12 Identifying Assumptions

When rhetorically analyzing any type of text, one step you will want to take as a reader is identifying the assumptions made by the writer or speaker.

For example, the National Rifle Association (NRA) makes the following argument:

In the following activity, we invite you to try to identify assumptions in a common argument.

If you checked any or all of these items from the list, you are correct. These are all unstated by the NRA, but the beliefs must be accepted by you, the reader, to fully endorse their line of reasoning.

Here’s the tricky part of identifying assumptions: assumptions that align with the reader are often automatically accepted and therefore make analysis more difficult. If you are a person who agrees that universal background checks are ineffective, then the assumptions underlying the NRA’s argument are harder to identify. If you are a person who disagrees that universal background checks are ineffective, then the assumptions underlying the NRA’s argument are easier to identify.

In the following activity, we invite you to try to identify assumptions in a common argument.

Two Types of Assumptions

Assumptions can be categorized into two different types (Value and Descriptive), which can make identifying them easier. This distinction between types of assumptions is made in Browne and Keeley’s book Asking the Right Questions.

For example, returning to universal background checks, or gun rights debates more generally. A value assumption would look like this:

Now you may think, “well someone who was pro-gun rights would see guns as providing both personal freedom and public safety.” If so, then you are really understanding how assumptions operate. To unpack these value assumptions further, we move on to the next type of assumption: descriptive.

For example, from our previous example, we identified the following assumption: “Criminals are always criminals. They do not exist as law-abiding citizens beforehand.” In this assumption, the writer is assuming a background check can catch criminals, but a law-abiding citizen is only law-abiding until they are not. We are not born a certain way. We become someone who owns a gun. We become someone who uses a gun for protection or aggression. This assumption is sharing a belief the writer has about criminals. Descriptive assumptions in gun control debates are typically made about guns, gun owners, criminals, citizens, safety, laws, and more.

In the following activity, we invite you to try to distinguish between value and descriptive assumptions.

Assumptions are Embodied

The assumptions we make and the assumptions we identify typically stem from our lived experiences. They stem from the viewpoints we have developed based on our experiences, our communities, and our identities. Take, for example, a high school student who has just survived a mass school shooting. In this clip, Emma Gonzalez, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, gives a speech at an anti-gun rally. At Gonzalez’s high school in Parkland, Florida, a shooter killed 17 high school students in 2018. It was a tragedy, one that has happened countless times in the United States, and one that created a kairotic moment for embodied rhetoric from the survivors and the parents of the murdered children. This speech was made shortly after the mass shooting. Watch the video (view time is 10:40) and then identify the assumptions underlying her argument.

Video 12.1. Florida student to NRA and Trump: ‘We call BS’ by CNN

In the following activity, we invite you to try to identify the assumptions that Emma Gonzalez makes in her speech supporting gun control.

Why Assumption Identification Matters for Your College Writing

Once you can identify the assumptions underlying your argument, you can point them out to your readers and counter them. For example, in the student loan forgiveness argument, I might highlight other times in history that the government has intervened to help its citizens to improve the economy (e.g., Covid). I might also highlight times in history when the government helped industries for the same reason (e.g., Wall Street, automotive). By identifying my own assumptions, I can figure out who might disagree with me, and why, and plan my argument around that.

How to Use Assumptions in Your Rhetorical Analysis

One of the exciting and frustrating things about learning how to identify assumptions is you will start to see them everywhere. You will begin to understand why thoughtful people can disagree so vehemently on certain issues. But you will begin to understand how we can start to find common ground.

In the rhetorical situation in particular, scholars sometimes refer to constraints in an argument, or factors that help or hurt a person’s ability to get their point across to an audience. Assumptions are constraints in an argument, so it can be important to analyze them when writing and reading.

If you are analyzing the rhetorical effectiveness of someone else’s argument, part of that analysis should include: 1. identifying assumptions made in the argument, and 2. analysis of whether or not the assumptions would hinder the effectiveness of the argument.

Try it here together as a class or in a group: watch the following video clip (view time is 9:59) from an interview and see if you can use assumptions to analyze why they are unable to understand each other, and reflect on how their lived experiences may

Video 12.2. Fox News: Embarrassing interview – Reza Aslan vs Lauren Green [original – unedited] by Mindspan

In the following activity, we invite you to try to reflect on the assumptions made between these two people. Try to write 100 words or more as you interrogate this interaction.