Sioux Must Battle Big Oil Summary

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“Now the Sioux Must Battle Big Oil”, authored by Alan Gilbert, is an argument with many forms of evidences. Gilbert uses a variety of statistics, quotations, as well as personal experience to support his argument and his opinion. Most of these evidences are reliable, but some can be improved by adding more authority to the evidences. In the beginning of his essay, Gilbert uses a quote from a Standing Rock Tribal chairman. This is a trustworthy source, since it is from a firsthand witness of the situation. This chairman has authority and using a quote from him can be very powerful due to the strength of this form of evidence. Later on, Gilbert captures statistics to portray the growth of protestor camps in Standing Rock. Though using statistics is a much stronger form of evidence than …show more content…

By including the source from which he derived these statistics, Gilbert could create a more trustworthy evidence and help convince the audience. As the argument progresses, the author uses articles from the New York Times as well as another Daily Beast article when discussing the background of the topic. These evidences are not very authoritative because they come from articles that might have bias. Both the New York Times, and the Daily Beast can be opinionated, so taking sources from less biased and more firsthand sources would be more reliable. The author also employs quotes from the protestors to support his opinion. This form of evidence is highly reliable because these are firsthand accounts from people who are witnessing the issue and have authority on it. Finally, the most authoritative type of evidence the author uses in this argument his personal narrative. This is because the author experiences and interviews these protestors personally, and his experience at Standing Rock makes him more authoritative than an author who googled the issue then wrote an article on