Everything ’ s an Argument

Everything’s an Argument It’s time to argue for what you believe in. It’s time to make your voice heard.

ARGUMENT ESSAY ESSENTIALS Claim (Policy) Reasons to support claim Evidence to support reasons Purposeful Patterns of Development Counterargument (acknowledgement, accommodation, refutation) Detail/Imagery/Syntax/Diction choices to support writer’s argument

Claim of Policy WITHOUT DOING ANY RESEARCH you will come up with a claim of policy you think you can defend with evidence from your experiences, your observations, human nature, history, pop culture, etc.

Claims of policy advocate adoption of policies or courses of action because problems have arisen that call for solutions. What problems have arisen that you feel need a solution? Almost always "should" or "ought to" or "must" are included in the claim. Think in terms of YOUR WORLD: LMSA Neighborhood Home Sports team/club/extracurricular New procedures/system for something New interpretation for… New way of doing… New idea for… A claim of policy is an essay consisting of an argument that certain conditions should exist.

Claims of Policy Essay Development • When you are defending a claim of policy, if necessary, establish that there is a need for change. • When thinking about how to establish a need for change think about how to present this using your patterns of development! • When you are defending a claim of policy, you must make your proposal clear. Claims of policy are often procedural, organized plans. How would you lay out your change for your readers? • Don't neglect moral and/or common sense reasons to support your argument!

Don’t forget! • When you are defending a claim of policy, consider the opposing arguments. You will need to include at least one counterargument paragraph that includes the following components: • Acknowledgement • Accommodation • Refutation

Revision Day One Goals • How can we express our opinion as clearly as credibly as possible? • By revising the “WHAT” and the “HOW”.

The WHAT. • Make argument content as solid as possible. • Claim • Reasons • Evidence

Is your claim arguable? Is your claim a complete sentence? Is your claim specific? Does your claim argue (for or against) a certain solution or a policy approach to a problem? Practice: Good or bad claims? Women should have equal rights. The colloquium schedule is bad. Teachers give too much homework. Teachers should have Fridays off. THE CLAIM

Examples • “People should tip” (2.1). • “It’s time we end tipping” (2.2). • “We should stop spending so much on prisons and start spending more on education.” • “Children in low-income families should receive medical insurance from the government.” • “Social security should be distributed on the basis of need rather than as an entitlement.”

Reasons and Evidence(“Because and Prove it” Technique) It’s time we end tipping because…. • Tipping encourages bad behaviors on behalf of servers and employers • PROVE IT. • Bad behavior like obsequiousness • Bad behavior like using looks to win over customers

Evidence can come from… Your • experiences • observations • pop culture • history • human nature • music, etc.

Write at least two reason/evidence combinations on the left hand side. (Teachers should have Fridays off) Because they are tired Mrs. Mueller has no style Patterns of Development Revision Fold a piece of paper in half and write your claim at the top.

The HOW. • Structure the argument carefully. Every choice results in a different effect. • Patterns of development • Sequence

How. Part I. Patterns of Development • NOW, pull out your notes from the patterns of development lecture. • Make sure to note the effects of each pattern (If you are in B period, Mykale can help you with this.)

Remind me of the effects, please. • Narrative: tells a story or recounts a series of events. • Exemplification: provides a specific instance or series of examples of something • Compare/contrast: juxtaposes two things to highlight their similarities and differences. • Description: emphasizes the senses by describing how something looks, sounds, smells, tastes, or feels. • Definition: defining a term • Division and classification: • Division: breaking of a larger whole into smaller parts • Classification: categorization of objects into a larger whole • Process: involves giving directions or telling the reader how to do something. • Cause and Effect: analyzing the causes that lead to a certain effect or, conversely, the effects that result from a cause.

This is the most difficult part of today’s lesson. • Writers make choices. • On the right-hand side of your piece of paper (across from your reason/evidence pair)…. • REWRITE YOUR REASONS AND/OR EVIDENCE USING THE PATTERN THAT WILL MOST LIKELY CONVINCE YOUR AUDIENCE. • You must try out one (at least) besides the one that is represented on your draft.

…because they are tired. PROVE IT. Mrs. Mueller’s outfits are bad and she doesn’t comb her hair. Mrs. Mueller can’t form a complete sentence during her 5th period class. On Monday, Mrs. Mueller wears heels, dresses, and accessories, but by Friday, she wears the same jeans she wore for colloquium and I think she might have even worn a pajama top. (Compare/Contrast) Example: Teachers should have Fridays off.

