Implicit and Explicit Arguments!

Implicit and explicit arguments differ in that explicit arguments directly address an issue and express its position on that issue clearly, with organized arguments, while an implicit argument forces the reader to figure out for him or herself what the argument means, guiding the reader to the desired position. A common explicit argument would be a persuasive essay. Essays clearly define positions and defend those positions with solid and clear points. Political ads and speeches are also explicit arguments. An common implicit argument, on the other hand, would be a picture or a poem. Poems and pictures do not clearly point out what their meanings are. Poems often must be searched for the meaning by readers, and pictures contain no words whatsoever; however, these arguments can be equally effective. While an explicit argument can easily be completely ignored by the audience, implicit arguments often depict vivid and touching images, and force the reader to pay attention to their meanings by forcing them to draw the meanings themselves. On page 5 of Writing Arguments there is a photograph and a poem, arguing for different sides of a controversial issue, war. The picture depicts a soldier being greatly honored on veterans day, persuading the reader toward patriotism. The poem depicts a vivid image of soldier dying from a mustard gas attack, implying that there is no reason that a soldier should be forced to undergo such a thing as war, and conveying to the reader that dying for one's country is meaningless. While neither one of these arguments directly stated their meanings, they both were able to use the reader to get their point across, separating them from explicit arguments.