In Class Free Write: Chapter 4

One topic in chapter four that I found slightly confusing was the topic of cultural assumptions and values. I was not sure exactly if the book was trying to tell us that applying cultural ideas to an argument was good or bad. At first i believe that is good because they are saying that the audeince would more likely support something that they experience or a common thought that the population holds. The part that confuses me is are there not people in America who do not agree with the same cultural ideas? Plus America is made up of many different cultures, is that not an issue?

The next topic that I did not fully grasp was the idea of degree. The book describes this as more of a good thin or less of a bad thing which is a pretty easy concept to understand. The part that I guess I found confusing was how do you apply this to writing you argument? The examples they provide allow me to better understsand what more of a good thing and less of a bad thing really means, but I do not think that I could think of an idea like that on my own at this point. How would I create my own statement using degree in my upcoming paper? Also it seemed as if there was not a huge deal of fact behind these statements and that some of the examples were more like personal opinion. Would this still appeal to my audience and get my point across?