…because salaries are not good. Prove it: Salaries don’t include health insurance. Hourly rate is much lower. $30/week. Care to look at my $30 weekly paycheck? (Description) Care to subsidize my health insurance? (Exemplification) McDonald’s workers have bigger paychecks. (Compare/Contrast) Example: People should tip.

How. Part II. Sequence. • WHERE is your claim? • Where is the best place to put your claim? • First line? Effect? • Middle? Effect? • End? Effect? • Implied? Effect? • Discuss the effects with your peers before you make a decision.

Reason #1 Evidence #1 Reason #2 Evidence #2 Reason #3 Evidence #3 Reason #1 Reason #2 Reason #3 Evidence #1 Evidence #2 Evidence #3 How did you sequence your reasons and evidence?

Effects of each of those? • Other ways? • Think about past articles. Look at them now. What do they do?

Homework: Establishing a Need for Change • Here is a perfect place for you to also think about sequence (where does it show up in your essay) and patterns of development (which pattern of development could you use to be the most convincing?) • Example from 2.1: “I had to defend tipping more than a handful of times. I actually had to deal with an anti-tipping, heckler while on book tour for my bartending memoir. I’ve had born again Christians…”

Counterargument • Before we can construct our counterarguments, we need to identify existing opposition. • Please get into the following groups:

B Period

5th Period

DEVIL’S ADVOCATES • Goal: Generate as many opposing arguments to your claim as possible. (A minimum of five, please) • This will look something like this:

Choices Choices Choices • Choose two opposing arguments that you feel will best contribute to YOUR overall purpose. The ones that will help make your claim look better. • Draft an acknowledgment/accommodation/refutation for each of the opposing arguments. • Choose the best counterargument for your essay. • See my example on the next slide.

Acknowledgement (Aparaphrase, with useful examples, of an argument posed by your potential opponents) Accommodation (A statement conceding to the merit of some part of the opposing argument--either in the argument, itself, or in the character and values of the arguer.) A number of people, namely parents, are going to find the logistics of my proposal problematic. I understand parents will have difficulty finding a place for their children to go on Fridays. If a parent works full time, what is he/she supposed to do? Counterargument Example

Refutation (Argues against the opponent on the terms introduced by the writer in the acknowledgment) OR (Challenges the choice of criteria used by the opponent, by introducing what the writer believes to be a more valid set of criteria to frame the argument.) First this argument implies that teachers and schools are indeed babysitting services which perpetuates the lack of importance and lack of value placed on education today. Secondly, before kids are of school age, parents work to find care for their children. In our capitalist society, there will be a number of opportunities available to both caretakers and students themselves. The ideal model to implement would be to have students use this day to participate in our communities. Working and volunteering in our communities would provide valuable lessons that the schools can’t provide. Counterargument

STYLE: Choices • Just as writers choose to include an emotional or logical appeal, they choose how to present information and how to develop that information. • Everything in writing is a CHOICE: details, imagery, diction, syntax--even punctuation!

Attitude/Tone • Anyway, some of your essays are fine, but there is no “kick” to them. There is no feeling. They read like they are part of a textbook. Blah. • How do you feel about the subject you are writing about? • Answer this question on the back of your rough draft.

Tone/Attitude • Now, how will your DICTION support this tone/attitude? • Consider the examples below: • “Tip or die.” • “Your making money hand-over-fist!” some would declare… • “…written in black permanent marker on a can that lived next to the cash register…” • “…where I mixed drinks for a living…”

Let’s look at your diction… • Look back at your rough draft for 5 minutes. Think about your diction. Have the words you’ve chosen convey the right attitude? Should they be harsher? Should they be more blunt? Should they be softer or more politically correct (to appear more fair-minded?) • Verb choice is a great place to start here…

Tone/Attitude • Another way to convey tone is through your syntax. Consider the examples below: • “Care to look at my $30 weekly paycheck?” • “Care to subsidize my health insurance?” • “Care to work over 10 hours a night on your feet…?” • “I’ve had born-again Christians leave me pamphlets on finding God—inlieu of atip—after drinking themselves into heaven.” • “Think it’s hard to find your waitress now?”

Let’s look at your syntax…. • Look back at your rough draft for 5 minutes. Think about your syntactic choices. Are all of your sentences simple? Compound? Complex? Think about the effects of using the following: • All simple sentences • All complex sentences • So when do we use each of them? Discuss as a class. • Think about different punctuation choices you can make (hyphens, parentheses, semi-colons, colons….)and the effects those choices have.

Everything ’ s an Argument