Sarah’s taking a class this session called, ‘Theories of Argumentation.’ She had to write a paper about an argument she’d had, so she wrote her paper on an argument we’d had.

As a self-involved guy who’s kept numerous blogs about his personal life, I was, of course, eager to read the paper. Sarah warned me that she’d changed some things to “make the paper work,” but it seemed pretty accurate to me. Pretty fair.

I like the part where she wrote, “Arnie is a person who I have an emotional investment in and a person I choose to spend a good amount of time with. With Arnie, an attack on his argument could have repercussions that last after the argument is over. It is best that I save attacks for more scholarly arguments with people who would not be emotionally affected by my attacks.”

The most fascinating part to me, though, was reading the handwritten notes her professor wrote in the margins. Reading comments like, “I think you are conflating two args,” and, “careful with ‘fact’,” made me want to submit all our arguments for scholarly review.