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Research-Based Argument Essay
Teaching Adolescents to Research, Debate, and Argue
This unit supports two or three cycles of argument essay writing – with the first cycle really being a
shared writing experience that is very quick, designed to immerse students in argument and help them
learn the bare bones structure of a research-based argument essay in two days. We imagine this first,
cycle will consist of shared note taking off of video clips and articles, followed by flash draft essays
composed through shared writing. You’ll model with a shared topic for which you have a few texts.
After this introduction, you’ll invite students to work on a whole class topic (either an extension of the
first, or another topic for which you have several texts), researching across texts, rehearsing and fast
drafting, revising and elaborating. Exploring and working on another whole class topic will offer your
students opportunities to share ideas, debate claims, and work together to interpret sources and gather
evidence. This cycle will lean heavily into developing compelling claims and structuring a cohesive
argument essay. Of course, if you have access to high quality text sets, and your students are ready to
begin researching their own topics, you could move right into research groups on various topics. Then
you’ll invite students into large-scale revision work which they can try out on both drafts.
A third cycle will invite students to do the same work with more independence – so you’ll remind students
of the repertoire of research, rehearsal, and revision skills they know, and then you’ll teach into holding
onto all they have learned and transferring it to new writing. This third essay topic will depend on your
text availability. You might invite students to extend their research on offshoots of the class topic. Or
students could move into small research clubs, on topics of their choice. If you skip this third cycle,
you’ll probably want to extend some of the revision and elaboration strategies that you teach into cycle
two, so that students get more practice in skilled revision. By the end of the unit, students will have
drafts of two or three essays and can choose which to publish. Help your students to become active voices
in the world and allow them to imagine multimedia and print forms of publication.
A Note About Gathering Resources, and Partnering This Unit with a Reading Research Unit: This unit is
unusual in that it relies on reading work. If you are teaching nonfiction research in reading workshop,
you may have enough quality nonfiction text sets for students to research a variety of topics. If not, in the
overview of the reading unit, you’ll note that one possibility is that the class continue to read fiction for
volume, and immerse themselves in a nonfiction class topic for quality, but not so much quantity, critical
nonfiction reading. The TCRWP has provided a bibliography of some possible text sets and resources
for more texts, online at http://www.readingandwritingproject.com . We will expand on this list on our
website—and please contribute to it! Send suggestions to: contact@readingandwritingproject.com .
Learn from the Performance Assessment to Tailor A Plan for the Unit
Before you begin this unit, you will want to carefully consider your students’ initial assessments. A quick
on-demand of summarizing nonfiction and drafting part of an argument essay will give you some insight
into these skills. Remember that your on-demand data will help you to make some choices among these
teaching points. If you are doing a formal performance assessment, either before or after the unit of
study you may find text sets, and Common Core aligned performance assessment tasks for information
reading and argument writing, at http://www.readingandwritingproject.com under the banner
‘assessments.’
The Reading and Writing Project
Research-based Argument Essays
Revised Draft 2011-2012
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Bend I: Just do it! Writers Get a Rapid Introduction to Research, Debate, and Argument
On the first day, the class could first participate in a shared experience, studying the craft of debates and
taking notes on the arguments. A quick and powerful way to show students an argument is to do just that show them a video of an argument such as a political speech. Then, you will move to diving right into
research that investigates sides of an issue, so that you might show students video clips or read aloud
texts that show two different sides of a topic, taking notes as you go so they can summarize the arguments,
and then practice debating them. So while we’ve given a teaching point here, you may orchestrate your
class so everyone stays at the meeting area and works in step together through investigating sides,
composing a claim quickly, and gathering evidence for that claim.

