore any outside mass media influence, and form valid arguments towards their government. She organizes these topics well making the article easier to read. In other terms, the article flowed
Most writers who write a formal article, essay, or research paper usually tend to write their thesis statement somewhere in the middle of their introductory paragraph. You may even find it somewhere later when the persuasive arguments are being made. Tannen chose to write her thesis in the first sentence of the article. “We need to ratchet up the level of opposition in our public and private discourse.” (Tannen 55). This helps the set her argument by firmly stating her position and allowing for no immediate questions to be asked. This idea of this sentence will be referred to back and forth to emphasize the argument, making it a straight forward statement to rely on and to help her remember her position.
Tannen displays another persuasive technique that the class learned in chapter four. She acknowledges the opposition. She previously wrote a book called The Argument Culture which she recognizes could’ve been used as material by the opposition to refute the current argument she presents in this article. In using this technique and then supporting her change with facts, she successfully defends her position and further displays the authority in which she has. This was a crucial move in her efforts to persuade the audience.
Throughout the first three paragraphs of the article, Tannen is constantly defining the term “agonism.” This is important because she gives the audience different definitions and examples to show how the term will be used throughout her article. She first gives her own definition, then the general definition, and finally the definition as used by journalist. She plays with the example of a street brawl in order to define agonism in a way that the audience can relate to. By doing so she allows a better understanding of where she stands in her argument and starts to build an intangible bind between herself and the reader.
In the body of the article, Tannen makes her persuasive arguments. She uses current events that most people are familiar with to help state her case. This is great for grasping the attention of the reader. “One can argue that the president is using the Sept. 11 attacks to bolster his public profile without going so far as to claim (as does a message circulating on the internet) that he played a role in authorizing the attacks.” (Tannen 55). By tracking back to this thought, she shows the reader how arguments can be organized to show relation between two ideas without falling back to creating wild assumptions. She firmly solidifies her position and reaches deeper with the audience.
Tannen wrote this article strictly for the educated public and lower level politicians. She uses strong vocabulary that she assumes the audience would recognize, but defines vocabulary that is vital to her argument. One would need a dictionary by his/her side to read this article. She plays with certain words and ends up appearing sarcastic with her writing in terms of the context. In defining agonism, she states, “…ritualized opposition, a knee-jerk, automatic use of warlike formats.” (Tannen 55). Not only does Tannen utilize some hard-core vocabulary, but she also keeps the article straight-forward. With each new paragraph in which she introduces a new idea, she keeps to her format and gets to the point, making the task of reading her article an easier burden to deal with.
All in all, this article was well written and touched on the points in which it set out to do. It kept a consistent tone and allowed the reader to enjoy it. Tannen used the best writing techniques set for a persuasive argument which shows that she clearly knows what she is doing. She defined the term important for her article, used current events to help the audience relate to what she is writing, stated her position very early to negate any immediate opposition, acknowledged her opposition and allowed her own opinions and suggestions to enter into the article. Deborah Tannen seems to be a great writer and would be even better in debates.


Works Cited
1. Tannen, Deborah. “We Need a Higher Quality Outrage.” Perspectives on Contemporary Issues: Reading Across the Disciplines. 5th ed. Katherine Anne Ackley, ed. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage, 2009. 55-57
This article can also be found in the Christian Science Monitor October 20, 2004 issue.