Word: argumentive
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...recent editorial’s proposition that Harvard undergraduates would be well served if Expository Writing (Expos) were dismantled (“Eliminate Mandatory Expos,” Oct. 26). Although I recognize that no required course can possibly please everyone, I would like to offer an argument for why the course serves a critical purpose for freshman. In doing so, I would also like to counter the editorial’s generalizations with facts...
...natural” or non-social wellspring. MacKinnon stated categorically that sexual desire (on the part of both men and women) is social, socialized, and socially-constructed—and further went on to argue that much of it is deeply influenced by pornography. The speaker made no argument against “free choice.” She did, however, claim that desire—and yes, therefore even free will—is socially-constructed. And, importantly, constructed in ways that undermine sex equality, a goal (she emphasized) that vast majorities of people profess to support...
...grassroots organizing is particularly instructive in highlighting the follies of working within the system in order to change society. The conventional defense of this tactic rests upon its pragmatism: Based on the idea that positions of power enable the powerful to affect policy in substantive, lasting ways, the argument is that good people can rule in good ways. A willing and intelligent leader, we are told, can rescue us from all that currently ails us more immediately and more dramatically than would otherwise be possible. When, in his now-famous speech in 2004, Obama extolled John Kerry?...
...Biden's argument against Rudy was actually substantive: He accused Giuliani of taking credit for improvements in crime in New York City during his tenure as mayor - improvements, Biden said, that should be laid at the foot of the 1994 crime bill, which put 100,000 new cops on the street and boosted both prison sentences and funds for rehabilitation of criminals. Much of the measure has been undercut by the Bush Administration - without so much as a peep from Giuliani, Biden said. In effect, Biden was calling the mayor dishonest...
...fierce and limitless desire to reverse the depredations of the Bush Administration. But just when it was beginning to seem that her evasions were more potent than her opponents' assaults, she stumbled - badly, perhaps - on the question of granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. She made the argument for it, then denied she favored it. "Unless I missed something," Edwards said as he nailed the coffin, "Senator Clinton said two different things in the course of about two minutes...