“Writers know that when we compose arguments we are composing claims supported by reasons
and evidence. One way to begin this work is to research the sides of an issue and the evidence
that supports those sides.”
o Demonstration teaching: “Writers, during this unit we are going to be researchers,
debaters and writers. We are going to study a topic, learn the different sides, or stances,
within the topic, form our own stances and then craft powerful essays backing our claims
up with research from the information we read. We’re going to begin this work by
studying a topic together. Today, we are going to encounter some texts about the topic
we will study for the next couple of days, and we are going to figure out an issue hiding
in this topic and the sides of that issue. As we do research, we want to gather notes in a
manner that supports claims and evidence, such as boxes and bullets.”
Teachers, you’ll want to model the kind of notes that move right to determining ideas and
supporting evidence – so you might model jotting down boxes and bullets. For instance, if
you are watching an interview with Ishmael Beah on his experience as a child soldier, you
might jot:
Child soldiers are victims
 Beah’s village was destroyed and he had no home but the fighters
 Beah’s family was killed and he had no family but the fighters
 Beah was made to commit violence through drugs and force
Then you’ll want to read or show an opposing view and have students practice. So with
a second video or article, you and students might jot:
Child soldiers are perpetrators
 Some commit heinous acts of violence even when not forced to
 When Unicef tries to rescue them, sometimes they won’t leave
 When rescued, they sometimes return to the fighters and continue to kill
Possible mid-workshop: Researchers often debate our topics to really hash out our claims and
evidence. As we do this, we refer to our notes, we listen carefully to opposing views, and we try
to refute those views. Sometimes we find we want to return to our research to check some useful
facts, sometimes we do more rapid reading, and often we adjust our claims and evidence to be
more convincing.

“To compose compelling arguments, researchers review our notes, rehearse our claim and
evidence,, and then we write fast-drafts that are as clear and compelling as possible.”
o Demonstration teaching: “Yesterday we learned lots about a topic. We learned that
there are different stances and different facts and research to support those stances.
Usually the next thing writers do is, we take a side, and craft an essay to show our claim,
or side of the argument. Using everything we learned yesterday from researching and
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debating, we can craft an argument. We may even be able to refute the
counterargument, saying why we don’t think it’s as strong as ours.”
Possible mid-workshop: Writers draw upon the essay work we have already done in
our lives. We know, for instance, how to support an idea with reasons and evidence –
and now this evidence comes from our research, so we will probably want to quote and
paraphrase as we go. If you have a record of prior teaching about essay structure, get
this chart or collection of sentence starters out now!
Possible small group/conference: As you turn to the first body paragraph of this essay,
writers put the topic sentence, or the class’ first reason for supporting this stance.
Writers think of transitional sentences that set up this work like, “One reason..., followed
by ‘for example… also…in addition...’ Then we often end by “As you can see...,” or
“This supports the stance that...”
Bend II: Writers Become More Adept at the Structure of Argument

