Argument
CLINIC
They
Say
I Say
AP English III
Ms. Bird, Ms. Bramlett,
Ms. Cullen, & Ms. Davis
2014-15
Dear Juniors:
Welcome to AP English Language and Composition. A large part of the curriculum this year focuses
on the art of persuasion, also known as argument. Throughout the year, you will read and analyze
examples of arguments, respond to others’ arguments, and develop your own evidence-based
arguments. For the next few weeks, you will begin this study by planning and writing an essay in
which you respond to a claim from a published essay including evidence from your own experience
and observations. Work hard, study the models carefully, and complete all work diligently and you
will be on the road to a successful junior year in English.
Argument Clinic 2
A Hunger for Books
from Chapter 13 of Black Boy, by Richard Wright
That night in my rented room, while
letting the hot water run over my can of pork and
beans in the sink, I opened A Book of
Prefaces and began to read. I was jarred and
shocked by the style, the clear, clean, sweeping
sentences. Why did he write like that? And how
did one write like that? I pictured the man as a
raging demon, slashing with his pen, consumed
with hate, denouncing everything American,
extolling everything European or German,
laughing at the weaknesses of people, mocking
God, authority. What was this? I stood up, trying
to realize what reality lay behind the meaning of
the words . . . Yes, this man was fighting,
fighting with words. He was using words as a
weapon, using them as one would use a club.
Could words be weapons? Well, yes, for here
they were. Then, maybe, perhaps, I could use
them as a weapon? No. It frightened me. I read
on and what amazed me was not what he said,
but how on earth anybody had the courage to say
it…
I ran across many words whose meanings
I did not know, and either looked them up in a
dictionary or, before I had a chance to do that,
encountered the word in a context that made its
meaning clear. But what strange world was this?
I concluded the book with the conviction that I
had somehow overlooked something terribly
important in life. I had once tried to write, had
once reveled in feeling, had let my crude
imagination roam, but the impulse to dream had
been slowly beaten out of me by experience.
Now it surged up again and I hungered for
books, new ways of looking and seeing. It was
not a matter of believing or disbelieving what I
read, but of feeling something new, of being
affected by something that made the look of the
world different.
As dawn broke I ate my pork and beans,
feeling dopey, sleepy. I went to work, but the
mood of the book would not die; it lingered,
coloring everything I saw, heard, did. I now felt
that I knew what the white men were feeling.
Merely because I had read a book that had
spoken of how they lived and thought, I
identified myself with that book, I felt vaguely
guilty. Would I, filled with bookish notions, act
in a manner that would make the whites dislike
me? . . .
Steeped in new moods and ideas, I
bought a ream of paper and tried to write; but
nothing would come, or what did come was flat
beyond telling. I discovered that more than desire
and feeling were necessary to write and I
dropped the idea. Yet I still wondered how it was
possible to know people sufficiently to write
about them. Could I ever learn about life and
people? To me, with my vast ignorance, my Jim
Crow station in life, it seemed a task impossible
of achievement. I now knew what being a Negro
meant. I could endure the hunger. I had learned
to live with hate. But to feel that there were
feelings denied me, that the very breath of life
itself was beyond my reach, that more than
anything else hurt, wounded me. I had a new
hunger. [word count = 552]
HOMEWORK DAY ONE: [due at the beginning of next block]
Choose a quotation from a book, song, or film that “made the look of the world different” for you. Write a paragraph (200-300
words) in which you explain why the quotation is meaningful to you. Responses should be typed, double-spaced and include
the proper MLA heading, header, margins, and a word count. See teacher website for a template.
Argument Clinic 3
THE WRITER’S POSITION: DETERMINING WHAT “THEY SAY”
SAMPLE QUOTATION
“The making of illusions—misleading
images or ideas that appear to be authentic
or true—has become the primary business of
our society. Included in this category are not
only the false promises made by advertisers
and politicians but all of the activities which
supposedly inform, comfort, and improve us,
such as the work of our best writers and our
most influential leaders. These promises and
activities only encourage people to have
unrealistic expectations and to ignore facts. Adapted from Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image
UNFAMILIAR
/ KEY WORDS
(Identify and define.)
PARAPHRASE
Day Two and Day Three Quotations Carousel…
In class on Day Two and Day Three, students will
work in groups and follow teacher instructions to
complete the charts on Pages 5-8.
Day Two: Students complete the unshaded boxes
and then complete the Day Two homework task
(see page 8).
Day Three: Students will share their homework
responses and then complete the shaded boxes.
