1. The Art of Argumentation
How to convince your parents, teachers, and friends to do almost anything.  Just kidding.

2. Why practice argumentative writing?
Popular form of writing to teach in school
Style of writing assessed on most of the major standardized tests – ACT, our district writing assessment, SATs
Verbal arguments / persuasions are something you participate in daily.
Sleep in “just 5 more minutes”
Quiz should be tomorrow
Convince the boss to let you leave early

3. When would I ever use it in the real world?
Most beneficial style of writing for your future endeavors
Marketing – convincing someone to buy the product or use your pitch
Lawyers – convincing a jury of guilt or innocence
Engineers – convincing the legislators to approve a bill that would allow more bridges to be built
Teacher – convincing students that argumentative writing IS applicable
Sometimes it’s easy
A curfew change
Sometimes incredibly difficult
Advocating a type of treatment for a patient

4. What is involved in writing an argumentative essay?
Asserts the writer’s position on a certain topic
The writer must investigate the topic
The writer must collect and evaluate evidence
The write must use that evidence to establish a position on a topic in a concise manner
The essay must be well-organized and flow logically
Hopefully the essay guides the reader to the only forgone conclusion – the writer’s assertion.

5. Key Terms Argumentative Essay:
Genre of writing that requires investigation of a topic; collecting, generating, and evaluating evidence, and establishing a position on the topic in a concise manner
Point of View:
The perspective from where you approach the topic; the opinion you hold on the topic

6. More Key Terms
Claim:
A statement that asserts something to be true (i.e. Martin Luther King, Jr in his “I Have a Dream” speech: “But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.” That is his claim. He goes on to support his claim with…)
Counterarguments / Counterclaims:
Refuting, contrasting, or opposing arguments or claims used to refute a previous argument or claim.

7. Finally – the support that validates your claim
Evidence:
Factual information that helps the reader reach a conclusion and form an opinion about something (hopefully in agreement with your claims). This can be a quote from a story, statistics, paraphrase of a situation, facts discovered during research, etc. Effective Evidence strengthens and validates the writer’s central claims.

8. The THESIS Statement: The linchpin
Two types we will focus on – they will determine how you write your essay:
List (either to refute or support)
Refute: High school sports should not be allowed in school because they lead to severe injuries, interfere with academics, and are a financial burden.
Support: High school sports should be allowed in school because they develop character and work ethic, improve the academics of student-athletes, and create tradition and community in the school.
Concession (you allow that the “other side” has one good point)
Refute: While high school sports help develop character and work ethic in students, the interference with academics, the expense placed on schools and parents, and the risk of severe injury outweigh those benefits.
Support: Despite the potential of sports injuries, eliminating high schools sports would prevent students from developing strong work ethic, creating a community in their school, and improving their academics.

9. Organization: Now to the body paragraphs
MEAL Format
Main Idea Sentence – Introduce the claim(s) you are discussing in this paragraph
Evidence – Direct quotes, statistics, facts, expert opinions, specific examples, etc
Analysis – Explanation of how the evidence provided proves what the writer claims
The E and A can be hard to separate; you might provide some evidence, analyze it, then provide more evidence and analyze that.
Link – A statement, sentence, or phrase that gives closure to the paragraph and connects the analysis provided back to the central claim
OR…

10. Another method of organizing…
8-Sentence Paragraph
Topic Sentence: Transition from previous paragraph + Main Claim of Paragraph
Claim 1: The first major argument of the paragraph
Commentary 1: How? Why? Evaluate. Analyze. Provide Evidence.
Commentary 2: How? Why? Evaluate. Analyze. Provide Evidence.
Claim 2: The second major argument of the paragraph.
[INTERNAL TRANSITION – pivot from first argument to second]
Concluding Sentence: Summarize paragraph argument and tie it back to the thesis.

11. However you organize it (MEAL or 8-Sentence), the key is to make sure it’s ORGANIZED!