Argument
ENG 106: Composition 2
Unit 2
August 27-Sept. 14, 2001

Objectives

By the time you finish this you unit, you should:
  • understanding the nature of academic argument;
  • be able to identify strengths and weaknesses in arguments;
  • have drafted a number of claims and begun supporting them.

Assignments

Please complete these assignments on or before the dates in bold. 

Aug. 28: Read Drafting and Good Reasons, Chapter 2
Aug. 30: Read Good Reasons, Chapter 7
Aug. 31: Post first draft of evaluation
Sept. 4: Read Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and "Benjamin Franklin"
Sept. 6: Read Good Reasons, Chapter 10
Sept. 7: Post first draft of proposal
Sept. 14: Post second draft of proposal

Updated August 22, 2001
© Mark Canada, 2001
mark.canada@uncp.edu

Introduction

Before you entered this class, you probably wrote a number of different things: e-mail messages, letters, essays on final exams, even a lengthy research paper.  The crucial skills you developed in writing those things--prewriting, organization, sentence crafting, revision, and the like--will serve you well in this class, in future classes, and in your career.  To achieve your potential in all of those experiences, however, you also will need an additional skill.  You will need to be able to examine a body of evidence, interpret it, and express your interpretation in the form of a compelling argument.  In this unit, you will learn about various kinds of arguments and practice writing them.

Practice

Below are some activities designed to help you master the knowledge and skills covered in this unit.  Some of these activities will take place in class.  I encourage you to use the others outside class to help you master the material in this unit.
  1. Argument: What is academic argument? How is it different from other types of argument? Why do we need argument? What do John Ramage and John Bean mean when they say, in Writing Arguments: "In the twentieth century, absolute, demonstrable truth is seen by many thinkers, from physicists to philosophers, as an illusion" (14)? How are persuasion and "truth-seeking" related to argument?
  2. Logical Fallacies: Identify logical fallacies you have encountered in political debates, advertisements, or other forms of argument.
  3. Prewriting Workshop for Evaluation: Using the syllabus for this course, the department guidelines for ENG 106, and your text book, develop a criteria for good writing.  Under each item on this list of criteria, jot down some evidence suggesting that you have met or not met this criteria.  In a paragraph, describe your audience.  Refer to "Steps in Writing an Evaluation Argument" in your text book for guidance. 
  4. Outline Workshop for Evaluation: Referring to your notes from the prewriting exercise above, create an outline for your evaluation.
  5. Drafting Workshop for Evaluation: Referring to the outline you created, begin writing a draft of your evaluation.  Concentrate on writing appropriate topic sentences and unified paragraphs.
  6. Revision Workshop for Evaluation: Pair up with a partner and read one another's evaluations.  Consider each of the following components:
    1. Claim: Underline the claim and assess its substance, contestability, clarity, and precision.
    2. Support: Comment on the relevance, credibility, and sufficiency of supporting evidence.
    3. Clarity: Comment on the organization, topic sentences, and transitions.
  7. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin as Argument: Analyze Benjamin Franklin's autobiography as a kind of argument.  What are some of his claims?  How does he support them?  Do you find his argument compelling?  What heuristics does he use?
  8. Prewriting Workshop for Proposal: Discuss Franklin's autobiography and D.H. Lawrence's essay on Franklin with some classmates.  Make a list of reasons why Franklin's autobiography might or might not be a good thing for people to read.  Freewrite some ideas for your proposal. 
  9. Outline Workshop for Proposal: Referring to your notes from the prewriting exercise above, create an outline for your proposal.
  10. Drafting Workshop for Proposal: Referring to the outline you created, begin writing a draft of your proposal.  Concentrate on writing appropriate topic sentences and unified paragraphs.  Refer to "Steps in Writing a Proposal Argument" in your text book for guidance. 
  11. Revision Workshop for Proposal: Pair up with a partner and read one another's proposals.  Consider each of the following components:
    1. Claim: Underline the claim and assess its substance, contestability, clarity, and precision.
    2. Support: Comment on the relevance, credibility, and sufficiency of supporting evidence.
    3. Clarity: Comment on the organization, topic sentences, and transitions.

Conclusion

After reading and writing two types of argument, an evaluation and a proposal, you should have a grasp on some of the major components of academic argument, as well as some effective strategies for prewriting, drafting, and revising this kind of essay.  In our next unit, you will learn how to strengthen arguments with evidence gathered from research.