Toulmin Logic

So, this is an attempt at trying to explain what Toulmin logic is, how it is used, and how it changed argumentation.  When this name was dropped in class I was one of the "deer in headlights" staring back at Dr. Rice.  I wanted to say that the name was familiar, but until I started looking around on the internet nothing was clicking.  Here is what I found out-this is still somewhat shaky, but will at least get the base ideas out since I didn't have time to read The Uses of Argument, Introduction to Reasoning, or Human Understanding maybe the blog-o-sphere is just the place to try to form these ideas more completely.
To start with there are six elements to analyzing arguments or as Toulmin calls it "practical argumentation", which include: Claim, Evidence, Warrant, Backing, Rebuttal, and Qualifier.  This methodology of argumentation was a move away from absolutists' theoretical argumentation toward something more practical-similar to courtroom argumentation.  Instead of trying to pile up evidence to make an absolutist claim, this model starts with a claim then provides justification for it.  Toulmin thought "that reasoning is less an activity of inference, involving the discovering of new ideas, and more a process of testing and sifting already existing ideas—an act achievable through the process of justification.  Toulmin believed that for a good argument to succeed, it needs to provide good justification for a claim."
It is also important to note that, from what I've read, all good arguments will use claim, evidence, and warrant-but not necessarily backing, rebuttal, and qualifiers every time.  This is a good example of the logic in use, this plus the two previous links on 'Toulmin' should be able to show this process in a couple of different ways in order to better understand his theories.  The importance of these ideas' introduction into the world of rhetoric wasn't discovered immediately, but when rhetoricians Wayne Brockriede and Douglas Ehninger got a hold of the material it was implemented.  Toulmin didn't even realize that his ideas of logic were applicable to rhetoric and other areas until Introduction to Reasoning when he make the first comments about rhetoric.  This book was published 21 years after The Uses of Argument hit the market, so his ideas slowly percolated over into the world of rhetoric, but it certainly wasn't immediate.  I like the simplicity to this approach, and how it really does make one's argument easier to follow, understand, and be convinced.