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Writing Arguments

Writing Arguments. Overview of an Argument. What problem do you want to solve? What question do you answer? What is the solution to your problem, the answer to your question? Do you want me just to think something or to do something? What reasons support your claim?

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Writing Arguments

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  1. Writing Arguments

  2. Overview of an Argument • What problem do you want to solve? What question do you answer? • What is the solution to your problem, the answer to your question? • Do you want me just to think something or to do something? • What reasons support your claim? • What evidence supports your reasons?

  3. About Your Argument… • You make an argument not just to settle a disagreement. Good arguments help you explore questions and explain your beliefs, so that even when you and your readers can’t agree, you can at least understand why.

  4. …and About Writing It • Your first task in writing argument is to understand the problem. • Why are you writing it? • What do you want to achieve? • Do you want your readers to understand something? If so, why is this understanding important? • Do you want your readers to act on something? If so, what problem will this action solve?

  5. Preparing and Planning • Plans to avoid: • The five paragraph essay • P1-intro, P2-first reason is…, P3-second reason is…, etc. • A narrative of your thinking • A blow-by-blow account of how you thought your way from a problem to its solution. • A summary of your sources • Thing one and thing two • Avoid dividing your argument in half; the two-part organization.

  6. Preparing and Planning • Plan to strive for:

  7. Claims • Where to locate your main claim (the solution to your problem: • State your main claim TWICE. Once at the end of your introduction and once again in your conclusion.

  8. Claims • What do you want your readers to do? • Respect your reasons for your claim? • Endorse your claim as worth serious consideration? • Approve of your claim and the argument supporting it? • Believe in your claim and in the argument supporting it? • Act as you propose, or support someone else’s action? • Useful claims have these qualities: • It should assert what readers should know or what they should know. • It should be something that readers will not accept without seeing your good reasons. • It should be capable of being proved wrong. • It should be reasonable.

  9. Reasons and Evidence CLAIM supports REASON explains supports EVIDENCE

  10. Reasons and Evidence • You rest claims on reasons and reasons on reports of evidence. When you report evidence, CITE YOUR SOURCES. • With multiple reasons, select an order that helps the readers. • Keep a balance between reasons and reports of evidence: • Beware the argument that is made up of mostly quotations or data. • Find evidence for every reason.

  11. Warrants • A warrant is a general statement that explicitly or implicitly relates a set of general conditions to a set of general consequences. • When children behave in violent ways, it is because they have been influenced by violent movies, TV, and computer games. • If we believe the warrant and reason, we have to believe the claim.

  12. Acknowledgements and Response • The counterclaim • When you acknowledge and respond to an imagined objection of question, you can follow a well-established formula: • Begin with a phrase such as to be sure, admittedly, some have claimed, etc. • Follow with but, however, on the other hand, etc., and go on with the response. • When you respond with these kinds of objections, you have an opportunity to thicken your argument by supporting your response with reasons, evidence, warrants, and more acknowledgements and responses to your response.

  13. Drafting (General)

  14. Drafting (Reasons and Evidence) • WHEN YOU QUOTE DIRECTLY: • You reproduce the original text word-for-word, punctuation mark-for-punctuation. CITE YOUR SOURCES. • WHEN YOU PARAPHRASE: • You substitute your words for the author’s in order to make a statement clearer or fit its context better. A paraphrase is usually shorter than the original, but it need not be. CITE YOUR SOURCES. • WHEN YOU SUMMARIZE: • You reword and condense the original text to less than its orginal length. CITE YOUR SOURCES.

  15. Assignment Requirements • 5 DIFFERENT, VERIFIABLE, RELEVANT SOURCES • MLA FORMAT • 2-3 PAGES OF ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING + 1 PAGE WORKS CITED (SOURCES) = 3-4 PAGES (LIMIT) • 8 SLIDE POWER POINT

  16. POWERPOINT FORMAT ***Include pictures on each slide. Include at least 1 paragraph of information on each slide.

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