“Researchers find that researching sides of an issue is sort of like figuring out sides in a fight. We
investigate these sides and do some quick writing to sort out the sides and their ‘weapons.’”
o Demonstration teaching: “Writers, today I want to teach you that reading texts with an
eye toward investigating sides of issues is sort of like coming across a big brawl or fight.
If you see a huge fight, you immediately know something is going on but there’s a lot
you need to figure out. You ask yourself: What are they fighting about? Who’s involved?
What does each person, or group, want? You keep watching to get clues to figure out
what’s going on. Well, when you read/view texts with an eye toward understanding
arguments, you’re coming across an intellectual fight. People are arguing about ideas
and issues. The fight’s already started and you need to figure out what’s going on. One
way to figure out the debates going on within the topic, is to ask yourself some questions
as you read: What’s the issue here? What are the different stances on this issue? What is
this author’s stance? We often write to sort out the sideds and their ‘weapons’ or
evidence.”
o Possible mid-workshop: “Today I want to teach you that when we are watching a big
brawl or fight, we begin to notice who is winning. Just the way we wonder who is
winning in a fight, so when we read texts with an eye toward understanding arguments,
we want to keep track of who seems to have more evidence or more compelling evidence
to support an argument. One way to do this is through creating charts. We can create
charts that compare and contrast the evidence from two stances within the debate in
order to clearly see which one has more or more compelling evidence.”
o Share: “Today I want to teach you that when we are preparing to write arguments, we’re
not just watching a big brawl or fight. Instead, we are getting ready to enter it. You know
you’re going to be in that brawl soon and you have to figure out which group you’re
going to join. So, when we’re reading to figure out the debates in a topic, it’s normal to
start forming an opinion right away—to start reading and immediately think—Yes, I
agree with you because… or No way, I totally don’t agree with that because… You
might try entering a side right now, for instance, and argue or debate with your partner.”
The Reading and Writing Project
Research-based Argument Essays
Revised Draft 2011-2012
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
“As we compose claims and weigh our evidence, we problematize our own opinion and imagine
the other side’s view point and reasoning. We write about the other side’s ideas and evidence
while we research and rehearse our own claim.”
o Demonstration teaching: “Today I want to teach you the hardest thing of all to do when
you are working to understanding arguments. You already have an idea which stance
you agree with and why, but when we argue we have to be able to refute the opposite
side. That means we have to imagine arguing for the side we disagree with just as
strongly. One way to do this is to imagine the other groups that would be disagreeing
with us and to write about the issue from their point of view to see what they are saying.
We might begin “A group that might think differently about this topic would be…and
they might argue…and their evidence might include…”
o Possible small group or conference: Writers/debaters often call on sentence starters to
help us imagine the other side, especially when we feel pretty clear about our own side
of an argument but less so about the opposite side. We can push our thinking by trying
out some of these prompts:
 “They might want…because…”
 “They might think…because…”
 “They might want others to feel…because…”
 “They might worry…because…”
 “They might be angered by…because…”
 “They might benefit by…because…”
 “They might lose out if…because…”
 “On the other hand, there is research to show…such as…”
o Possible mid-workshop: “Today I want to teach you that another way to make our
argument stronger is, as we research, we collect compelling quotes. Sometimes we find
the exact words an author said moving, or compelling, or upsetting and we know we’ll
want to include them in our writing just as they are. When we come across a sentence or
two that strikes us that way, we copy the words and the source down in our notebooks,
making sure to put quotation marks around it and jot down who said it and where it came
from. Then we jot about why this quote matters and how it connects to the debates in this
issue, which side it supports and how. We might write, “This quote matters because…”
“It shows that…”

“Argument writers use debate while researching to rehearse and develop claims, reasons and
evidence, as well as to imagine counterclaims and how to refute those. Then we move from
debate to fast writing to hold onto our new thinking.”
o Demonstration teaching: “Today I want to remind you how useful debate is as tool to
rehearse and develop convincing claims and reasoning. Debate lets us try out our
claims, adjust them, refine our reasoning and evidence. Collaborators in argument
writing often practice debating sides of an issue, so that they can better defend a
convincing claim. To get ready for debate, writers organize and categorize our notes.
You might want to create categories like “reasons why this stance is right” or categories
like “compelling information” and “information that we may want to refute.” We
organize our notes into one type of categories then reorganize them in multiple ways to
really know the information we have gathered and be ready to use it to argue for our
assigned stance. After we argue, we make sure we capture our ideas in writing.”
o Possible mid-workshop: “ To be skilled at arguing, you need to be able to imagine the
other side – which means sometimes we actually switch sides in practice, and we
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marshal all the evidence we have to convince someone else of the opposite claim.
Remember, a debate is an intellectual argument. We leave our own opinions and
passions out and consider only the research we can use to show that our argument is
valid. Switching back and forth lets us see which side of an argument we have more
convincing and compelling evidence for.”
Share: “After debating, writers often write fast and furious to capture some of the most
compelling moments of their argument, so they can use that language and stance in their
essay. We try to review in our heads all that was said, and get those words down on
paper.”

