Title
Skill
EBA Activity
Claims and/or
Warrants
Rhetorical Analysis of Mary Oliver’s “Owls”
Structuring a Complex Argument
Breaking Down a Text
Students generate claims and warrants.
For Example:
Mary Oliver’s argument in “Owls” is that nature is beautiful, fearsome, and
overwhelming.
Procedure
Standard Breaking Down a Text
Timing/Pacing 1. This lesson helps to prepare students for writing the rhetorical analysis essay
from the 2001 AP Lang exam (Question 2). Prefatory activities include reading
the “Owls” passage from 2001 AP Lang Free-Response Question 2. Students
should already have been taught about the concept of writing style and how
diction, syntax, and tone contribute to a writer’s style.
2. This activity is approximately 45 minutes.
3. This activity comes after the Do Now.
Notes
 The rationale for this activity is to help students first identify an author’s main
argument/ purpose and break it down into sub-claims, before delving into an
even more complex argument about what rhetorical strategies and style an
author uses to convey that argument.
 In rhetorical analysis, students often have difficulty in both distinguishing and
then uniting the author’s argument or purpose and sub-purposes with the
rhetorical strategies used to achieve that argument/purpose. This activity helps
students’ first isolate and specifically describe the author’s argument and
purpose before beginning rhetorical analysis.
Follow-up
Activities
Text
To include an oral activity, follow up with a soapbox activity .
Passage from “Owls” by Mary Oliver (Question 2 on the 2001 AP English
Language & Composition exam)
Boston Debate League © 2012
Breaking Down a Text
Overall Claim:
Warrant 1:
Warrant 2:
Warrant 3:
First Support (warrant and/or quotation proving
Warrant 1):
First Support (warrant and/or quotation proving
Warrant 2):
First Support (warrant and/or quotation proving
Warrant 3):
Second Support (warrant and/or quotation proving
Warrant 1):
Second Support (warrant and/or quotation
proving Warrant 2):
Second Support (warrant and/or quotation
proving Warrant 3):
Counterargument and Response (if present):
Counterargument and Response (if present):
Counterargument and Response (if present):
Boston Debate League © 2012