Let me introduce you to this uncle of mine! Great guy, very intellectual, funny, smart and as far as I know, the most stubborn person on the face of this earth. Graduated from the Duke University as a medical major and is currently a professor at a very prestigious hospital right here in Dallas.

I remember that Sunday morning very vividly when I decided to go on a drive with him to get groceries. We drove through very heavy traffic, through very rude, young drivers till we reached a point where my uncle couldn’t take it anymore. He started on with his lectures on how teenagers should never be given the privilege of being behind the steering wheel. It’s never a good idea to get into an argument with my uncle, but at that particular time, I had this huge urge to contradict him. He was going on and on about how the driving age should be raised to the age of eighteen and how it was the sixteen and seventeen year olds who were at the highest risk of getting involved in accidents. He blamed these teenagers for being bad drivers due to their lack of experience, ignorance and their immaturity.

My argument on this topic was fairly simple and since I always disagreed on this issue very strongly, I started to throw in my points of view. I basically stressed on the point that there is no direct connection between age and car crashes. The only logical reason for the fact that young (new) drivers are much more involved in car crashes is that they are inexperienced, that fact will not change whether new drivers are sixteen years old or twenty six years old. I think it’s fair enough to say that it was not my typical way of carrying on an argument but that was mainly because I was just discussing issues and stating facts coming of the top of my head. On the other hand, if I had done some more thinking about it and gone over some facts and figures before having this talk it would have made my style stronger. I also think that there is some what a difference between a verbal argument as compared to a written opinion. When you are giving a written point of view, you automatically have a stronger control of your language thus making your opinion sound more assertive and convincing.

Everybody has their own style of writing and I guess you develop that style of presenting an argument as you start gaining control of the language and get better at expressing thoughts. Off course being well versed of your surroundings plays an important role too and that is why people who are more in touch with media, newspapers and who know what’s going on around the globe have more to say about contradictory issues. Although, I’m far behind as far as knowledge about conflicting issues is concerned but I think my father has some what minimized that problem for me. We have had so many ‘dinner table talks’ for hours and hours on so much random stuff that I think I have picked on the way he expresses his thoughts and its fair enough to say that he has been my role model in this area. He is what I would call an ideal arguer for me. Very convincing, full of knowledge and has the knack of making his opposing arguer admit to their defeat.

I would think that listening to other people talk about issues would be one of the best ways to learn how to become a good arguer yourself. If I was to be more like my ideal arguer I would have to have more talks with him and hear his discussions and perhaps take my imagination and my thoughts to a different level. In other words, I think I would be a better arguer if I could carry on an argument with an open mind because there are always two sides to an argument and it’s only fair to listen and respect the other side too. You win an argument not when you assert thoughts with a closed mind yourself, but you win it when you pay attention to what your opponent says, and then make him start questioning his own thoughts.