Using these completed notes, students will begin to
generate personal evidence to support their initial
response to the claims in the quotations. For
homework, students will narrow their focus to
THREE quotations and complete the homework
assignment (see page 9).
(Write the quotation in
your own words.)
DISCIPLINE(S)
(i.e. science, social
studies, mathematics,
technology, ethics,
politics, philosophy,
sociology, etc.)
CIRCLES OF REFLECTION
Humankind
Country
Community
CONTEXT
Peers
(Imagine the antecedent
situation that prompted
this quotation.)
Family
Self
CIRCLES OF
REFLECTION
ABSTRACT
IDEAS
from Deeper Reading: Comprehending
Challenging Texts, 4-12 by Kelly Gallagher
Argument Clinic 4
YOUR TURN:
In your small groups, complete the following charts on pages 5-8.
QUOTATION #1
“We flatter ourselves by thinking
this compulsion to please others
an attractive trait: a gist for
imaginative empathy, evidence
of our willingness to give." –
Joan Didion, American author
QUOTATION #2
"Nature seems (the more we
look into it) made up of
antipathies: without something to
hate, we should lose the very
spring of thought and action.
Life would turn to a stagnant
pool, were it not ruffled by the
jarring interests, the unruly
passions, of men." -- William
Hazlitt, British essayist (p 267)
QUOTATION #3
"Shallow understanding from
people of good will is more
frustrating than absolute
misunderstanding from people of
ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is
much more bewildering than
outright rejection." -- Martin
Luther King, Jr. (p 335)
UNFAMILIAR
/ KEY WORDS
PARAPHRASE
DISCIPLINE(S)
CONTEXT
CIRCLES OF
REFLECTION
ABSTRACT
IDEAS
Argument Clinic 5
QUOTATION #4
"[The] Internet creates a vast
illusion that the physical social
world of interacting minds and
hearts does not exist. In this new
situation, the screen is all that is
the case...The new world turns
the most consequential fact of
human life--other people--into
seemingly manipulable half
presences wholly available to
our fantasies." -- Lee Siegel,
American nonfiction writer (p
570)
QUOTATION #5
"It is not, of course, the desire to
be beautiful that is wrong but the
obligation to be--or to try. What
is accepted by most women as a
flattering idealization of their sex
is a way of making women feel
inferior to what they actually are-or normally grow to be. For the
ideal of beauty is administered as
a form of self-oppression
...Nothing less than perfection
will do."-- Susan Sontag,
American writer (p 589)
QUOTATION #6
"The national myth of
immigration, the heart-warming
saga of babushka-clad refugees
climbing to the deck of the tramp
steamer for a glimpse of the
Statue of Liberty ("Look, Mama,
just lie the pictures we saw in
Minsk, or Abruzzi, or Crete"), is
just that, an image out of aging
newspapers or our collective
pop-memory banks. Today's
arrivals are more likely to be
discharged on a beach and told
to swim ashore, be dropped in a
desert and told to run, if they
survive at all." -- Bharati
Mukherjee, Indian-born
American writer (p 430)
UNFAMILIAR
/ KEY WORDS
PARAPHRASE
DISCIPLINE(S)
CONTEXT
CIRCLES OF
REFLECTION
ABSTRACT
IDEAS
Argument Clinic 6
QUOTATION #7
"There is something deeply
conflicted about the devotion to
work, vocation, career as an
ideal in any society, but
especially in one that has
zealously cast off so many of its
other repressions...We
(Americans) have all been so
oversocialized that unnatural
devotion to toil leaves its mark
on every area of life. It could
even be argued that the most
highly prized pleasures have
themselves become a form of
work, complete with their own
uniforms, disciplines, and special
lingo." -- Christopher Clausen,
professor (p 122)
QUOTATION #8
"Certain kinds of tragedies make
an impact; others don't. Our
perceptual apparatus is geared
toward threats that are exotic,
personal, erratic, and dramatic.
This doesn't mean we're
ignorant; just human...We aim
our resources at phantoms, while
real hazards are ignored." -- K.C.
