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Unit 2 materials
Writing project prompt
Writing project rubric
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With your group, read the prompt and the
rubric and discuss the following:
◦ What specific skills and/or writing concepts do the
students need to know in order to complete the
project?
◦ What difficulties can you envision your students
having with completing the literary argument?
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Take a position
Support your argument with specific, relevant
evidence from the texts
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Thesis (take a position)
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Organization (your argument)
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Evidence (specific, relevant evidence)
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Is a debatable topic – a topic on which
reasonable people can hold different views
Takes a strong stand – needs to be able to
support the full weight of your whole
argument
Has a quality antithesis – one that could also
be argued by reasonable people
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Model: The Disney animated classic Sleeping
Beauty promotes a passive female archetype
who needs a male character to take action
and save her.
Antithesis: The Disney animated classic
Sleeping Beauty promotes a female character
who uses generosity and kindness to actively
make the best of her situation.
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With your group, create a strong thesis
statement about an animated Disney movie,
and then write an antithesis.
Be prepared to share.
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Introduction and Thesis
Definition, background, setup
Support 1 with evidence and explanation
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Support 2 with evidence and explanation
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Support 3 with evidence and explanation
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◦ The logical one
◦ The slightly odd or unknown one
◦ The strongest one
Concession
Refutation (of the concession)
Conclusion
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Introduction and Thesis
Definition, background, setup
Support 1 with evidence and explanation
◦ The logical one
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Support 2 with evidence and explanation
◦ The slightly odd or unknown one
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Support 3 with evidence and explanation
◦ The strongest one
Concession
 Refutation (of the concession)
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Conclusion
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With your group, discuss ways to scaffold the
concession and refutation section with your
students.
Share.
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Although I grant that _____, I still maintain
that _____.
Proponents of X are right to argue that _____.
But they exaggerate when they claim that
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While it is true that ____, it does not
necessarily follow that ____.
On the one hand, I agree with X that ____.
But on the other hand, I still insist that ____.
From They Say/I Say
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Refutation by appeal to reason
◦ Denying a truth of a premise (premise is false so
conclusion may be false)
◦ Objecting to inferences drawn (premises may not
lead to conclusion
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Refutation by appeal to emotion
◦ Dangerous!
◦ Author needs to know the audience well, or
appealing to the way the audience feels could
backfire
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Refutation by appeal to speaker’s credibility
◦ Difficult for our students, but not impossible
depending on the topic
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Refutation by wit
◦ Also dangerous, and could backfire with wrong
audience
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All taken from Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student by
Edward Corbett and Robert Connors
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I think X is mistaken because she overlooks
____.
X’s claim that ____ rests upon the
questionable assumption that ____.
By focusing on ____, X overlooks the deeper
problem of ____.
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At your table, discuss any questions or ideas
you have about concessions and refutations.
Share out.
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Only assertions that are self-evident or
factual need no evidence; everything else
needs support.
Some questions to ask:
 Do all your assertions have evidence (quotes,
summaries, paraphrases) that support them?
 Have you quoted material out of context, or distorted
the evidence?
 Does all the evidence tie directly to your assertions,
and, ultimately, your thesis?
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With your group, discuss how you can
scaffold students’ use of evidence along the
way, instead of having them try to find all of
the evidence from all of the texts at the end
of the unit.