1. Arguments and Conclusions
Stage One

2. Initial Definitions
Statement: a sentence which can be either true or false.
Argument: a set of statements where some of those statements (the premises) aim to establish the truth of another (the conclusion).

3. Non-Arguments
Reports: a statement (or a set of statements), where none of those statements is intended to be evidence for another.
Non-Argumentative Persuasion: an attempting to get you to believe something that is not based on reasons (e.g., appealing to your emotions).

4. Conclusion Key Words
Look for the following key words, that might indicate the conclusion:
Thus
Therefore
Accordingly
As a result
Implies that
Indicates that
Proves that
Shows that
Hence
Test: can you substitute in “therefore” for the word?

5. Example of an Argument
"The fifth way [of proving that God exists] is taken from the governance of the world. We see that things which lack knowledge, such as natural bodies, act for an end, and this is evident from their acting always, or nearly always, in the same way, so as to obtain the best result. Hence, it is plain that they achieve their end, not fortuitously, but designedly. Now whatever lacks knowledge cannot move towards an end, unless it be directed by some being endowed with knowledge and intelligence; as the arrow is directed by the archer. Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God" (Aquinas, "Summa Theologica").

6. Example of a Report
“New Jersey farmers believed that cast iron poisoned the land and that it stimulated the growth of weeds, and so they rejected the first successful cast-iron plow, which was invented in the United States in 1797”
Try the replacement test:
“New Jersey farmers believed that cast iron poisoned the land and that it stimulated the growth of weeds, therefore they rejected the first successful cast-iron plow, which was invented in the United States in 1797”
But that does not work! The author is telling you about a sequence of events, not that the first is a reason to believe the latter.