Particularly on page 184 of Epstein's textbook, I did not really understand what a "weaseler" was. It was not one of the major vocab words but the word was in bold. The definition was this.
"A weaseler is a claim that's qualified so much that the apparent meaning is no longer there" (Epstein, 2006).
I thought the definition and the example was vague. It took me a while to understand it because it does not exactly show how their example is a weasel claim.
To give a better understanding on what a weaseler is, I found this website showing specific examples.
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/advertising/claims/weasel.htm
After reading this, I understood weasel claims better. They are basically claims that are potentially useless or weak because they also have doubt or uncertainty.
For example, "I think my music will impress the audience" is a weasel claim. If you are saying that you "think" your music will impress the audience, the audience would probably be unsure about your music if they heard you say that. However, if you said, "My music will impress the audience," the audience will expect to see impressive music. In other words, we should avoid using weasel claims so that our claims or statements are more believable and convincing.
- Pink Bean
Reading this entry in your blog made me go back and re-read it in the book. The weasel claim example you gave was better than the one in the book which was vague and unclear. Reading your example helped me better understand the meaning of weasel claims. By using the work think you made it clear that it was a more personal and less assertive. Your second statement was more assertive which was better and did not create any doubt or uncertainty. From my understanding now weasel statements are all weak and should not be used to argue well or effectively.
ReplyDeleteHey Pink Bean, I wasn't too sure what a weaseler was when I first read your post, so like Catalina, I also went and re-read the book definition, which was still somewhat confusing I must say. That link you posted though was really useful. The variety of examples used on that page was just enough to help get the point across of what a weaseler is. That site also lists our a bunch of words that we should look for in order to identify a weaseler, which definitely makes things a lot easier. Overall though, your post was very helpful to myself personally because now I won't forget what a weaseler is. Hopefully its a question on the next exam!
ReplyDeleteHey Pink Bean, thank you for this post. I remember reading over the chapter that talked about weasler claims but I definitely don’t remember what one was. You’re post and link made it a lot easier to understand. I also thought you used an example that was very easy to visualize as a weasler claim. It was "I think my music will impress the audience". Honestly, a claim like this, I visualize a weasel saying this. The book’s definition didn’t make since because it explained a weasler claim as one where its original meaning is no longer there; but a weasler claim is much more than that as you helped explain. Great post keep it up.
ReplyDeleteI do remember reading about weasler claims in the book and I was also confused about that concept. These claims use words that actually make the claim weak and worthless. The link gave a good list of those words. I like the example you used of "I think" because I try to avoid that phrase as much as possible. Using that those not make an argument convincing but actually more weak. These words can also make claims misleading. This was very helpful and useful so I can avoid these words even more to make my arguments stronger and more reliable.
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