Explanations and Arguments Based on Practical Reasoning

In this paper a representative example is chosen that is meant be fairly simple for illustrating the point that in a very common kind of instance, argument and explanation are mixed in together in a text of discourse. The example is a short text found on the Internet that explains to the reader how to attach a flagpole bracket to the vinyl siding on the side of your house. The example uses practical reasoning (goal-directed reasoning) of a kind widely studied in AI and logic. While the text appears to be mainly a “how-to” explanation, it also contains argumentation woven into it, as shown by applying argumentation schemes (defeasible argument structures) representing common forms of argument. The problem is one of distinguishing between explanation and