Eli5 What’s the difference between making an argument and making a point?

Question

Eli5 What’s the difference between making an argument and making a point?

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Answer 1

You might be asking two different questions here, so I’ll answer both.

If by “argument” you mean a position on a topic, then a “point” is a statement or piece of information to help support an argument. For example, I could make the point that your town’s rate of bicycle accidents is higher than my town’s in my argument that your town’s roads are less safe.

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If by “argument” you simply mean disagreement, then an argument involves discourse between opposing perspectives while a point can be made in isolation. Somebody could say “pizza boxes can’t be recycled if they’re too oily”, but for this to become a disagreement someone else would need to say something like “pizza boxes can always be recycled”.