The Story

The structure of argument and reasoning has interested me for decades.

I’ve spent a lot of time reading about argument models such as the Toulmin model and argument mapping. However I always felt that there must be more effective ways of analysing and developing arguments.

In 2024, I spent weeks playing around with different ways of describing arguments in a visual form and eventually came up with the argument claim hexagon model.

I’ve found using the hexagon model incredibly useful for understanding and developing arguments so I decided to set up this website to explore it and other ideas about arguments in more detail.

My background

I’ve been developing a different approach to creating effective learning content since 2016 and have used these ideas in my work as an information and learning designer. My writing about knowledge structures and learning strategies can be found at www.francismiller.com.

My roles and activities prior to that included:

• business consulting for small businesses and non-profit organisations for many years
• being one of the four founders of the Merlin Ecology Fund (now the Jupiter Ecology Fund) in 1988. Merlin was the UK’s first environmental unit trust and, as the Jupiter Ecology Fund, is one of the world’s longest-established green investment funds
• management consultancy work for the Falkland Islands Government in 1984
• articles for various news and business publications, including a jointly written article for the Guardian on how novelists have incorporated an awareness of environmental problems into their work and an article for the New Statesman on the political implications of the emotional intelligence concept.

I am a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge and live in Hertfordshire, England.

Francis Miller