Tikz-PGF – Creating an Argumentation Diagram with TikZ

Question

I need to draw this diagram. I think I should use tikz but I don't know where to start from… Could someone help?

Answer 1

Consider the use of chains tikz library, on this example I used a style to define each node with the same characteristics, the use of chains, the default distance between each node and the direction of the chain. I also used the array enviroment with the \text{} command in order to make the curly braces and the formatted text.

First you need to create the nodes with text (with the exception of the middle node of "Since") and then connect them, I used -stealth that is an arrow that goes from the first coordinate to the last one.

\documentclass{standalone}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{chains}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}

\begin{tikzpicture}[myText/.style={on chain, align=center}, start chain=going right, node distance=40mm]
    \node[myText] (A) {$\left.
                                   \begin{array}{c}
                                       \text{Harry was born}\\ \text{in Bermuda}
                                \end{array} \right\}$ };
    \node[myText] (B) {So presumably,};
    \node[myText, xshift=-40mm] (C) {$\left\{
                                    \begin{array}{c}
                                        \text{Harry is a}\\ \text{British Subject}
                                    \end{array} \right.$ };
    
    \draw[-stealth] (A) -- (B) node [midway, yshift=-10mm] (D) {Since};
    \node[myText, below=3mm of D] (E) {A man born in \\ Bermuda will \\ generally be a \\British subject\\};
    \node[myText, below=3mm of E] (F) {On account of};
    \node[myText, below=3mm of F] (G) {The following statues\\and other legal provisions:};
    
    \node[myText, below=2mm of C, xshift=-20mm] (H) {Unless};
    \node[myText, below=2mm of H] (I) {Both his parents were\\aliens/he has become a\\naturalised American/...};
    
    \draw (A) -| (D);
    \draw (D) -- (E);
    \draw (E) -- (F);
    \draw (F) -- (G);
    
    \draw (B) |- (H);
    \draw (H) -- (I);
    
    
 \end{tikzpicture}
    
\end{document}