Cole, science writer (p 134)
QUOTATION #9
"Love must be learned, and
learned again and again; there is
no end to it. Hate needs no
instruction, but waits only to be
provoked..." Katherine Anne
Porter, American author and
essayist (p 475)
UNFAMILIAR
/ KEY WORDS
PARAPHRASE
DISCIPLINE(S)
CONTEXT
CIRCLES OF
REFLECTION
ABSTRACT
IDEAS
Argument Clinic 7
QUOTATION #10
“Our cherished notions of what
is equal and what is fair
frequently conflict. Democracy
presumes that we are all created
equal; competition proves we are
not, or else every contest would
end in a tie. We talk about a
level playing field, but it is
difficult to make conditions
equal for everyone without being
unfair to some.” – adapted from
work by Nancy Gibbs, American
essayist and editor
QUOTATION #11
“It is actually those who promote
‘diversity’ who ask you to deny
your individuality and your
humanity by insisting that you
assume a collective identity as a
member of a racial or ethnic or
cultural group. Membership in
these groups is reductive; it
restricts your horizons and
diminishes the likelihood that
you'll be successful even in
articulating your own personal
aspirations, let alone achieving
them.” – Greg Lewis, American
professor
QUOTATION #12
“[Before] I can live with other
folks I’ve got to live with
myself. The one thing that
doesn’t abide by majority rule is
a person’s conscience.” – Harper
Lee, American author
UNFAMILIAR
/ KEY WORDS
PARAPHRASE
DISCIPLINE(S)
CONTEXT
CIRCLES OF
REFLECTION
ABSTRACT
IDEAS
HOMEWORK DAY TWO:
Choose SIX of these quotations from pages 5-8 (at least some with which you agree and some with which you disagree) and
TYPE a two to three sentence response for each discussing the modern relevance of the issues referenced. [Label each
response with the quotation number and either AGREE or DISAGREE.]
Argument Clinic 8
THE WRITER’S CRAFT: GATHERING EVIDENCE
Compose a complete and
thoughtful sentence expressing
the main argument.
(THEY SAY)
Write a complex sentence
stating your original position.
(I SAY)
List two to three experiences
that connect to your
argument. Include who, what,
when, & where.



QUOTATION #
SAMPLE
QUOTATION #
QUOTATION #
QUOTATION #
Complex Sentences
In order to develop your skill for both expressing a position and articulating your reason for having that position, practice
stating your idea in a complex sentence. What makes a sentence complex is the presence of both an independent clause (a full
statement that can stand on its own as a complete sentence) and a subordinate clause (a modifying component which is
connected to the idea in the independent clause but is not a complete thought and cannot stand on its own). For the purpose of
this exercise, you will be crafting sentences in response to the quotations you have chosen. Follow this format:
Subordinate clause (reason/support/concession)
+
,
+
your position.
Begin your subordinate clause with a subordinating conjunction – (e.g. although, while, because, since).
In your independent clause, avoid saying “I think that” or “I agree/disagree” or “So-and-so is right/wrong” when stating your
position. Simply speak your mind. “I agree that smooth peanut butter is better than chunky.”
Examples: (1) Although there are many excellent high schools across the state of Texas, Westwood is by far the very best.
(2) Because Westwood students are driven by an innate desire to succeed, they seldom require external motivation to do their
homework. (3) While some would argue that Westwood is a pressure cooker that promotes detrimental levels of peer-to-peer
competition, the opposite is actually true; Westwood students are well-adjusted and happy and sleep a minimum of 8 hours a
night. (4) Since learning is the priority at Westwood, it is a wise decision for parents to send their children to school here.
HOMEWORK DAY THREE:
In this step of the process, you will begin to generate evidence to support your ideas for THREE of the quotations from pages
5-8 (at least one with which you agree and one with which you disagree). This evidence should come from your personal
experiences and observations -- loosely defined as a specific something that happened to you, someone you know personally,
or in a news story you witnessed. Your goal is to be specific in your details and to provide the experience in a nutshell. Your
responses should be TYPED in the format modeled in the chart above and ready to hand in at the beginning of next block.
Argument Clinic 9
THE WRITER’S CRAFT: PARALLEL STRUCTURE
A writer keeps grammatical form, creates fluency, and maintains interest by employing parallel structure. By
definition, items in a series – words, phrases, and clauses – must be parallel in a sentence. Nouns are paired with
nouns, adjectives with adjectives, prepositional phrases with prepositional phrases, etc. Take a look at the following
excellent examples.



"It is by logic we prove, but by intuition we discover." -- (Leonardo da Vinci)
"Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible, and cautious,
but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature." (Tom Robbins, Still Life with Woodpecker,
1980)
"A good ad should be like a good sermon; it must not only comfort the afflicted--—it also must afflict the
comfortable." (Bernice Fitz-Gibbon, Macy's, Gimbels, and Me: How to Earn $90,000 a Year in Retail
Advertising. Simon and Schuster, 1967)
IN CLASS PRACTICE: For the following sentences, underline the portion of the sentence that
demonstrates faulty parallelism and record how you would correct it to make it parallel.
