(A) according to the definition of argument
Argument is the author's opinions and opinions on the issues under discussion, so the central argument in the article must be to affirm or deny the point of view of something, such as "I advocate reforming the learning method and system of our whole party" ("reforming our learning"), "The collapse of the six countries is not the disadvantage of being a soldier, but the disadvantage of not being good at war" (Su Xun's On the Six Countries), "We need to do everything.
When analyzing and grasping the central argument of an argumentative essay, we can first make clear what the author wants to discuss according to the definition of the argument, and then see what views and opinions the author puts forward on the discussed issues.
(B) according to the characteristics of sentence patterns to express the central argument
The central argument is the author's viewpoint and proposition, so the sentence expressing the central argument should generally be a judgment sentence. Mastering this feature can help us find the central argument as soon as possible. For example, the central argument in the above three cases conforms to this feature from the sentence pattern. We emphasize that the central argument is generally expressed by a judgment sentence in order to eliminate the wrong judgment of the center as soon as possible. Some people often mistakenly take the topic as an argument, such as studying individuals and groups and telling the truth. In these texts, titles are usually regarded as arguments. In fact, they only have one word, some are coordinate phrases, and some are interrogative sentences, which only indicate the scope of discussion. They are just topics, and can't express the author's views and opinions as clearly as judgment sentences, so they are not arguments. Only the verb-object phrases with titles can be both the topic and the instruction center, such as "opposing stereotyped Party writing" and "transforming our study". That's only because they can supplement and rewrite the sentences in the expression center, and if there is a more complete expression center in the text, we should still confirm that the complete expression text is the center and take the brief description of the title as a hint.
We say that the sentence feature of expressing the central argument "should generally be a judgment sentence", which not only confirms that in most argumentative papers, the author uses this sentence to express his views directly and clearly, but also can be used as one of the bases to help confirm the central argument. At the same time, we should also see that although some argumentative papers are clear in the center, they are not expressed by complete judgment sentences. Or there is no direct expression of the central text. To understand the center of this kind of article, readers are required to supplement the judgment sentence of the expression center according to the content after reading, or summarize its central argument with judgment sentence. For example, in the article Yi Li, Textual Research and Zhang Ci, several points of its central argument are described by three subheadings, which are very clear. When grasping the central arguments of this paper, we should sum them up and supplement them into judgments that contain these points. For example, "writing an article should be considered from three aspects: the principle of close contact, textual research and rhetoric. The viewpoints and materials should be unified, the materials should be accurate and the form should be good." From the above, it is very important to identify the center or inductive center with the sentence characteristics that express the central argument.
(3) Arguments based on common positions
The central argument has its common position in the article, and some at the beginning of the article directly put forward the central argument and then demonstrate it. Some are at the end of the introduction. The first paragraph of the article "Jian Fu Bi" first clarifies the concept connotation, and leads to the central argument at the end: "Jian Fu Bi has its own merits and wonders." The central argument of some articles is at the beginning of this part. The introduction part breaks through the problems existing in reality, and then puts forward the author's positive opinions and opinions in this part. For example, in the introduction, the author first criticizes and exposes the essence and harm of "sending away", and then puts forward the view that cultural heritage should be treated with "taking away" at the beginning of this part. The arguments of some articles appear at the end of the article. For example, in Jia Yi's On Qin, the author finally said this ... benevolence and righteousness are not applied, and the offensive and defensive trends are different. "This kind of argumentative paper does not clearly reveal the point of view at the beginning and middle of the argument, but only puts forward the topic and analyzes related problems. Finally, point out the point of view of the article in one sentence or a short paragraph at the end and make a statement. In addition, the central argument of some argumentative papers is reflected in the title, while others need readers to experience and summarize from the full text.
Knowing the common position of the argument and referring to other evidence, we can quickly find the central argument of the article.
(D) According to the relationship between the argument and the topic
The central argument of an argumentative paper is closely related to its theme, because the author always tries to make it serve to highlight the central argument when drafting the theme. Therefore, if we confirm the central argument, we can in turn get some enlightenment from the research topic.
Arguments and topics of argumentative essays are generally related as follows: some topics are the central arguments of the article, such as "writers should forge language" and "knowledge cannot be penetrated" These titles have clearly written out the author's opinions and objections. Some topics are brief descriptions of arguments, and also clearly tell readers what the central argument of the article is. For example, the article "Transforming Our Learning" mentioned earlier is like this. It is also relatively easy to find the central argument of this kind of article, as long as you find a complete judgment sentence that expresses the center from the common position of the argument in the article. There are many argumentative papers whose titles are the titles of the articles. But after careful study, it is also clear that the topic is expressed in different languages. Sometimes, the content of the central argument can be implied from different angles. For example, topics such as "individual and collective", "simplicity and complexity", "meaning, textual research and rhetoric" are all composed of coordinate phrases. Most of the central arguments in their articles are to reveal the relationship between the juxtaposed contents shown in the title or to discuss how to treat these aspects correctly. According to this hint, we can find the judgment to explain these contents from the text and refer to other articles. Or use our own language to summarize and express these opinions. For example, in the article "Individual and Collective", we can sum up its central argument: "* * * producers should oppose individualism and correctly understand and handle the relationship between individual and collective", such as "Have China people lost confidence?" Although the topic of this kind of question is not the argument of the article, the answer is often the central argument. We can find out the judgment sentence that expresses the answer to the question from the text and confirm it with reference to other evidence. Some articles, such as "taking the other's doctrine", "being just right" and "not seeking for a very good solution", are not the central argument of the article, but they are the core of the central argument of the article.
In a word, the topic is closely related to the argument. If we can think carefully about the enlightenment of the topic, it will certainly help us to grasp the center quickly and accurately.