“As researchers compose and rehearse a claim, we may find ourselves siding clearly with other
authors, and sharing a claim we uncovered in our research. Other times we find ourselves making
a claim that is slightly different than the ones we have seen in our research. Either way we seek
the clearest language for our claim by writing it different ways.”
o Demonstration teaching: “Writers, as we develop our own claim, we sometimes find
ourselves clearly siding with some of the authors or activists we have researched. When
we do this, we’ll use many of the same reasons and evidence that they do – but we still
look to sort and extend our evidence by thinking about which evidence is the most
compelling, and how we may want to combine or spin evidence. Other times we find
that our own claim is slightly different than those of the authors and activists we research,
and we’ll use only some of the same evidence, seeking evidence as well in other places,
or spinning evidence differently. For instance, my claim is beginning to be that child
soldiers are both victims and perpetrators of violence, and I want to use evidence from
sources who have argued both sides of that issue. So I’ve been writing my claim several
times, and trying out different language, to make sure I get to the clearest claim possible.”
o Possible small group/conference: “Researchers not only record evidence, we pay
attention to the source, or author of that evidence. That means that we jot down not only
‘child soldiers took drugs sometimes before killing.’ We instead jot: ‘In Long Way Gone,
on p. 125 Ishmael Beah describes how he and other child soldiers took drugs before and
after killing.’ See how we not only paraphrase the information, we also pay attention to
the source. Ishmael Beah was a child soldier, and so he is an authority on the subject –
he has an insider perspective that is worth noticing and recording, and using in my
essay.”
o Share: “Writers often write out our claim as a statement, practicing making their
language as clear as possible and watching that we are not wishy-washy. For instance,
rather than saying that child soldiers are sort of victims and sort of perpetrators, my claim
will state: Even though child soldiers do perpetrate violence, overall they are more
victims than perpetrators.”

“Researchers review and weigh our evidence, evaluating whether we have gathered compelling
and convincing evidence, from reliable sources. We try to capture our evaluation in writing.”
o Demonstration teaching: “Writers, we know that as we develop our argument, we need
to gather and marshal all the evidence that will help us support what we are saying. One
way to make sure we can support our stance is by asking ourselves: do I have at least 2-3
reasons and supporting bits of evidence to support my argument? If not, we need to go
The Reading and Writing Project
Research-based Argument Essays
Revised Draft 2011-2012
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back and adjust our stance, or we need to turn to our research partners and texts to gather
more evidence. We write to capture, extend, and adjust our thinking.”
Possible small group/conference: “Researchers often return to our evidence and sort
through not only how compelling it is, but also how reliable our sources are. For
instance, this digital text was produced by a CNN war correspondent who was embedded
in the fighting in Sierra Leone. That feels pretty reliable. In the same way, Ishmael Beah
was himself a child soldier – so his evidence is first-hand. On the other hand, he might
be biased, as he remembers events from the perspective of one of these soldiers, and not
of their victims. Nuanced researchers and writers will refer to these details in our essays,
not only quoting but evaluating our sources.”
Possible mid-workshop: “Today I want to remind you that the order we present our
evidence in for our argument matters. There are certain predictable ways to logically
order our evidence so that we can write the most convincing essay possible. One way is
by ordering from least to most compelling. Another is from most common to most
surprising. Another is from the least to the most reliable. We can play around with our
order of reasons and evidence, trying out in our notebook and with our partner, to see
what is most compelling.”
Share: “ I want to remind you that one way to strengthen our own argument is by
refuting the counter argument, the argument against us. We can think of the evidence
against us and how we might show that evidence is not telling the full story or is
overlooking something else or is not as strong.”
Writers strive to build a cohesive draft. One way to do this is to rehearse our essay by ‘writing in
the air’ or ‘speaking an essay’ with a partner.
o Demonstration teaching: “Today I want to teach you that one of the most important
things we can do as argument essay writers is create a cohesive draft, one that is clear
and flows smoothly. We want our reader to understand exactly what we are saying. One
way to build a cohesive draft is to rehearse before we write by writing our essay in the air
with a partner. We say our claim, and then we often try to say our major reasons, which
will be our categories of information. For instance, I might say… Even though child
soldiers are perpetrators of violence, overall they are victims. They are, overall, victims
,because usually violence was forced on them, they didn’t have choice, and they weren’t
able to control their actions. Then as I keep rehearsing, I might give some evidence that
shows how child soldiers had violence forced on them when their own homes were
massacred, how they didn’t have choice because the armed forces became their only
family, and how they couldn’t control their actions because they were drugged, and they
were younger and weaker than their leaders.
o Mid-workshop: “Writers, argument writers make certain moves to raise our
introductions to new levels. One move we make is to give a little background about the
issue at hand to orient the reader and we also might address our reader directly. As we do
this, we are careful to try to keep our claim strong and clear, and then explain a bit that a
reader might want to know. For instance, in my essay, it might go something like:
Even though child soldiers are perpetrators of violence, overall they are victims. They
are, overall, victims, because usually violence was forced on them, and they didn’t have
choice, or control over their actions. Child soldiers have become increasingly prevalent
all over the world, but particularly in the war torn region s of Africa, where boys as
young as eight and nine are given guns and taught to kill.
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Possible small group/conference: Writers often review our boxes and bullets to plan
our introduction – we review our claim, and we often add ‘because…’ to come up with
reasons underneath our claim. Then as we introduce each reason in our essay, we’ll
move to ‘for example…’ for each. Those will be the main body paragraphs of our essay
– the reasons and evidence, and we start a new paragraph for each reason and collection
of evidence.
Share: Writers, just as argument writers make certain moves to raise our introductions to
new levels, so we also make moves to raise the quality of our conclusions. We already
know that weaving in counter argument is a powerful move. Today I want to add that
another move that makes a conclusion powerful is to come up with a new idea that
follows directly from your argument.
Bend III: Argument Writers Learn the Craft of Argument to Become Ever More Persuasive

