Issue

The speaker wants to persuade their audience about an issue.

The issue can be big or small, general or specific; what matters is that the speaker cares and wants to change the status quo around it.

To understand the issue, we can ask questions such as:

What is the issue? Where and when does it occur?
How did it become an issue?
Who or what does it affect? How does it affect them?
Why is it contested? (Why isn't it already resolved?)
What type of issue is it?

These questions might be more relevant for some issues than others.

In our lesson on argument types, we said we can organise issues into seven types:

Factual
Causal
Definitional
Resemblance
Proposal
Valuational
Ethical

Categorising issues in this way can clarify a complex argument and make it easier to see what needs to be done to resolve it.

But, in a real-life persuasive situation, we usually need a lot more context so that we can figure out the right persuasive approach for an audience.

Let's compare some issues to see what these questions uncover.

Using our questions, evaluate this snippet from Nicholas Carr's essay, "Does the Internet Make You Dumber?"

You may not know all the answers, so make your best guess.

An editorial illustration depicting an influx of internet making you dumber

The picture emerging from the research is deeply troubling, at least to anyone who values the depth, rather than just the velocity, of human thought. People who read text studded with links, the studies show, comprehend less than those who read traditional linear text. People who watch busy multimedia presentations remember less than those who take in information in a more sedate and focused manner. People who are continually distracted by emails, alerts and other messages understand less than those who are able to concentrate. And people who juggle many tasks are less creative and less productive than those who do one thing at a time.

"Does the Internet Make You Dumber?"(2010)

What is the issue? Where and when does it occur?
How did it become an issue?
Who or what does it affect? How does it affect them?
Why is it contested? (Why isn't it already resolved?)
What type of issue is it?

Using the questions to guide you, what can you say about the issue in this snippet? (Rough notes are fine.)

The issue is that the internet is making us dumber.
It's been happening for a decade or more, since the explosion of internet technologies, especially broadband and mobile. (This essay was written in 2010, and the Internet really took off around 2000.)
Who does it affect? Everyone! Or at least everyone who consumes information. (However, Carr says "us" and possibly by "us" he means people who used to read a lot of books before the Internet came along, which is not the same as "everyone". A lot of people weren't reading books before the Internet!)
Why is it contested? Because lots of people love the Internet and think that having immediate access to so much information is making us smarter, not dumber.
What type of issue is it? It's fundamentally a causal issue. Carr thinks the Internet is bad because he believes it causes us to become dumb. If someone could prove that the Internet makes us smarter (or at least not dumber) then maybe Carr would be persuaded this wasn't an issue after all.

The snippet above describes a large-scale issue that affects many people

Other issues are smaller and more specific.

For example, there is a 3,500-year-old clay tablet in the British Museum (discovered in Iraq, in the ruins of the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur), which is the world's oldest customer service complaint:

Babylonian merchant in his workshop

Clay tablet complaint from Nanni to Ea-Nasir

(Tablet photo from The British Museum)

Tell Ea-nasir, Nanni sends the following message:

When you came, you said to me, “I will give Gimil-Sin fine quality copper ingots.” You left then but you did not do what you promised me. You put ingots which were *not good* before my messenger and said: “If you want to take them, take them; if you do not want to take them, go away!”

What do you take me for, that you treat somebody like me with such contempt? I have sent, as messengers, gentlemen like ourselves to collect the bag with my money (deposited with you) but you have treated me with contempt by sending them back to me empty-handed several times, and that through enemy territory.

Is there anyone among the merchants who trade with Telmun who has treated me in this way? You alone treat my messenger with contempt!

Letters from Mesopotamia

What is the issue? Where and when does it occur?
How did it become an issue?
Who or what does it affect? How does it affect them?
Why is it contested? (Why isn't it already resolved?)
What type of issue is it?

Using the questions to guide you, what can you say about the issue in this snippet? (Rough notes are fine.)

