WARRANTS

 Don’t worry, no one’s getting arrested.  A warrant is a bridge between your evidence and your claim.  Think of the “E” in ACE.

SYLLOGISMS  All men are mortal.  Socrates is a man.  Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

ARGUMENTATIVE WRITING  Socrates is mortal Claim  Because Socrates is a man Reason/Evidence  And all men are mortal. Warrant

OFTEN, ARGUMENTS LOOK LIKE THIS:  Socrates is mortal  Because he is a man.  Your reader does not have a clear understanding of how your reason/evidence proves your claim.  You need a warrant to tie the two together.

ARGUMENT  We should withdraw our troops from Iraq immediately because the Iraqi people don’t want us there.  What’s the problem?  What are the different parts of this sentence?

EXAMPLE  Claim: We should withdraw our troops from Iraq immediately  Reason: because the Iraqi people don’t want us there.  Warrant: The U.S. should make foreign policy decisions based on the wants of the foreign country.

EXAMPLE  Claim: People using plastic surgery is unnatural.  Evidence: Over 300,000 people got liposuction in 2011 instead of going on a diet.  Warrant: The natural way to lose weight is by dieting and exercising. Plastic surgery has circumvented those steps allowing hundreds of thousands of people to use liposuction, an unnatural procedure, to become skinnier.

FREDERICK DOUGLASS EXAMPLE  Claim: “Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it… The manhood of the slave is conceded.”  Evidence: “There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia, which, if committed by a black man (no matter) how ignorant he may be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of these same crimes will subject a white man to like punishment.”  Warrant: “What is this but the acknowledgement that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being?”  Evidence: “It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments, forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read and write.”  Warrant: “When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave.”

SOME MORE TIPS ABOUT WARRANTS  Warrants are always general categorical statements. They do not mention specifics.  Warrants almost always share the same verb, or verb phrase, as claims.  “should”  If possible, write out your claim and evidence/reason as complete sentences that share the same subject.

THE PAY OFF  If your audience agrees to your warrant and evidence, they must agree to your claim.  If the author you’re analyzing misses this step, you can critique his argument.

CLASS-GENERATED EXAMPLE  Claim:  Evidence: Over 400,000 people visit Barton Springs every year.  Warrant:

ON YOUR OWN PAPER, WRITE YOUR OWN  Claim:  Evidence:  Warrant:

ARGUMENTATIVE TW  Paper  Pen  Often, the argumentative prompt will be a quotation from a famous author. The quotation will contain an assertion.  You must identify and understand the assertion.  Then, you must discuss to what extent the author’s argument is valid.

EXAMPLE Read the following excerpt from The Decline of Radicalism (1969) by Daniel J. Boorstin and consider the implications of the distinction Boorstin makes between dissent and disagreement. Then, using appropriate evidence, write a carefully reasoned essay in which you defend, challenge, or qualify Boorstin’s distinction. Dissent is the great problem of America today. It overshadows all others. It is a symptom, an expression, a consequence, and a cause of all others. I say dissent and not disagreement. And it is the distinction between dissent and disagreement which I really want to make. Disagreement produces debate but dissent produces dissension. Dissent (which comes from the Latin, dis and sentire) means originally to feel apart from others. People who disagree have an argument, but people who dissent have a quarrel. People may disagree and both may count themselves in the majority. But a person who dissents is by definition in a minority. A liberal society thrives on disagreement but is killed by dissension. Disagreement is the life blood of democracy, dissension is its cancer.

BEWARE  Do not confuse this prompt with a rhetorical analysis prompt.  Do not move on and start writing until you understand the author’s assertion.  Do not focus too much on the author’s words.  Do not being with “I agree…” or “I disagree…”  Do take a side.

WRITING PROMPT  Write about the worst fight you have ever had with your sibling or best friend.

HOMEWORK  Read “How to Tell a True War Story” by Tim O’Brien.  Identify and respond to:  One of his assertions about what a true war story is.  One of his images/details/anecdotes.