“When we compose arguments, we know that it’s often worth it to include a variety of kinds of
evidence in our writing, and evidence from more than one source. This variety shows the depths
of our research and makes our argument more persuasive.”
o Demonstration teaching: “Today I want to teach you that one way to raise the level of
our essays writing is to make sure we have incorporated a variety of supports. Using a
variety of types of information helps our essay to feel believable and hard to argue
against. One way you can do this is by going back to incorporate facts, statistics, quotes
from experts, anecdotes, examples, etc.”
o Mid-workshop: Today I want to teach you that when we incorporate quotes, there are
moves that argument writers make to help readers understand these quotes and make
them harder to argue against. One move we make is to discuss where the quote came
from and what type of credibility it has. Another move we make is to acknowledge the
stance of the author who wrote this piece of research. Or we might use language that
shows that we don’t even sympathize with this view, but feel compelled to include it. We
might use phrases like “in an article sympathetic to…”, or “Sadly, the research does
suggest that…” or “in Ishmael Beah’s award-winning memoir, he describes…”

“Argument writers work on illuminating the relationship between their evidence and their
argument. We often turn to key phrases to help us with this important writing work.”
o Demonstration teaching: “Today I want to teach you another way to raise the level of
your writing. Argument writers bring out the relationship of the evidence we use to the
argument we are making to help our readers see that this evidence definitely supports our
argument. We might use phrases like “this shows” or “this goes to prove…” after we
include a piece of evidence. We even calibrate our language so that we’re clear whether
our evidence suggests or proves. Some helpful verbs and phrases, going from ones that
are more suggestive to ones that are more authoritative include:
 this suggests
 shows/reveals/describes/portrays
 this demonstrates/illustrates/illuminates
 this makes clear/makes evident
 this proves
The Reading and Writing Project
Research-based Argument Essays
Revised Draft 2011-2012
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Mid-Workshop: “Writers, another way to bring out the relationship between our
evidence and argument is to explain our evidence to our reader. We might do this by
restating the evidence in our own words or comparing the evidence to something else the
reader might understand more. We can start, “that’s like…” or “imagine, for example…”
And then we may make a comparison to an experience the audience would understand, or
we suggest a kind of invented anecdote, like ‘picture, for example, that your own home
were attacked, your family massacred, and shortly after, someone put a weapon in your
hand and said you could exact revenge. That’s what it’s often like for child soldiers…’
Bend IV: Arguing With Agency, Independence, and Power

