the issues are until we
have shown what the thing is which we wish those issues to support.
First, then, let us see what we mean by making perfectly clear what
you wish to have the audience believe.

Suppose that you should meet a friend who says to you: "I am going to
argue with you about examinations." You might naturally reply: "What
examinations?" If he should say, "All examinations: the honor system
in all examinations," you might very reasonably still be puzzled and
ask if by all examinations he meant examinations of every kind in
grade school, high school, and college, as well as the civil service
examinations, and what was meant by the honor system.

He would now probably explain to you carefully how several schools
have been experimenting with the idea of giving all examinations
without the presence of a teacher or monitor of any sort. During these
examinations, however, it has been customary to ask the students
themselves to report any cheating that they may observe. It is also
required that each student state in writing, at the end of his paper,
upon honor, that he has neither given nor received aid during the
test. "To this method," your friend continues, "has been given the
name of the honor system. And I believe that this system should be
adopted in all examinations in the Greenburg High School."

He has now stated definitely what he wishes to make you believe, and
he has done more; he has explained to you the meaning of the terms
that you did not understand. These two things make perfectly clear to
you what he wishes you to believe, and he has thus covered the first
step in argumentation.

From this illustration, then, several rules can be drawn. In the first
place your friend stated that he wished to argue about examinations.
Why could he not begin his argument at once? Because he had not yet
asked you to believe anything about examinations. He might have said,
"I am going to explain examinations," and he could then have told you
what examinations were. That would have been exposition. But he could
not _argue_ until he had made a definite assertion about the term
"examination."

Rule one would then be: State in the form of a definite assertion the
matter to be argued.

In order to be suitable for debating, an assertion or, as it is often
called, proposition, of this kind should conform to certain
conditions:

1. It should be one in which both the debaters and the audience are
interested. Failur