Using principle of syllogism to write/read philosophy

    A syllogism has two premises and one conclusion.The major term appears in the major (first) premise, and the minor term appears in the minor (second) premise and then the middle term appears in both premises but not in the conclusion.
    You can use the this principle of all syllogisms to develop arguments (writing an argumentive essay) and to understand or to criticize syllogictic argument (critical reasoning).
    Lets us assume that you wanted to write an essay and the thesis of your essay is “All (acts of adultery) are (immoral acts)." The thesis or the conclusion of an argumentative essay is the point of the entire essay. All other statements are offered as supportive statements of the thesis or the conclusion. Thus, we know that the minor term of our argument is acts of adultery and the major term of our argument will be immoral acts – the subject and predicate terms of our conclusion.

   Aristotle says that all development of an argument (scientific reasoning) is search for the middle term. Thus the outline of our argument is:

1.)  All (middle term) are (immoral acts).
2.)  All (acts of adultery) are (middle term).
3.)  All (acts of adultery) are (immoral acts).

What is the middle term that establishes the connection that is asserted to be true by the person arguing for the conclusion of our essay? One possible middle term is “acts of breaking a promise”. Using acts of breaking a promise as a middle term, we generate the argument:
1.) All (acts of breaking a promise) are (immoral acts).
2.) All (acts of adultery) are (acts of breaking a promise).
3.) All (acts of adultery) are (immoral acts).
This argument is an instance of the perfect syllogism (it is an AAA-1). Since the minor term is included in the middle and the middle term is included in the major, the minor term must be included in the major term.

    Let us also notice that the art of critical reading uses the same skills as the art of critical writing. If you want to get the point of a passage or if you want to understand an argumentative essay, you must first identity the conclusion (using premise and conclusion indicators). The logical subject of the conclusion is the subject or topic of the passage and the logical predicate of the conclusion is what is asserted as true or not true of the subject. You can change the conclusion into a question and you have the overall question the author is addressing in his essay: Whether acts of adultery are immoral acts?