Item #6: The Current Advertisment

COMMUNICATION CHANNEL: The Current, the student-run newspaper at NSU, Volume 20, Issue 21 edition, dated February 9, 2010.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: The Current serves the NSU community which includes faculty, staff, and students. However, this advertisment is geared toward students and people who wish to become students.

I find it interesting that Barry University buys advertising space in NSU's newspaper. Since NSU also has a law school, it's obvious that Barry isn't a silent competitor.

This advertisement fits perfectly with Stephen Toulmin's model about the basic parts of logical arguments that we encounter in everyday life (Larson, 2010). In this model, there are three basic parts: the claim, the data (also evidence), and the warrant (Larson, 2010). The three secondary elements are qualifiers, reservation (also rebuttal), and the backing (Larson, 2010).

"The claim is the proposition or premise that the persuader hopes will be believed, adopted, or followed by the audience" (Larson, 2010, p. 225). The Claim is that the faculty of Barry's law school is student-focused.

The evidence supports the claim (Larson, 2010). The Evidence is that Patrick E. Tolan, Jr. is a law professor at Barry. Evidence is also found in his quotation.

The warrant is the reasoning behind the evidence (Larson, 2010). The Warrant is that Tolan encourages his students to get involved in their communities.

The backing "is the information that establishes the credibility of the reasoning ro connection between data and claim" (Larson, 2010, p. 227). The Backing is that Tolan is a founder and faculty advisor to Barry Law's Volunteer Income Tax Assitance program besides being a law professor at Barry.

The rebuttal "specifies the conditions under which the warrant is valid" (Larson, 2010, p. 226). The Rebuttal is the fact that only one professor is shown. The reader is not told how the other faculty members are student-focused, so we can argue that not all of them are student-focused.

"Qualifiers limit the claim, thus allowing for the possibility that this is not a simple case of the either/or argument" (Larson, 2010, p. 226). The Qualifiers in this advertisement are found at the bottom. The phrases "inimate learning environment" and "dynamic, accessible faculty." Although the phrases "real world experience" and "ABA accredited" can also be called qualifiers, they are not qualifying the central claim.