1. We must either raise revenues or it will be necessary to reduce expenses.
2. Stoics deny the importance of such things as wealth, good looks, and having a good reputation.
3. In his farewell address to the army, the general praised his soldiers for their unsurpassed courage and gave
thanks because of their devotion.
4. The police have a duty to serve the community, safeguard lives and property, protect the innocent against
deception, and they must respect the constitutional rights of all.
5. Sir Humphry Davy, the celebrated English chemist, was an excellent literary critic as well as being a great
scientist.
6. The Johnsons were cheerful and knowledgeable traveling companions, and behaved generously.
7. The delegates spent the day arguing with one another rather than work together to find common solutions.
8. My sister's promotion means that she will be moving to another state and take the children with her.
9. A company is not only responsible to its shareholders but also customers and employees as well.
10. Examples of aerobic exercises are distance running, swimming, cycling, and long walks.
11. Consuming too much of a fat-soluble vitamin can be as harmful as not to consume enough.
12. If you hire a contractor to make home improvements, follow these recommendations:
o
o
o
o
o
Find out if the contractor belongs to a trade association.
Obtain estimates in writing.
The contractor should provide references.
The contractor must be insured.
Avoid contractors who ask for cash to dodge paying taxes.
13. The new instructor was both enthusiastic and she was demanding.
14. It is a truism that to give is more rewarding than getting.
15. A battery powered by aluminum is simple to design, clean to run, and it is inexpensive to produce.
http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/parallelstructureterm.htm
Argument Clinic 10
THE WRITER’S CRAFT: INCORPORATING DETAIL AND IMAGERY
Read the following excerpts from Richard Wright’s Black Boy and notate particularly strong use of detail and
imagery.
 There was the delight I caught in seeing long straight rows of red and green vegetables stretching away in
the sun to the bright horizon.
 There was the faint, cool kiss of sensuality when dew came on to my cheeks and shins as I ran down the
wet green garden paths in the early morning.
 There were the echoes of nostalgia I heard in the crying strings of wild geese winging south against a bleak,
autumn sky.
 There was the yearning for identification loosed in me by the sight of a solitary ant carrying a burden upon
a mysterious journey.
 There was the disdain that filled me as I tortured a delicate, blue-pink crawfish that huddled fearfully in the
mudsill of a rusty tin can.
 There was the love I had for the mute regality of tall, moss-clad oaks.
HOMEWORK DAY FOUR:
Choose FIVE of the following sentence starters. Complete the sentences with relevant and poignant details and imagery that
connect to the personal evidence you recorded in your chart (p. 9). At least two of your responses should demonstrate parallel
structure. TYPE the original quotations(s) and your response(s) before the corresponding sentences. This assignment is due
next block.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
There was the delight I caught in seeing…
There was the vague sense of the infinite as I looked…
There were the echoes of nostalgia I hear in the…
There was the tantalizing melancholy in the tingling scent of…
There was the teasing and impossible desire to…
There was the yearning for…
There was the disdain that filled me as I…
There was the aching glory in…
There was the incomprehensible secret embodied in…
There was the experience of feeling death without dying that came from watching…
There was the great joke that I felt God had played on…
There was the thirst I had when I watched…
There was the hot panic that welled up in my throat and swept through my blood when…
There was the speechless astonishment of seeing…
Writing Focus: Parallelism
There was the cosmic cruelty that I felt when I saw…
There was the saliva that formed in my mouth whenever I smelt…
Choose at least two of your
There was the quiet terror that suffused my senses when…
sentences from the Black Boy
There was the aura of limitless freedom distilled from…
starters to demonstrate your
There was the suspense I felt when…
understanding of and ability to
There was the drugged, sleepy feeling that came from…
There was the bitter amusement of going…
incorporate parallel structure.
There was the fear and awe I felt when…
Highlight and label these
There was the greedy joy in the…
examples.
There was the all-night ache in my stomach after…
Argument Clinic 11
Brave Pakistani schoolgirl tells it like it is in U.N. speech
BY LEONARD PITTS JR.
LPITTS@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Sometimes, the directness of children is unsettling.
They just have this way of making things plain. I am
thinking of a 10-year-old white boy I met in
Montgomery, Ala. in 1995. My late colleague
Michael Browning and I were driving across the
South, visiting battlefields of the Civil War and the
Civil Rights Movement. We filed five days of reports
— learned, eloquent dialectics deconstructing the
Gordian knot of race.
But we never cut as close to the meat of the matter in
all our thousands of words as that little boy did in just
a few when we told him what we were writing about.