“The art of argument, in ancient Greece, was called ‘rhetoric,’ and writers became famous for
their powers of rhetoric. Like these famous orators, we too can show off our powers, by
harnessing everything we have learned, and taking agency for practicing and extending those
powers as writers.”
o Demonstration teaching: “For example, today I want to remind you that when we have
a chance to show off our independence, we take everything we have learned and make
sure we do everything we have learned plus we think of how we can do it better. We
recall the skills we’ve learned, we look over our work, and we set goals for ourselves
before we start – we take agency. Right now, for instance, why don’t you look over the
charts in the room, browse your notes and drafts, talk to your partner, and make a cheat
sheet of everything you know how to do, that you want to do with even more power as
we go forward. I’m expecting that you are becoming the kind of people who are utterly
persuasive when you speak and write, because you have learned so much about stating
claims, backing them up with evidence, and even refuting the counter claim. Then,
writers, I’m going to admire you as you just get to it.”
o Possible small group/conference: “One way to reflect and make plans for extending our
powers as writers, is to look at writing rubrics, and consider what categories or parts of
the writing process and finished essay we really want to focus on this time.

“Researchers read differently when we know we are composing arguments. We are hyper-alert to
the how authors persuade us, so that even as we gather evidence for our own claim, we notice
how texts are persuading us of claims and convincing us with evidence.”
o Demonstration teaching: “For example, I want to remind you that when we know
we’re going to be making an argument, we really read differently. One way we read
differently is that we are constantly on the lookout for an author’s stance. Sometimes that
stance might be very obvious but other times it seems more hidden. We can notice the
craft of the text we read/view to help us uncover the stance of the author – the images the
author includes, and the stories that are told, and how those make us sympathetic to a
certain viewpoint. We pay attention to the words the author chooses to use, and how
those words set us up to admire or condemn. We notice spin. And that helps us decide
what evidence to include, and keeps us on our toes as we formulate our own claim and
support it with evidence.”
o Mid-workshop: “I’ve put up the chart with all the ways we’ve learned so far that we read
differently. And I want to add one more thing: we can read through critical lenses. We
can study a text through one lens, like a lens of power, for example, asking ourselves
what the author is saying about who has power in this issue. Then we might reread a text
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and study it through another lens, like the lens of gender – how this issue affects males
versus females differently.”

“Writers, we not only notice the craft of the authors we research because we want to be alert to
bias, spin, and the writer’s warrant, or reasoning. We can also consider these texts as mentor
texts for our own writing.”
o Demonstration teaching : “For instance, we may admire how one author gets his or her
audience to sympathize with a particular point of view, and we may decide to mimic that
craft – such as by including a vivid true story to stir up our audience’s emotions, or
painting a particularly gorgeous or gruesome image with words, or layering statistics that
are shocking.”

“As we set out to draft our arguments, writers consider structure. We may rehearse our writing
with a couple different structures before committing to one, and our choice of structure often
depends on how much we are going to do with the counterclaim.”
o Demonstration teaching part one: “For example, one structure that we are all familiar
with follows the ‘boxes and bullets’ form closely. That structure works particularly well
when we are not going to do too much with the counter-argument. With that structure, we
often tend to:”
 State the claim in the introduction. Also in the introduction we mention our
two or three reasons, or supports for our claim. We may or may not mention the
counter claim.
 Include body paragraphs for each reason. One body paragraph may address
the counter claim.
 Include a conclusion that reflects and offers insight.
o Demonstration teaching part two: “Another structure we could use, though, is more of
a compare and contrast structure, where part of our essay may deal pretty thoroughly with
the counter claim. Then we might tend to:
 State the claim and describe the counter claim in the introduction. We set up
for the reader which we will be tackling first. For example, we might state –
‘Even though child soldiers do perpetrate some horrific acts of violence,
nevertheless , overall they are victims of violence.’ Words such as even though
or despite or in spite of alert our readers to the counter claim, while words such
as nevertheless, or yet overall, show what our claim is.
 Includes body paragraph (s) that address and refute the counter claim and
body paragraphs that elaborate and support our claim. We can either tackle
counter and claim in each paragraph, or we organize our body paragraphs into
sections, and tackle the counter in one section and the claim in another.
 Include a conclusion that reiterates the claim and shows how it is more valid
than the counterclaim.
o Mid-workshop: “Writers know that it’s worth using our partner to rehearse the structure
of our essay. We might do some jotting, then practice ‘writing in the air’ or ‘speaking in
essays’ to try out one structure versus another on our partner.”

