Gendered Argumentative Discourse in the College Students’ Essay

This paper is a contrastive rhetoric study that focuses on gender differences with respect to argumentation. It sought to investigate the prominent argument patterns and the differences in the argument structures and rhetorical appeals between male and female in their essay writing. It dopted Toulmin's model of reasoning and argumentation that includes the use of claim, evidence, qualifiers and rebuttal, and Aristole's rhetorical appeals. Using sequential exploratory qualitative-quantitative mixed methods, the study revealed no differences in the argument structures and rhetorical appeals between the two groups except only on the use of ambiguity, assertion that cannot be argued and pathos, in that the female participants show a stronger tendency to use them compared with male participants. Most of the devices and strategies were employed by the participants. The findings of this study do not provide a very strong support for gender difference as a sub-culture with respect to argumentation structure considering that the participants come from the same cultural background or orientation as far as the national culture is concerned.