Appalled, he said, “No fair you have to do this
because you’re this color and you have to do that
because you’re that color. No fair.”
His indignation felt, well . . . childish. “No fair?”
That’s what you say on the playground when
somebody is hogging the swing. It’s what you say
when big brother won’t let you have a turn playing
video games. Is that really what you say about this
great betrayal of America’s promise, this ugly
bloodstain on America’s flag? Can something so
complicated really be reduced to words so simple?
Well, as it turns out . . . yes.
All in all, it was a remarkable speech. But at day’s
end, what encapsulates it all for me was that
statement about war — not the words of it so much as
the fact of it, the idea of this child — she’d turned 16
that day — standing before the assembled nations of
this warring world saying, We are tired of all the
fighting. Cut it out.
Sometimes, the directness of children is challenging.
Hearing Malala’s words, I feel as I felt 18 years ago. I
want to tell her that these are lovely sentiments, but
she is too young to understand this sort of thing. How
do you advance women’s freedoms in societies where
women’s subjugation is regarded as holy writ? How
do you win universal education when so many tyrants
depend on universal ignorance for their power? How
do you encourage people to stand and be brave when
there are so many inducements to sit and be scared?
How do you say “Stop fighting” and expect the world
to listen when war is such a useful and profitable
thing?
And it’s funny. Those observations have the odd
distinction of being logical, realistic, indisputable and
yet, wholly unsatisfying.
Sometimes, the directness of children is confounding.
And it can be burdensome, too.
Sometimes, the directness of children is eye-opening.
And that brings us to Malala Yousafzai. She is, you
recall, the Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the
Taliban last year for the “crime” of advocating
education and equal rights for women and girls. In an
authentic miracle, she not only survived, but
recovered. A few days ago, she addressed the United
Nations in New York and said this:
“We are really tired of these wars. Women and
children are suffering in many ways in many parts of
the world.”
Mind you, she said other things. She said we must
advance women’s freedoms. She said education
should be every child’s right. She said we must stand
together and be brave.
It forces you to confront realities you’d as soon not
confront, see truths you’d as soon not see. It has a
way of cutting through complexities the way you do
cobwebs in a room that has been too long shuttered
and dark. You find yourself thinking maybe the
automatic rejection of children’s directness says more
about you than it does about them. Maybe it says that
“logical,” “realistic” and “complicated” have become
words you use to anesthetize your own hope, embalm
your own idealism.
“We are really tired of these wars” says the child who
was shot in the head — and lived. And you realize,
well, heck, I am tired of them, too.
Sometimes, the directness of children is haunting.
This is one of those times. [word count = 656]
Argument Clinic 12
THE WRITER’S EVIDENCE: OBSERVATION AND READING
Carefully read Leonard Pitts’s essay from the previous page. Then, thoughtfully complete the chart below. Create
at least three responses in each section; responses in the left hand column should demonstrate careful, detailed
thought, and responses in the right hand column should include specific evidence from the passage.
Pitts argues
Evidence to Support his Assertions








Leonard Pitts incorporates supporting evidence beyond personal knowledge, experience and reflection. This
evidence may come from literary knowledge, current/recent events, historical/scientific events, etc. Look at the
evidence you have listed in the right hand column above and determine what kind of evidence Pitts employs.
Discuss why each example is effective in making his argument.
HOMEWORK DAY FIVE:
Finalize the ONE quotation to which you will respond in your argument and brainstorm at least two pieces of evidence from
outside your personal experience to support your position. TYPE the following: the entire quotation, a clear thesis statement
expressing your position on the topic, and your TWO detailed examples from outside your personal experience. This
assignment is due next block.
Example
Quotation:
The making of illusions—misleading images or ideas that appear to be authentic or true—has become the primary business of our society.
Included in this category are not only the false promises made by advertisers and politicians but all of the activities which supposedly inform,
comfort, and improve us, such as the work of our best writers and our most influential leaders. These promises and activities only encourage
people to have unrealistic expectations and to ignore facts. - Adapted from Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image
Thesis: Modern Americans claim to crave contentment and frankness yet are – at least en masse – dissatisfied and cynical; perhaps this void
between our hopes and our realities is the result of a society that emphasizes appearance over substantive truth.
Evidence:
1. Teenage girls are particularly susceptible to body image issues as a result of a false sense of beauty perpetuated by fashion
magazines. Advertisers and editors use techniques such as airbrushing and manipulating the original image to portray flawless skin,
body shape, eye color, hair color, and even facial features such as the size of someone’s nose or lips, for example. Not only do the girls
have an impossible goal to reach when viewing these images, but also young men begin to have unrealistic expectations of what the
women in their lives should look like.
