Towards the beginning of last year, I took a stroll with my mom around town as we came from shopping for some groceries. I saw a McDonald’s fast food restaurant adjacent to the supermarket and wanted to grab a bite. However, my mom got furious with my move. She went on to claim that all McDonald’s should be closed down on a government decree. I needed to prompt an argument and asked her why she strongly felt that McDonald’s should be closed down. She asserted that McDonald’s sells “unhealthy foods”. She went on to say that McDonald’s was a “threat” to the health of Americans since so many people had got obese by consuming their foods. I was quick to lay out the discussion using Toulmin’s model of argument.
My mom claimed that McDonald’s should be closed down on a government decree. Her warrant was that McDonald’s produces unhealthy foods that can compromise one’s health. She supported her warrant with the allegation that McDonald’s has made many people obese and thus was a threat to American health. However, I was quick to point out that McDonald’s is not the only fast foods business in the United States. Also, all obese Americans do not eat at McDonald’s. Therefore, the problem with her argument was that she was singling out McDonald’s while there are other businesses, which offer the same services offered by McDonalds!
I was of the opinion that food is a personal choice and no one should curtail that freedom. I pointed out that if a customer is not happy with McDonald's services, he/she can go for another alternative. Therefore, closing down the business food giant would be ill advised. It came to mom’s attention that although she had avoided McDonald’s, she visited other fast foods restaurants from time to time. She also admitted that fast foods restaurants offer convenience to customers who have no time to prepare meals in their homes. Therefore, we concluded that her argument needed elaborate tuning.
References
Changing Minds Organization. Toulmin's Argument Model. n.d. 31 May 2012
<http://changingminds.org/disciplines/argument/making_argument/toulmin.htm>.
