Asking the Right Questions - Chapter 5

What Words or Phrases Are Ambiguous?

During the process of identifying the conclusion and reasons, we not only need to form the basic structure of the passage but also need to examine the precise meaning of these parts before we can react fairly to the ideas being presented, in that there may exist multiple possible meanings for a word or phrase. Such ambiguous words or phrases need identifying when readers want to have a better understanding of the authors' reasons and conclusions.  Here are the steps:

Knowing where to look for ambiguous terms or phrases, we can ask ourselves if we fully understanding their meaning to overcome some obstacles. For example, advertising is often full of ambiguity. Advertisers intentionally engage in ambiguity to persuade us that their products are superior to those of their competitors.

As writers and speakers rarely define their key terms, typically our guide to the meaning of an ambiguous statement is the context in which the words are used. Writers frequently make clear their assumed meaning for a term by their arguments, and we must try to clarify such terms by examining their context.

Besides, we can also take a closer look at some of the inadequacies of a dictionary definition to gain a better understanding. But that requires effort and time, so it is better used occasionally rather than frequently. 

It is also important to clarify the ambiguous arguments in our writing, because to persuade someone to accept our conclusion and reasons, we must make sure that our audience is reacting to the same conclusion and reasons.