2. [2nd piece of evidence goes here]
Argument Clinic 13
WRITING YOUR OWN ARGUMENT:
DUE DATE
LENGTH
TYPED
PROMPT
September 24/25, 2014 (submitted to Turnitin.com by 10:00 pm, September 25, 2014)
600 – 800 words
MLA format, heading, header, margins, spacing (include a word count)
(see below)
Each of the following authors creates assertions about at least one key concept, often raising
philosophical or ideological concerns. Choose one of these arguments to which you respond.
Write an essay in which you consider the extent to which the author’s assertions hold true for
contemporary American society. Support your argument with appropriate evidence. [Evidence must
include personal anecdote and may also include evidence from your reading or observation.]
1) “We flatter ourselves by thinking this compulsion to please others an attractive trait: a gist for
imaginative empathy, evidence of our willingness to give." – Joan Didion, American author
2) "Nature seems (the more we look into it) made up of antipathies: without something to hate, we
should lose the very spring of thought and action. Life would turn to a stagnant pool, were it not
ruffled by the jarring interests, the unruly passions, of men." -- William Hazlitt, British essayist
3) "Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding
from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection." -Martin Luther King, Jr., American clergyman, activist, and leader
4) "[The] Internet creates a vast illusion that the physical social world of interacting minds and hearts
does not exist. In this new situation, the screen is all that is the case...The new world turns the most
consequential fact of human life--other people--into seemingly manipulable half presences wholly
available to our fantasies." -- Lee Siegel, American nonfiction writer
5) "It is not, of course, the desire to be beautiful that is wrong but the obligation to be--or to try. What is
accepted by most women as a flattering idealization of their sex is a way of making women feel
inferior to what they actually are--or normally grow to be. For the ideal of beauty is administered as a
form of self-oppression...Nothing less than perfection will do."-- Susan Sontag, American writer
6) "The national myth of immigration, the heart-warming saga of babushka-clad refugees climbing to the
deck of the tramp steamer for a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty ("Look, Mama, just lie the pictures we
saw in Minsk, or Abruzzi, or Crete"), is just that, an image out of aging newspapers or our collective
pop-memory banks. Today's arrivals are more likely to be discharged on a beach and told to swim
ashore, be dropped in a desert and told to run, if they survive at all." -- Bharati Mukherjee, Indian-born
American writer
(continued on the next page)
Argument Clinic 14
WRITING YOUR OWN ARGUMENT (CONT):
7) "There is something deeply conflicted about the devotion to work, vocation, career as an ideal in any
society, but especially in one that has zealously cast off so many of its other repressions...We
(Americans) have all been so oversocialized that unnatural devotion to toil leaves its mark on every
area of life. It could even be argued that the most highly prized pleasures have themselves become a
form of work, complete with their own uniforms, disciplines, and special lingo." -- Christopher
Clausen, American professor
8) "Certain kinds of tragedies make an impact; others don't. Our perceptual apparatus is geared toward
threats that are exotic, personal, erratic, and dramatic. This doesn't mean we're ignorant; just
human...We aim our resources at phantoms, while real hazards are ignored." -- K.C. Cole, science
writer
9) "Love must be learned, and learned again and again; there is no end to it. Hate needs no instruction,
but waits only to be provoked..." Katherine Anne Porter, American author and essayist
10) “Our cherished notions of what is equal and what is fair frequently conflict. Democracy presumes that
we are all created equal; competition proves we are not, or else every contest would end in a tie. We
talk about a level playing field, but it is difficult to make conditions equal for everyone without being
unfair to some.” – adapted from work by Nancy Gibbs, American essayist and editor
11) “It is actually those who promote ‘diversity’ who ask you to deny your individuality and your
humanity by insisting that you assume a collective identity as a member of a racial or ethnic or
cultural group. Membership in these groups is reductive; it restricts your horizons and diminishes the
likelihood that you'll be successful even in articulating your own personal aspirations, let alone
achieving them.” – Greg Lewis, American professor
12) [Before] I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by
majority rule is a person’s conscience.” – Harper Lee, American author
NOTES:
Argument Clinic 15
THE WRITER’S CRAFT: SENTENCE VARIETY and THE PHRASE TOOLBOX
(from Laying the Foundation, AP Strategies).
Prepositional Phrase: (shows relationship between words)
Adjective Phrase: (which one, what kind, how many?)
The store around the corner is painted green.
The girl with the blue hair is angry.
Adverb phrase: (when, how, where?)
Oscar is painting his house with the help of his friends.
