Taking a Stand English 101 Ms. Grooms

The purpose of taking a stand To state your stand To win your reader’s respect for an opinion

In taking a stand You state your opinion / stand You give reasons with evidence to support your position You enlist your readers’ trust You consider and respect what your readers probably think and feel.

Your purpose is not to solve a social or moral problem. Instead, it is to make clear exactly where you stand on an issue and to persuade your readers to respect your position, perhaps even accept it.

The challenge is To gather enough relevant evidence to support your position. You won’t persuade readers by ranting emotionally about an issue or insulting those whose opinion differ from yours. Few readers respect an evasive writer who avoids taking a stand.

RESPECT Anticipate readers’ objections or counterarguments Demonstrate knowledge of alternate views Present evidence that addresses others’ concerns as it strengthens your argument. Your readers who will in turn respect your opinion, even if they don’t agree with it.

When you state your claim, you state your overall position. State supporting claims as topic sentences Introduce supporting evidence Help your reader follow your reasoning

Three general types of claims: Claims of Substantiation: What happened? Claims of Evaluation: What is right? Claims of Policy: What should be done? (BG 170-71)

Claims of Substantiation These claims require examining and interpreting information in order to resolve disputes about facts, circumstances, causes or effects, definitions, or the extent of a problem.

Claim of Substantiation Example: Certain types of cigarette ads, such as the once- popular Joe Camel ads, significantly encouraged smoking among teenagers.

Claims of Evaluation These claims consider right or wrong, appropriateness or inappropriateness, and worth involved in an issue.

Claim of Evaluation Example Research using fetal tissue is unethical in a civilized society.

Claims of Policy These claims challenge or defend approaches for achieving generally accepted goals.

Claim of Policy Example The federal government should support the distribution of clean needles to reduce the rate of HIV infection among intravenous drug users.