1. Do Now: Complete the following.
Answer: What is argument? What is the goal of argument?
Create a list of current controversial topics.
What topics are important to you? Choose at least two.

2. Argumentative Essay

3. What is argument? At its worst: Yelling and interruption
Exaggerated assertions with no support
Little evidence or evidence from sources that lack credibility
Goal: winning
At its best:
Rational exploration of ideas; persuasive discourse
Coherent and considered movement from claim to conclusion.
Goal: better understanding others’ ideas and your own; seeking common ground.

4. Rogerian Arguments
Carl Rogers: 20th century psychologist; promoted non-confrontational argument tactics: negotiation, compromise, cooperation.
Having a full understanding of opposing position allows persuasive response and refutation that is accommodating rather than alienating.

5. “Slowing Down Fast Food”
Identify two points in Amy Domini’s article where she might have given way to accusation or blame or where she might have dismissed the Slow Food movement as being shortsighted or elitist.
How, instead, does she find common ground and promote dialogue with her audience through civil discourse?

6. Activity
For one of the controversial topics you chose during the Do Now, brainstorm how you would develop an argument from two different viewpoints. Consider the potential for controversial or highly emotional responses to each.
What could you do to encourage a civil tone and approach?

7. Claims
Claim: assertion or proposition that states argument’s main idea.
Differs from topic or subject because is arguable.
Not a simple statement of fact; a position that others will agree/disagree with.
Domini:
Topic: social investing in fast food industry
Claim: Investing in fast food companies can be socially responsible.
Developing a position requires thorough exploration of a topic.

8. Which statement makes a claims?
Topic: single-sex classrooms
Claims:
Many schools have single-sex classrooms
Single-sex classrooms have been around for years, especially in private schools.
Single-sex classrooms are ineffective because they do not prepare students for the realities of the workplace.

9. Types of Claims
Generally fall into three categories: claims of fact, value, and policy.
Common for an argument to include more than one type of claim.
Claims of fact: argue what the definition of something is or whether something is a settled fact.
Example: Cell phones increase the incidence of brain tumors.

10. Types of Claims (cont.)
Claims of value: argue something is good or bad, right or wrong, desirable or undesirable.
Example: Cell phones have had deleterious effects on social interactions.
Claims of policy: argue for change.
Example: School districts should encourage a concerted effort by parents and teachers to reduce cell phone use by young students in order to improve social skills.

11. Activity
#1: Read the first three paragraphs of Anna Quindlen’s “The C Word in the Hallways.” Notice how she combines claims of fact and value as a basis for her claim for policy change.
#2: Read “Felons and the Right to Vote” Annotate to identify claims of fact, value, and policy. Describe how these claims interact throughout the argument.

12. Activity
For one of the topics you chose for the Do Now, write three different claims that could focus an essay. Be sure each is arguable.
Will your overall argument include more than one type of claim (value, fact, policy)?

13. Thesis Statements
Sometimes writers implicitly state claims; in formal essays, the claim is traditionally explicitly stated in a one sentence thesis statement.
Types of thesis statements: closed, open, and counter-argument.

14. Closed Thesis Statements
Statement of the main idea of the argument that also previews the major points the writer intends to make.
“Closed” because it limits the number of points the writer will make.
Example: Three-dimensional characters, exciting plot, and complex themes of the Harry Potter series make them not only legendary children’s books but enduring literary classics.

15. Open Thesis Statements
Statement of the main idea of the argument that does not list all the points writer intends to make in the essay.
Example: The popularity of the Harry Potter series demonstrates that simplicity trumps complexity when it comes to the taste of readers, both young and old.

16. Counterargument Thesis Statements
Statement of the main idea of the argument in which a summary of a counterargument, usually qualified by although or but, precedes the writer’s opinion.
Advantage: immediately addressing counterargument seems stronger and more reasonable; sets up concession and refutation.
Example: Although the Harry Potter series may have some literary merit, its popularity has less to do with storytelling than merchandising.

17. Activity
Select one of the claims you wrote previously and draft two thesis statements that might guide an essay on the subject. Which one is more promising for a full argumentative essay? Why?

18. Readings: Summer Bummer Why Don’t We Complain? The Ways We Lie
That Lean and Hungry Look
A Modest Proposal
Education
Superman and Me
Women’s Brains
Where I Lived and What I Lived For
On Compassion
How to Tame a Wild Tongue
Keeping a Notebook
Death of a Moth
TV: The Plug-In Drug
No Name Woman
There is No Unmarked Woman

19. Evidence Consider audience.
What evidence to present, how much is necessary, and how to present it are impacted by audience.
Types of evidence:
First-hand evidence: personal experience, anecdotes, current events
Second-hand evidence: historical information, expert opinion, quantitative evidence

20. Relevant, Accurate, Sufficient
Relevant: evidence that specifically applies to argument; show relationship between evidence and argument.
Accurate: avoid misrepresenting evidence; use evidence from credible sources.
Sufficient: use variety of sources.

21. Avoid Fallacies Relevance: red herring, ad hominem, false analogy.
Accuracy: straw man, false dilemma.
Insufficiency: hasty generalization, circular reasoning, appeal to ignorance and tradition, slippery slope.

22. First-Hand Evidence
Anecdotes: what has happened to others; appeal to pathos.
Current events: can be interpreted in many ways; seek multiple viewpoints and look for bias.
Personal experience: human element; appeal to pathos and ethos
Fallacy pitfall: Hasty generalization (personal experience is rarely universal proof)

23. Second-Hand Evidence Accessed through research, reading, investigation
Central appeal: logos; may appeal to pathos and establish ethos secondarily.
Historical information: complicated; avoid misrepresenting; often compared to current events
Fallacy pitfall: Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc (correlation does not imply causation)

24. Second-Hand Evidence (cont.)
Expert Opinion: expert (someone who has published research on topic or whose experience provides specialized knowledge.
Expert should be credible to your audience.
Fallacy pitfall: Appeal to False Authority (someone with no expertise speaks as an authority on an issue)

25. Second-Hand Evidence (cont.)
Quantitative research: statistics, polls, surveys, census information; can also be non-numeric facts.
Fallacy pitfall: Bandwagon ( “Everybody’s doing it” is supported by statistics that do not necessarily prove it to be true.)

26. Activity
Choose one of the thesis statements you developed in the previous activity.
What type of support you would include in each of three body paragraphs of an essay arguing the thesis? Choose a different type of evidence for each body paragraph.
What research would you have to conduct?