How To Win An Argument - Each Time And Every Time

At one point or the other most of us get into arguments with others. Whether you like it or not, sometimes you lose too. Here are some failsafe tips that will help you win any argument anytime, every time!

You can read it here. But then, you may want to see this page first where some more really interesting stuff is waiting for you!

Some Facts And History

Probably, you have seen this before. I got this from that never ending stream of forwarded emails that clog up my inbox everyday. So I do not want to copy and paste it here. I found it hilarious and different from most of the usual bland ones.

As the mail had no original source or cited any site, I decided to try to trace it on the net. I was really surprised with the results, there were so many, with many blog entries with posting dates after July 2007!. Most of them cited no source, some of them took the safe stance and cited the source : unknown.

Some blogs, sites and forums attributed it to an American Laweyer Stuart J. Williams. I could find many quote sites attributing only "I argue very well. Ask any of my remaining friends. I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties. Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me" to David Barry and no other data like date or other source available. I couldn't find any reference to this even on his official web site or blog. Some people cited Argument 101 from Fun People Archive that dated back to 8th Jan 1995. I could find the same message posted in the University at Buffalo Poetics discussion group on 6th Dec 1995.

But the earliest instance of this hilarious piece of writing that I can find on the net dates back to 14th Dec 1994 on Subgenius Digest V6, in a mail sent to their group by J. Cooper. But even he says "I didn't write this. It's from my files. Praise "Bob"! Perhaps seeing This and about 'Dave Barry's 16 things' will be interesting!

Then who wrote it in the first place? In fact, Dave Berry wrote this hilarious work way back in 1981 titled 'How To Argue effectively'. Judi Smith, assistant to Dave Barry has informed me that it was taken from the book 'Dave Barry's Bad Habits'. Knowingly or unknowingly, many websites and blogs use the whole article as their own and emails with the full article has been doing the rounds for a long time. In fact, they do encourage people, blogs and sites to use a link, but condemn the usage of the full article.

P.S.: Actually, I had included the mail in the original post. I removed it because it actually is copyrighted material. Use the links on the right to preview and read Dave Barry's works.