The issue is poor customer service from Ea-Nasir: supplying poor quality copper, insulting messengers, endangering lives, and withholding money.
It's not clear how this started, but it's been going on for a while—months, maybe years? (Archaeologists actually found a few complaints against Ea-Nasir—he was possibly one of the worst merchants in Ur.)
This is a dispute between two individuals, but it also risks the lives of the messengers (who keep being made to run through enemy territory), and it affects Nanni's customers.
It's not clear why this is an issue; it honestly sounds like Ea-nasir is just a jerk, but maybe he has his reasons.
Customer complaints are almost always proposal issues (give me a refund, deliver what I paid you for) but underneath could be valuational or causal issues (e.g. "Why do you treat customers with contempt?").

Since we're talking about ancient history, here's a snippet from a letter written around 1500 BC, in Ancient Egypt, by a woman who is asking the ghost of her dead husband to intervene in some kind of family property dispute that has occurred since his death.

(The ancient Egyptians believed the dead had enormous power in the afterlife and would write letters asking them for help. This letter was found in the husband's tomb, written on linen.)

Egyptian household getting robbed

It is a wife who addresses her husband, and it is a son who addresses his father:

This is a reminder of the fact that you once said, “May the wood of a man's bed rot before his son is barred from his household furniture.”

Now, in fact, the woman Wabut came together with Izezi, and they both have devastated your house. It was in order to enrich Izezi that she removed everything that was in it, they both wishing to impoverish your son while enriching Izezi's son.

She has taken Iazet, Iti, and Anankhi away from you, and she is taking away all of your personal menials after removing all that was in your house. Will you remain calm about this? I had rather that I was in the tomb with you than see your son dependent upon Izezi's son.

Awaken against them! Rouse yourself and make haste against him! Rouse yourself against them, you and also your fathers, your brothers, and your relations and overthrow Behzeti and Aai's son.

Letters from Ancient Egypt

What is the issue? Where and when does it occur?
How did it become an issue?
Who or what does it affect? How does it affect them?
Why is it contested? (Why isn't it already resolved?)
What type of issue is it?

Using the questions to guide you, what can you say about the issue in this snippet? (Rough notes are fine.)

It can be hard to figure out what's going on in these very ancient texts (and we had to heavily edit that snippet to make it even remotely readable) but we can get the gist:

The issue is that the husband has died and now his wife and son are vulnerable, and someone else has come in and taken their furniture and servants.
How that is possible isn't explained; the wife probably thought it was obvious at the time.
This seems to be recent and urgent. They need the ghost of the dead husband to intervene now!
It doesn't seem like they have a lot of power to solve the problem themselves, and it also seems like they are aware they have limited power to get the dead to act on their behalf, because they have to put pressure on the ghost to do something, including reminding him that, "You once said your bed would rot before you let someone steal your furniture!"
Again, this is a proposal issue: "Help us!"

Finally, persuasive issues don't have to be dramatic. Many persuasive moments in our life might be what you'd call micro persuasion.

What's the issue in this image?

Funny Irish wolfhound begging for hotdogs

What is the issue? Where and when does it occur?
How did it become an issue?
Who or what does it affect? How does it affect them?
Why is it contested? (Why isn't it already resolved?)
What type of issue is it?

Using the questions to guide you, what can you say about the issue in this image? (Rough notes are fine.)

She's a good girl who just wants a hotdog!

The main thing to recognise is that issues come in all shapes and sizes, and they can have all sorts of histories and stakeholders (people who are affected by them).

Before we move on, try inventing an issue based on this image. (It can be anything you like, just make the issue convincing.)

bearded guard playing flute with caption saying INTENSE FLUTE

What is the issue? Where and when does it occur?
How did it become an issue?
Who or what does it affect? How does it affect them?
Why is it contested? (Why isn't it already resolved?)
What type of issue is it?

Using the questions to guide you, make up an issue related to this scene. (Rough notes are fine.)

Persuasive context