Welcome to Business English Pod, a great way to improve your English skills on the go.
Welcome to the second part of our series on how to support your position or argument in meetings.
In the last episode we introduced quite a lot of different phrases for organizing or signposting the different parts of your supporting statements.
Before you listen to this episode, we recommend listening again to part one to familiarize yourself with this language.
Okay, so Clayton, we're talking again about how to support your position or argument.
This is a big topic, a huge topic actually, for any business person, and one that can be quite a challenge for anybody, let alone if they have to do it in another language.
So I thought it might be a good idea to go over some of the basic structures we use to present an argument in English.
Can you give us a simple explanation of the ways in which we can structure or present our arguments?
Sure, Peter.
First of all, before you begin to build your case, you need to be sure you've covered the following points in your mind.
One, the reasons for and against the viewpoint you're presenting.
Number two, facts to back up your viewpoint and or logical reasoning why your viewpoint is correct.
And finally, an awareness of both sides of the argument and reasons why the opposing argument is wrong.
Okay, I see.
And once you feel comfortable, you've covered these points.
What structures can I use to present them so that people will agree with me?
Well, actually there are a number of different techniques and the approach can differ amongst different cultures.
From a Western point of view, arguments are usually structured in one of two ways.
You can either take a balanced view, where the argument is based on factual evidence and logical reasoning.
Or you can take a persuasive view where you make your personal opinion clear.
Let me explain the basic structure for both.
The balanced argument.
In this case, you present both sides of an argument without necessarily committing yourself to any opinions, which should always be based on evidence until the conclusion.
At its simplest, your plan should be as follows.
Introduce the argument to the reader that is why it is a particularly relevant topic nowadays or refer directly to some comments that you voiced on it recently.
Then, give your reasons in favor of the argument.
State your point of view, your evidence, and your reasons.
Then, give your reasons against the argument.
State your point of view, your evidence, and your reasons.
Finally, after summarizing the two sides, state your own opinion and explain why you think as you do.
That's the balanced argument.
Next, let's talk about the persuasive argument.
This second type of argumentative talk involves stating your own point of view immediately and trying to convince the listeners by reasoned arguments that you're right.
The form of this talk would be an outline as follows.
You introduce the topic briefly in general terms and then state your own opinion.
Explain what you plan to prove in your talk.
Next, you give your reasons against the argument.
Dispose briefly of the main objections to your case.
Provide evidence and your reasons.
You then give your reasons for your argument.
These are the arguments to support your own view and you back it up with evidence, reasons and examples.
Finally comes the conclusion.
You don't repeat your opinion again.
Instead, you end your talk with something memorable, such as a quotation or a direct question.
Thanks, Clayton.
If we look back then, at the previous episode, Jack was quite excited about moving his company's production to Costa Rica.
What approach was he using in his argument?
Well, persuasive, or so he thought.
In our last podcast, Jack introduced the concept of moving production overseas.
During the meeting, it became clear that more investigation was needed.
In this podcast, Jack is giving an update on the Costa Rican project.
Dan is against the idea because, as production manager, he doesn't want to lose all its production staff.
Angie, as HR manager, also does not want to lay off US staff and is worried about the problems of hiring foreign workers.
Angie and Dan argue with Jack with many good objections to his outsourcing plans.
Jack tries to defend his plan but does not succeed.
The key language we will examine in this podcast is emphasizing, minimizing and supporting points and vocal stress.
Moving on, we're going to return to the subject of moving production overseas.
Jack, do you have any updates?
Yes, indeed.
We've more or less completed the first round of negotiations with the government in Costa Rica and we're pretty certain they like what we're planning to do, although at this early stage it is quite difficult to tell exactly what benefits this will bring.
It's a little too soon to say whether we'll get any tax breaks.
Full tax exemption is probably rather too much to hope for, but we've just about reached agreement on the location and all in all, we're fairly happy with the way things are going.
That's good, Jack, but I have a few concerns.
To begin with, I'm not quite comfortable with your plan to hire all local staff for the plant.
We have a lot of experienced workers here that know what they're doing, and it seems to me that we'd have to start all over in Costa Rica.