Sally is coloring outside the lines.
Infinitive phrase: (“to” with a verb.)
To dance gracefully is my ambition.
Her plan to become a millionaire fell through.
She wanted to become a veterinarian.
John went to college to study engineering.
Appositive phrase: (renames a noun or pronoun)
My teacher, a woman with curly hair, is very tall.
Bowser, the dog with the sharp teeth, is coming around the corner.
Participial phrase: (verb form functioning as an adjective)
Blinded by the light, Sarah walked into the concert hall.
John, swimming for his life, crossed the English Channel.
Gerund: (an “ing” verb form functioning as a noun)
Walking in the moonlight is a romantic way to end a date.
He particularly enjoyed walking in the moonlight.
Walking the dog is not my favorite task.
Absolute phrase (“ing” or “ed” form of a verb, modify the entire sentence, set off by “,”)
Their minds whirling from the avalanche of information provided by their teacher, the students made
their way thoughtfully to the parking lot.
His head pounding, his hands shaking, his heart filled with trepidation, the young man knelt and proposed
marriage to his sweetheart.
The two lovers walked through the garden, their faces reflecting the moonlight, their arms twined about
each other, their footsteps echoing in the stillness of the night.
Argument Clinic 16
PHRASE TOOLBOX PRACTICE:
Using your final topic for the argument essay as inspiration, practice writing sentences including the different
phrases from the toolbox. Sentences should demonstrate complexity of thought and structure.
Prepositional phrase (adjective or adverb)
Infinitive phrase
Appositive phrase
Participial phrase
Gerund phrase
Absolute phrase
HOMEWORK DAY SIX:
While you continue to work on your argument, it is time to begin crafting your thesis and body paragraphs. Type your thesis
and at least one body paragraph. As you write, pay attention to ideas you can connect using the phrase toolbox. Include,
highlight, and label at least THREE of the different types of phrases in your paragraph.
Writing Focus: Sentence Fluency
Choose at least three of your sentences from the Black Boy starters to
demonstrate your understanding of and ability to incorporate a variety of
phrases and clauses in your writing. Highlight and label these examples.
Argument Clinic 17
THE WRITER’S CRAFT: ALLUSIONS AND FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Read the following passage by essayist Joan Didion. Pay particular attention to the details, particularly developed
through allusion and figurative language, that she includes to convey her argument.
Once, in a dry season, I wrote in large
clean hair, and proven competence on the Stanford-
letters across two pages of a notebook that
Binet scale. To such doubtful amulets had my self-
innocence ends when one is stripped of the
respect been pinned, and I faced myself that day
delusion that one likes oneself.
Although now,
with the nonplussed apprehension of someone who
some years later, I marvel that a mind on the outs
has come across a vampire and has no crucifix at
with
hand.
itself
should
have
nonetheless
made
painstaking record of its every tremor, I recall with
Although to be driven back upon oneself is
embarrassing clarity the flavor of those particular
an uneasy affair at best, rather like trying to cross a
ashes. It was a matter of misplaced self-respect.
border with borrowed credentials, it seems to me
I had not been elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
now the one condition necessary to the beginnings
This failure could scarcely have been more
of real self-respect.
predictable or less ambiguous (I simply did not
notwithstanding, self-deception remains the most
have the grades), but I was unnerved by it; I had
difficult deception. The tricks that work on others
somehow thought myself a kind of academic
count for nothing in that very well-lit back alley
Raskolnikov, curiously exempt from the cause-
where one keeps assignations with oneself: no
effect
others.
winning smiles will do here, no prettily drawn lists
Although even the humorless nineteen-year-old
of good intentions. One shuffles flashily but in
that I was must have recognized that the situation
vain through one’s marked cards – the kindness
lacked real tragic stature, the day that I did not
done for the wrong reason, the apparent triumph
make Phi Beta Kappa nonetheless marked the end
which involved no real effort, the seemingly heroic
of something and innocence may well be the word
act into which one had been shamed. The dismal
for it.
I lost the conviction that lights would
fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the
always turn green for me, the pleasant certainty
approval of others – who are, after all, deceived
that those rather passive virtues which had won me
easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation,
approval as a child automatically guaranteed me
which, as Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara, is
not only Phi Beta Kappa keys but happiness,
something people with courage can do without.
relationships
which
hampered
Most of our platitudes
honor, and the love of a good man; lost a certain
touching faith in the totem power of good manners,
[word count = 430].
