Toulmin's Theory Model

Essay submitted by Alomani

This movie talks about the crusades to gain Jerusalem back from the Moslem army that

was lead by the great sultan Saladin. At the beginning of the movie the Moslems hear

about the misfortunate Moslems that are treated badly in Jerusalem, consequently,

Saladin takes over Jerusalem in a battle with the Christian leader Rhene who was in

charge of these actions of killing the Moslems. Rhene's widow goes to Europe seeking

help from all the Christian kings, claiming that Moslems kicked the Christians out of

Jerusalem and killed there women and children. The European kings prepare a crusade,

lead by Richard the lion heart, king of England. Most of the kings didn't think only of

having revenge for their fellow Christians. But they think of keeping the treasures of

the orient from being lost to Saladin. The crusaders won many battles on their way to

Jerusalem, killing many Moslems, by the use of an invincible towers that resists flamed

arrows. Consequently, the Moslem leader Saladin thinks of a way to trick the enemy

army, by leading them to a trap. The Moslem leader succeeds in his mission, winning

the battle and killing many of the Christian's army. The scene begins as the Richard

watches the dead bodies of his army at night, then he enters the tent where the

meeting among the kings, and then tries to oppose the decision of having a truce with

Saladin. The Christian kings are gathered in a tent where they are discussing their

status after the last battle, which they were defeated. Richard asks the European kings

in their meeting the importance of having a truce with the Muslims.

Saying that Saladin is not an easy enemy to defeat, and that we underestimated his

cleverness in the issues of war. A French Nobel knight says "we still have time to teach

Saladin a lesson". Richard mumbles saying "too many dead Christian bodies every where

I look". The king of France, (king Feelebe), says "that a truce is just wasting time, so

we have to continue moving towards Jerusalem". The Nobel French knight says "our

forces are winning and we should continue moving towards Jerusalem, Richard says in

sorrow, that time belongs to the tortured people who values life because they face

death every day not like the kings. Who are safe from harm. Christina, Rhene's widow,

replies, "our forces are winning and our prove is that we occupied lots of Arabic states

as we are moving towards Jerusalem, in the last few months." Richard speaks in anger

and tells her "what about the victims, we need a truce to give us more time to plan

well, also to re-enforce our forces". Feelebe king of France loudly speaks in a serious

manner, "a new plan would take more time, and we don't have that". Richard argues

"shouldn't we consider the number of the thousands of the Christian that are being

killed." Then Richard threatens that he will widow his forces if the kings don't approve

the truce idea. Christina whispers to the king of France, saying that there is no chance

for them in winning the war without Richard. King of France (Feleebe), says "if we all

think as Richard thinks then we will not retrieve Jerusalem in the right time". King

Richard gets angry. The rest of the kings support the French king (Feleebe).

Finally they have a truce. Toulmins model is applied to that scene, (Stephen, British

philosopher), Toulmin's model is a popular pattern of message organization, which is

based on an analysis of the way in which people actually make decisions. (Text

228-229) Toulmin's pattern is valuable because it represents how do the people thinks.

Consequently it allows analyzing the very complex argument and to be placed into an

effective message. Toulmin's pattern has six elements. Shown in an example studied

from the text. The elements are:

The Sources are (Feleebe the French king, the French knight, Christina the widow of

the ex-ruler of Jerusalem). The Receivers are Richard and the rest of the Christian kings

in the meeting) Here, the message is two-sided, face to face verbal communication.

Between the sources and Richard, making the rest of the kings to be the audience.

Evidence any data, observations, personal opinions, case histories, or other information

relevant to the issue under construction, in the example from the text "the federal

deficit is up" and in the scene that I picked, the evidence is that the crusaders are

winning many battles in the last few months before the Muslim sultan tricked them and

won and these are facts viewed in earlier scenes of the movie. In addition, Christina

mentioned it, and if they gave Saladin time he will not leave them a chance to get

Jerusalem back, confirming her evidence the king of France and the French knight. Also,

King Richard said, "we shouldn't underestimate Saladin's cleverness in battle issues.

Claim: the statement that the communicator wishes the people to believe. In the

example from the text, the claim is we must reduce it by $75 billion a year. And in the

scene the claim is motivational, we should continue to move towards Jerusalem, and

not to have a truce with Saladin, in order to win this Holy war. As we observe from the

scene, most of the European, Christian kings oppose Richard, and ask him to join them

in their decision of continuing to move towards Jerusalem, no matter what the

consequences are. And we observe that from the intensive reply by the king of France

that crusade shall continue no mater what Richard things about the truce, and about

the Christian solders and victims.

Warrant: is the link between the evidence and claim, which is a statement showing why

people ought to accept the source's conclusion. In the example study, which was

illustrated in the text, the warrant is defect causes inflation. And from the scene,

Saladin is not an easy enemy to defeat, consequently if the crusades pauses Saladin

will gain strength and thin would be a benefit to the Muslims. Jerusalem would be in the

crusaders hands if they continue to move towards Jerusalem without any stopping or

having a truce. As observed from the scene, the king of France said that the truce is a

waste of time, so the crusades should not hold for truce. In addition, the French knight

said that there is still plenty of time left, and they can teach Saladin a lesson. The

French king also mentioned at the end of the scene that if the rest of the kings

thought as Richard thinks, there would be no hope to have Jerusalem back.

Support of warrant: historical data, statistical materials, or analogies from other

situations can support warrants. From the example illustrated in the text, the support

of warrant is there is too much money in the circulation. And from the scene, the

support of warrant is that the treasures of the orient might be lost to Saladin, we can

observed that as some of the leaders talk about it in earlier scenes at the beginning of

forming the crusades. Also a support of warrant is that the forces of the crusaders are

wining, as observed from the scene, The widow Christina mentions it.

Reservation to the claim: it sets out any limitations that the source wishes to place to

the claim, conditions under which the claim should or should not be accepted. In the

example illustrated in the text the reservation to the claim is that unless the Russians

increase their defense. >From the scene, the reservation to the claim is that unless

Richard withdraw his army from the crusades, we shall continue to move to Jerusalem,

as observed from the scene, the widow Christina whispers to Feleebe, the king of

France that there is no chance for them in winning the war without the army of Richard

and without Richard's leadership. The kings agree to have truce observing that from as

they sign a treaty of peace in later scenes. And here we can observe that the

reservation to the claim has reached its limit.

Finally we come to the qualifier, which is the use of some adjective that softens or

modifies the claim. In addition adding the qualifier makes it easier for the receiver to

accept the claim. The qualifier, from the example in the book is, what the researchers

added to the simple argument:" we must cut the government spending by

approximately $75 billion a year." >From the scene, we can say, "the qualifier is that

the forces of the crusaders are winning, and the evidences that many of the Arabian

states are occupied by the crusaders in the last few battles". Observing that from the

scene as the widow Christina tells it to Richard, with a degree of confidence in her

voice tone. Finally we see that Toulmin pattern is almost applicable to most arguments.

In addition, in that scene the reservation of the claim has reached its limit, and the

source was not able to convince the receivers to change their behavior and comply

with their arguments.