Mr. Right

Throughout my entire existence on this beautiful planet thus far, I have always had the uncontrollable urge to give my opinion on any topic that could be up for debate at a given moment. I cannot tell you how many times I have been told by my parents that I come off as a know-it-all, or that I do not always have to go out of my way to prove people wrong. To me, however, if I feel like I have a more well thought out opinion on an issue being discussed, I am doing everyone a disservice not expressing what I have to say. The last argument that I can remember participating in was with my parents regarding the over-the-top tweets that our president sends out very regularly. I was discussing the wealthy man that owns and runs Coachella Music Festival having very closed-minded political views and expressing such views on social media, which I found extremely disappointing due to my deep love for the culture that music festivals have created. This is when my mother interrupted to tell me that I should not judge a person’s character based on what he or she says on social media. I immediately fired back by asking her if she judges Trump’s character based on his ridiculous tweets. She said she does and immediately admitted defeat in the debate.

While I do feel like I win most arguments that I throw myself into, I truly believe that there is no better feeling than when I come out as the absolute acknowledged winner. I would definitely agree that the story above is rather typical of my argumentative style. One of my go-to strategies for when I am trying to prove a point to someone is taking the situation that I am trying to explain and finding a parallel that the person or people that I am arguing with would understand and relate with, as well as put the point that I am trying to make into perspective to strengthen my argument. From there if the other side is still reluctant to agree that I am right about the topic, then I move to my next strategy, which is basically list as many facts as possible that I can think of to support my argument. Truth be told, the first strategy tends to be remarkably effective so I do not normally have to move on to the backup plan.

When it comes to my style of arguing, I call upon the skills that I learned in the different English classes in high school, mainly in my senior year English IV class. My teacher really put a focus on teaching us how to clearly and properly explain our thoughts, even when you do not entirely know what you are talking about. Another aspect of my life that I believe has gone on to shape the way I argue is my love for going unnecessarily deep into researching various topics. The catch to this part of me is that I really only take interest in researching topics that actually engage my interest. This definitely goes the completely opposite direction when it comes to topics that I do not particularly find a lot of interest in. This has been a serious anchor to my success academically throughout basically my entire life, mostly when the task of reading an assigned novel or article is given to me. The final main influence on the way I communicate points in an argument is the countless mentally tasking life experiences that I have gotten myself into, specifically the ridiculously crowded timeline of events that have taken place ever since I graduated from high school less than two years ago. Without going into any real specifics on what has happened to me, these life events have truly taught me never to fully accept anything as true and to always question everything.

I am personally a huge fan of my style of arguing, mostly because of the high success rate that I have found in using it. One aspect that I would definitely change about my methods would be to simply add more depth to my general strategy. Sometimes, if I do not know enough about the topic that I am trying to express an opinion on, I freeze up if my first move of providing a thought-provoking example to draw a relatable parallel proves to be ineffective, which usually happens when the other side tends to be more stubborn than the average person. A way that I have thought of where I could be able to strengthen my argumentative style is by being able to answer questions that are asked to me from the other side of a debate, instead of simply firing back at the question at hand with another question to divert attention away from the fact that I do not entirely know the answer. Overall, I do believe that I am a strong opponent in an argument regardless of the topic, but I also acknowledge that I definitely have room for improvement.