CEEL

Exercise: Give your argument something to stand on

Time: About 15 minutes

1. Choose a recommendation you might genuinely make at work or at home. Write the question it answers and who needs to consider it.
2. Draft the four parts of CEEL. A few sentences for each are enough. If you have no evidence yet, write “I need to check this” rather than filling the gap with confidence.
3. Read it as someone who does not already agree. Where would you ask “why?”, “how do you know?” or “what does that have to do with the question?”
4. Use the first prompt to get another reading. Examine the criticism yourself; a model can also misunderstand a sound argument.
5. Revise one weak connection. Decide whether the claim needs stronger support, narrower wording or a change of mind.

How it works

1. Claim: State the point you want to establish. Make it clear enough that someone could disagree with it.
2. Explanation: Show why the claim makes sense. Spell out the connection that seems obvious to you but may be missing for your listener.
3. Evidence: Bring relevant observations, data or sources. Check what they actually support, and mark what you still need to find out.
4. Link-back: Explain how the argument answers the original question or helps the audience make its decision.

Things to watch

• An explanation shows the reasoning. Evidence gives you grounds for believing it applies. One cannot automatically do the other’s job.
• A vivid example can help somebody understand a claim without showing how often it is true.
• Use CEEL to inspect the argument’s structure. The final wording can flow naturally once the connections are clear.
• If you invite AI to suggest a first draft, notice which claims and assumptions came from it. You still need to examine them.

Read my argument using CEEL: Claim, Explanation, Evidence and Link-back. Identify what each part is doing and where a connection is missing or unclear. Check whether the evidence I supply supports the claim and whether the argument answers the stated question. Distinguish what you can assess from this material from what would need outside verification.

Ask up to three questions that would most help me improve the argument. Let me answer before suggesting a rewrite. Do not invent evidence or treat a citation as verified just because I included it.

QUESTION AND AUDIENCE:
[What are we deciding, and who needs to consider the argument?]

MY ARGUMENT:
[Paste the four parts, or an existing paragraph.]

SUPPORTING MATERIAL:
[Provide the relevant evidence and sources, or say what is missing.]

Using my answers and the material supplied, suggest a revised CEEL argument. Preserve my intended meaning unless the evidence gives us a reason to change it. Label any proposed change of position. Mark remaining gaps and uncertainty; do not invent facts, quotations or sources. Explain the two most important changes so I can decide whether to accept them.

The thinking behind it

You have a point. Now help someone else see why it deserves their attention. CEEL gives an argument four parts: Claim, Explanation, Evidence and Link-back. It also helps you examine an AI answer whose confidence has got some distance ahead of its reasoning.

State what you want to establish, explain the reasoning, provide relevant evidence and show how the argument answers the question. Use the four parts to build your own case or find what is missing from an AI answer that sounds rather pleased with itself.