And also we've run into some extremely difficult regulatory issues overseas before and I'm concerned about the level of cooperation from the government.
I agree.
This whole thing is way too risky.
We're throwing away the best resource we have, our people.
Okay, of course this will involve some risks.
Any big change involves risks.
But we've got to think and plan for the future.
And on the whole, I feel that this is the best option to lower our future production costs.
Well, I don't believe you've done quite enough research on this, Jack.
I can see that you've researched some of these issues to some extent.
However, it will be up to Dan and me to make all of this work.
And right now, there are too many parts of this that are not very clear.
Well said, Angie.
Jack, I just think that we're moving a bit too fast on this whole thing.
You don't have any plan for hiring.
We don't have any guarantees from the government there.
And you've never shown how we are going to save on production costs in the future.
In fact... All right, all right.
I can see this proposal is somewhat lacking in real data.
So Jack, I'd like to request that you put together a full and complete proposal with all the answers to these questions and have it ready for our staff meeting next month.
This will be the final meeting on this subject, and we'll present our recommendations to the board right after that meeting.
Taking a look at the language they used, we see that when discussing and arguing points in a meeting, we must be careful to be diplomatic and not sound too forceful when starting off.
Notice how Jack begins his update with phrases that lessen the impact of his statements.
He says, He says, we've more or less completed, and we've just about reached.
In this case, Jack uses these phrases to avoid sounding overconfident.
Some other softening phrases are We're almost ready.
I'm fairly certain.
We're just about finished.
They are somewhat sure.
Similar to softening phrases are minimizing words.
These are used to reduce the effect of the phrase.
Angie at first responds with diplomatic softeners to state her doubts about Jack's plan.
Opening statements between opposing parties are typically phrased in these nice little polite statements.
Once the argument gets going, however, the language usually gets more direct and forceful.
Angie then goes on to argue against Jack's points using intensifier phrases.
Intensifier phrases are used to emphasize the points you make.
Angie says...
We've run into some extremely difficult regulatory issues.
And Dan also uses an intensifier phrase to argue against Jack's plan when he states this whole thing is way too risky.
Try some of these.
It was an outstanding success.
There is absolutely no way.
There's no doubt.
It is the best solution.
Returning to minimizing language.
When people make negative remarks about the information you're presenting, you can often soften the impact by restating their point in a more positive way.
For example, You've accomplished nothing.
We've had some partial success.
Or, The whole thing has been a disaster.
We've had some minor problems, yes, but we've dealt with them.
Another way to emphasize a point is to stress certain auxiliary verbs.
The stress on these words emphasizes the words meaning in the phrase.
There is just no other way.
It is our best chance of success.
We were hoping for a better deal.
We are doing the best we can.
We have tried to limit the damage.
We cannot go ahead with this.
I do see what you mean.
They did promise completion by... The stress on these words helps to emphasize the point.
Very often, when presenting your ideas, it's not what you say, but how you say it.
You can stress not only simple helping verbs but other verbs and nouns to completely change the meaning of a phrase.
As an exercise, listen to and repeat these phrases and think about the different meanings they have.
The French will never agree to that.
The French will never agree to that.
Notice how the meaning is changed by stressing different words in this sentence.
For effective arguments we use not only emphasizing, softening and word stress, but also phrases to introduce many points to support an argument.
These phrases are also used to make it clear what the most important reasons are.
Here are some common phrases.
What's more?
In addition.
What's especially important is... But there's more to it than that.
It's also a matter of.
I'd like to emphasize.
The main thing is, These are some basic tools or weapons and shields as some may use them that are commonly used during arguments.
In the final part of this series, we will focus on bringing all these techniques together into an organized argument to make your points and sound convincing.
So until then, we are extremely pleased to have you as our listeners and we look forward to the next time we'll be talking with you.
See you then.
Be sure to check out our online resources at languagekeycom, and soon we'll have our new home site, businessenglishpodcom.
Here you'll be able to access all your favorite episodes, get transcripts for each podcast and subscribe to our premium service with a comprehensive online learning center.
