1. Arguing Your Stance: Writing that First Draft
English 111

2. Step 1: Review Your Research
Read for understanding.
Develop a comprehensive view of your subject matter.
Keep an open mind and be ready to change your original hunches about the topic.
Take notes on details you think are key to understanding your subject matter.

3. Step 2: Develop a Thesis Statement
Use possible controversies in your topic to develop a thesis statement
This is based on your comprehensive reading of your sources.
EXAMPLE
Controversy: Varyious conflicting interpretaitons interpretations of the 2nd amendment of the constitution.
Thesis:
Though public and political opinion tends to see the 2nd amendment as a carte blanche freedom to own firearms, court interpretation and constitutional history show a more complication picture. As a result, our laws about guns ought to reflect that more complex and refined understanding of the right to bear arms.

4. Step 3: Develop claims to support the thesis
Analyze your thesis to discover what claims or ideas you’ll have to prove to your audience to get them to agree with the thesis.
This will be the starting point to the arguments you make.

5. Step 3 (cont.): Example Thesis:
(1)Though public and political opinion tends to see the 2nd amendment as a carte blanche freedom to own firearms, (2) court interpretation and constitutional history show a more complication picture. (3)As a result, our laws about guns ought to reflect that more complex and refined understanding of the right to bear arms.
Claims:
Explain public & politician views on 2nd Amendment.
Explain how court interpretation works & how USSC interprets 2nd Amendment.
Explain the history of 1st amendment interpretation as example.
Argue based on USSC decision how approach to gun laws ought to change.
Argue based on example of 1st Amendment rights why a more complicated view of 2nd Amendment is appropriate

6. Step 4: Consider Others’ Viewpoints
EXAMPLE
Others’ Viewpoint:
Some people decry “activist judges” and think of the court process of interpreting the constitution is an arbitrary, capricious process that distorts the true intent of the constitution.
Refutation:
“Your rights end where mine begin.” Argue that the court process is in fact an integral part of constitution, using the language of the constitution itself as proof. The courts are necessary to figure out just how the constitution is to be understood when two parties’ apparent rights conflict.
Think of viewpoints contrary to yours as well as arguments that might be made against your view.
Think of reasoning and/or evidence you might use to refute those arguments.

7. Step 5: Find Evidence: Take Notes on Your Research
extract evidence you can use to support your claims
extract evidence you can use to refute or counterargue the viewpoints or arguments of others.
As much as possible, write these as paraphrases & include in-text citations
EXAMPLE
Claim:
Court interpretation is a constitutional part of assessing how our rights work.
Evidence:
According to Albert Schwartz, an attorney who has argued a number of cases in front of the Supreme Court, the US constitution is considered a set of general principles that need to be fleshed out, on a case by case basis, by the courts. The courts are the entities that determine how the rights in the Constitution ought to be understood in day-to-day conflicts (Schwarts 19).

8. Step 5 (cont.): Find Evidence: Take Notes on Other Kinds of Evidence
Consider evidence from personal experience or from sound reasoning that you could use to support your claims.
Write these kinds of evidence down.
EXAMPLE
Claim:
1st Amendment is an example of how rights are subject to court interpretation.
Evidence of Sound Reasoning:
Must argue that 2nd amendment is not any more exceptional than any other amendment in the Constitution. If conditions apply to a cherished set of rights like those in the 1st Amendment, it stands to reason that conditions can reasonably apply to the 2nd Amendment as well.

9. Step 5 (cont.): Find Evidence: Do More Research
Consider whether you have sufficient evidence to support your claims.
Look for more sources with evidence to support your claims
Take notes on those sources.
At this point, additional sources can come from the open internet.
EXAMPLE
Counterargument:
What DOES the Constitution says about the courts?
Add’l Research:
Let’s pull up a copy of the constitution and figure out what it actually says about the courts. Extract quotations to support my counterargument.

10. Step 6: Outline your Draft
Take all of the above, and develop a logical organization to lay out your arguments and support your thesis
Include where you’re going to add your counterarguments and your pieces of evidence.

11. Step 6(cont.): Example New Order
Claims – old order
Explain public & politician views on 2nd Amendment.
Explain how court interpretation works & how USSC interprets 2nd Amendment.
Explain the complicated history of 1st amendment interpretation.
Argue based on USSC decision how approach to gun laws ought to change.
Argue based example of 1st Amendment rights why a more complicated view of 2nd Amendment is appropriate
Wouldn’t it be more interesting, and logical, to discuss the example of the first amendment (claim 3) before going into how court interpretation works (claim 2)?
And then, it would logically follow to apply ideas about 1st amendment to the 2nd amendment (claim 5) before ultimately arguing for how I think the 2nd amendment should be approached differently (claim 4).
New Order
Explain public & politician views on 2nd Amendment.
Explain the complicated history of 1st amendment interpretation.
Explain how court interpretation works & how USSC interprets 2nd Amendment.
Argue based example of 1st Amendment rights why a more complicated view of 2nd Amendment is appropriate
Argue based on USSC decision how approach to gun laws ought to change.

12. Step 6 (cont.): Example Intro
Discuss recent mass shootings
Discuss questions about 2nd amendment this generates
Thesis
Explain public & politician views on 2nd Amendment.
Evidence from popular opinion polls (Sources?)
Reasoning
Evidence from politicians’ statements (Sources?)
Explain the complicated history of 1st amendment interpretation.
Evidence about reasonable exceptions to 1st Amendment Freedom of Speech
Reasoning about just how reasonable these exceptions are, how they prevent infringement of other people’s rights. “Your rights end where mine begin.”
IV. Etc.
V. Etc.
VI. Etc.
VII. Conclusion

13. Step 6 (cont.): Outlining Resources
MHG pp explains how to construct effective outlines.
MHG pp. 265, “Options for Organization,” offers traditional methods for organizing a persuasive essay.
MHG pp Discusses elements and features of a persuasive essay, including what goes into Intro, Body, Conclusion, and Title.
MHG pp offers a first and final draft of a student’s persuasive essay.
Other kinds of argument-based essays as well:
MHG Chpt 11 on Arguing a stance about causes and effects.
MHG Chpt 12 on Arguing to prove the existence of a problem and in favor of one or more solutions to that problem.

14. Step 7 (cont.): Write Your Draft
Use outline to develop your draft and stay focused on thesis.
Do your best to paraphrase your sources whenever possible. Only use quotations when they are best suited to your purposes.
Include an in-text citation (using the research style you’ve chosen and been using) whenever you include information from your sources into your draft.
Include a Works Cited or References page listing the sources you cited.