Writing an Argumentative Paragraph In only 7 sentences!

It only takes a few steps: Step 1: Read texts associated with your Essential Question Step 2: Understand what kind of opinion your Essential Question wants you to consider Step 3: Decide what your opinion is Step 4: Find evidence that supports your opinion Step 5: Explain HOW your evidence supports your opinion Step 6: Conclude with what you learned.

So what format should I use? For the purposes of Ms. Berumen’s class. I’m expecting you to use the following format: Sentence 1: Thesis Statement- the Essential Question and your opinion Sentence 2: Overview or Background Information Sentences 3-4: Citation/Evidence #1 with explanation Sentences 5-6: Citation/Evidence #2 with explanation Sentence 7: Concluding sentence - “What did you learn?” So, I want 2 reasons why you believe what you believe, or 2 pieces of evidence to support your argument.

Step 1 – Read Text Read texts associated with your Essential Question Use handouts, articles, passages from the book, or other excerpts, including videos. For written material, use the iRead technique to IDENTIFY, READ, EXAMINE, ASSESS, and DETERMINE information.

Step 2 – Understand Essential Question “Decode the Prompt” and understand what opinion your Essential Question wants you to answer. KNOW what are you’re being asked to do. Hint: It’s best to know the E.Q. before you read so you can keep an eye for potential evidence as you read.

Step 3 – Decide your Opinion There is no wrong answer to an argumentative paragraph, only unsupported arguments or potentially poor logic being used. If you can’t find evidence to support your opinion, you might need to change your mind. Whatever you do don’t “create” evidence!

Sentence 1: Creating a Thesis Remember: Thesis Statements include the Essential Question and your opinion Label and write the following sentences… After reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears, I believe Goldilocks was a very rude little girl. Your opinion is that she’s rude. Now you have to prove it!

Sentence 2 Creating an Overview or Background Don’t let the reader begin your argument “cold”. Give them some information about what you read so they’ll understand better what your writing about. One day, while walking in the woods, Goldilocks came upon a cute little house and decided to go inside uninvited. Answer: who, what, when, where… about the topic.

Step 4 – Find evidence To find evidence that supports your opinion you will NEED to understand what the text is trying to say or explain. Make sure you use annotation to help you do the above. Using annotation will help you save time as you “swim” through the words looking for a citation. What is a citation? Any “word for word” quote from the text that you use in your work. And tell where it’s from!

Sentences 3-4 or 5-6 Creating a Citation Only by reading the text can you find a citation. But, you must put the citation IN your sentence, never in a sentence by itself! Goldilocks ate “all the bowls of porridge belonging to the owner’s of the house”. Your words in your sentence Word for word quote from the text in quotation marks

Step 5 – Explain your evidence Explain HOW your evidence supports your opinion. This is the MOST important part of writing an argument. HOW you explain the connection between the evidence and your opinion will make or break your paragraph.. Make a LOGICAL link. Thesis Statement: After reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears, I believe Goldilocks was a very rude little girl. Topic (Essential Question): What kind of character was Goldilocks? Goal (your opinion): to prove that she was rude How (evidence): She went into the house uninvited.

Sentences 3-4 or 5-6 Creating an explanation Your goal is to create a LINK between the fact and your opinion. If the citation is: Goldilocks ate “all the bowls of porridge belonging to the owner’s of the house”. Then your explanation should go something like this… It was very disrespectful for Goldilocks to eat someone else’s food without permission, and therefore, rude. to eat stranger’s food + disrespectful = rude Proof + Explanation = Opinion

Step 6 – State your conclusion Before you can end your paragraph, you NEED to state your overall conclusion. A really good way to finish is to explain HOW the information you gathered effected you personally. Ask yourself: How did the argument effect you? How did the evidence make you think or feel about the topic? What new connections involving other topics can you now make? How did you grow in knowledge?

Sentence 7 Creating a conclusion: It’s tempting to just restate the topic sentence. Don’t do that! It’s boring to repeat! HOW did discovering the evidence make you FEEL or THINK differently about the topic. In the end, Goldilocks got what she deserved. I bet she’ll never go into a stranger’s house again! Yes, this is 2 sentences. Having more is fine!

Comprehension Check… What two pieces of information will go into your Thesis Statement? What do you think is the purpose of background information? What is a citation? What is your goal in creating an explanation? What makes a good conclusion?