“Writers know that yesterday’s revision strategies become today’s rehearsal and drafting
strategies. Just as hockey players take all their drills and everything they learned from prior
The Reading and Writing Project
Research-based Argument Essays
Revised Draft 2011-2012
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games into their championship season, writers take all our knowledge, expertise, and practice,
into the game with us.”
o Demonstration teaching: “For example, we know we can take everything we have
learned about revising a draft and make sure we do those things when we draft our next
piece. In this way, we can ratchet up the level of our new work. We often use our old
drafts, the teaching charts in the room, and rubrics, to remind ourselves of our skills.”
o Mid-workshop: “Writers also know that we can turn to the work of published authors as
mentor texts, to get ideas for how to make our own arguments more powerful. Even
writers we didn’t want to agree with, may have argued persuasively and we can learn
from them!”

“Writers know that we take everything we know about editing as we get ready to publish. Often
we make and use cheat-sheets to help us double check our writing.”
o Demonstration teaching: “Watch me, for instance, make a cheat sheet that will remind
me to check for punctuating quotations accurately, for citing sources accurately, for
checking my verb tense, for checking the spelling of technical words that are new in this
topic, and for checking that I’ve made new paragraphs for my introduction, for each
reason, and for the conclusion. You can do this work also, and check your writing over
with a partner or writing group.”
o Possible mid-workshop: “Today I want to teach you that another ways to raise the level
of our writing is to use more complex sentences. Specifically, we can write sentences that
have conjunctions and link ideas.”
*Neither…nor…
*Not only…but also…
*Both…and…

“Writers focus on our audience as we bring our piece to publication. We may decide to convert
our writing into a letter or editorial. We may post it, or send it. We may use it as rehearsal for a
speech or debate.”
o Demonstration teaching: “I want to teach you that considering where your argument
will live in the world can help you to revise and get ready to publish. Considering who
will read your argument and where it will be—a blog, an op-ed piece of a paper, posted
somewhere in school, posted in the neighborhood, sent to a local government official,
sent to a community organization—will help you tailor it to your specific audience. You
may want to extend your counter argument for instance, so your audience will feel heard.
Or you may want to consider your vocabulary, and what expert terms you want to define.
Or perhaps you need to give more background information and context. These are the
kinds of decisions we make as we consider our audience.
11
Child Soldiers
One of the earliest articles for teens to call attention to the plight and spread of child soldiers
Upfront Magazine (April 20, 2009) “Armed and Underage.”
http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/upfront/features/index.asp?article=f042009_Armed
The efforts of the youth movement Invisible Children, to alleviate the suffering of displaced and child
soldiers, in Uganda – videos and digital text
http://www.invisiblechildren.com
especially: http://www.invisiblechildren.com/videos/3765452 ‘I got soul but I’m not a soldier’
United Nation’s speaker Ishmael Beah’s memoir, written when he was twenty six, of being a child soldier
in Sierra Leone, and his eventual escape to the United States
A Long Way Gone, by Ishmael Beah
http://www.alongwaygone.com/long_way_gone.html
Ishmael Beah on CBS News with Katie Couric
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozsOLdgp_y0
Ishmael Beah interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K4yhPSQEzo
UN Statistics on Child Soldiers
http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/briefing/soldiers/soldiers.pdf
The Reading and Writing Project
Research-based Argument Essays
Revised Draft 2011-2012