The best test of an argument is the argument's ability to convince someone with an opposing viewpoint.Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take.

The statement attempt to give an answer to the question what is a best way to measure ability of an argument by whether it can convince someone with an opposing viewpoint. I do not completely agree with the argument because there is no absolute answer to say how good something, including argument, is but the answer should vary, depending on the content of such argument and the context it is used for.

Firstly, the ultimate purpose of an argument is to convince people to follow a point of view and the target audience can somehow belong to three classes: supporter, opposing or neutral. And a best argument is the one can convince the majority of its target audience with the effect strong enough to bring about the desire changed. So, it is the interaction of the argument and the target audience would determine whether the argument is good or not. For example, you want to raise awareness of citizens about the high chance of ovarian cancer in women and the essential to take HPV vaccine to present such tragedy and majority of your citizens have no foggy idea about what HPV is and how vaccine can prevent cancer. Clearly, in this case an argument that can persuade neutral people to take the vaccine would be more effective than the one whose purpose is to target the opposition. On the contrary, when majority of your target audiences are opposition, an argument which can convince someone with an opposing viewpoint is more likely to achieve your goal than the one which target the neutral or supporting people.

Secondly, even if your target audience population is evenly distributed in three classes, convincing a someone with an opposing view may not be challenging as the convincing one that is neutral. Main reasons for the neutral view to a problem are lack of interest in the issue or ignoring attitude and as the result, creating an interest in a person or sobering them is, in most of the case, even more difficult than making someone change their mind.

in conclusion, your target audience also plays an important role in determining whether your argument would be the best and there is no defined definition of a best argument. Noteworthy, in some case, convincing an neutral person may more difficult than convincing an opposition view.