Argument Clinic 18
CLOSE READING PRACTICE
In this reflective passage, Didion takes the reader on a psychological (rather than literal) journey through which she
gained a unique perspective on the idea of self-respect
Follow your teacher’s directions for deciphering Didion’s “enriched” vocabulary and literary allusions. Then,
summarize Didion’s ideas by filling in the blanks below. Use your own words.
Paragraph 1: Describing a “dry season” in her writing career, Didion asserts that __________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________.
Paragraph 2: The event which brought her to this realization was ______________________________________
___________________________________________. She notes her feelings of ____________________________
________________________________________________________ as a result of this experience. By alluding to
Raskolnikov, she suggests that ___________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________.
When she writes that she “lost the conviction that lights would always turn green for [her],” she is really saying
that ________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________.
Likewise, she contends that she felt____________________________________________ with the “power of good
manners [and] clean hair because these ” ___________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________.
By alluding to the Stanford-Binet scale, Didion rejects the notion that ____________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________.
Finally, she compares herself as a result of this experience to “someone who has come across a vampire and has no
crucifix at hand.” This is an apt comparison because Didion and such a person share the characteristics of
___________________________________________________________________________________________
and ________________________________________________________________________________________.
Argument Clinic 19
CLOSE READING PRACTICE (continued)
Paragraph 3: Didion asserts that, as a result of ____________________________________________________,
______________________________, she came to believe that the “one condition necessary to the beginnings of
real self-respect” is _____________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________. However, she observes that selfdeception____________________________________________________________________________ because
____________________________________________________________________________________________.
When she cites “that very well-lit back alley,” she is really referring to one’s _______________________________
_______________________________________. “The kindness done for the wrong reason” describes an action
that ________________________________________________________________________________________.
Similarly, “the seemingly heroic act into which one has been shamed” suggests that _________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________.
Didion’s purpose in alluding to Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara is to ____________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________.
Entire passage:
Overall, Didion would argue that many people ______________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________,
Student response: [record your thoughts on Didion’s argument] _____________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________________.
Argument Clinic 20
THE WRITER’S CRAFT: WRITING THE PERFECT HOOK
One of my favorite opening lines from a student’s personal narrative essay read, “My grandmother hides cornbread
in her armpits.” Are you curious? I was, and I kept reading a very heartfelt essay about a grandmother suffering
from dementia. Even though that was a narrative essay and you are writing argument, the concept still rings true –
you must hook your reader from the beginning so that your argument will be heard.
Now that you have established your position and generated your evidence, you need to consider how to begin your
argument so that anyone coming across it cannot help but read on. Consider the many ways to begin: (some are
exemplified below). These serve as the “hook” or initial attention getter for the audience and ultimately lead the
audience to your thesis.
Read the following examples and place a star next to the ones that compel you to want to read more…
Startling Statement (good and evil theme)- All human beings are capable of the most gruesome crimes
imaginable. It is only because of the customs and controls of civilization that we do not become brute savages.
Anecdote/Scenario (courage theme) - A close friend of mine was in the Vietnam War and he admitted to me that
he was terrified every time he had to go into battle. Even so, I consider him one of the most courageous men I have
ever known. It is not the absence of fear that defines courage, but the ability of one to force oneself to take action in
spite of fear.
Analogy (superficiality theme) - The models that grace the pages of magazines seem to be better than anyone we
have ever met: they seem elegant, untouchable, and perfect. But, just as magazine covers are manipulated to hide
imperfections, we, too, sometimes fool ourselves into ignoring the flaws of individuals whom we have built up to
be perfect beings.
Humorous Musing (conformity theme) - Why is it that, when I go to school with my underwear on my head, the
world looks at me as if I were unusual? High school kids are so caught up in their little cliques that I feel like I’ve
got to become one of those “underwear under the pants” types too. (Note: Humor is not appropriate for all classes
and teachers. Use good judgment.)
http://www.cibacs.org/teacherpages/jbronkar/PDFs/hooks.pdf
HOMEWORK DAY SEVEN:
Complete your introduction and at least two body paragraphs for your argument. Your introduction must include a compelling
opening sentence (labeled “hook”) and a clear thesis statement (highlighted in pink). Body paragraphs should include evidence
(highlighted in green) and discussion or explanation (highlighted in yellow).
In addition, continue to incorporate the effective phrases from the toolbox and include at least one strategy modeled after the
Didion passage (figurative language or allusion). Highlight (in blue) and label the strategy you modeled after Didion.
Writing Focus: Figurative Language and Allusion
Choose at least one strategy you noted from the Didion
essay and incorporate it in your own essay to demonstrate
your understanding of and ability to incorporate this device.
Highlight and label this example.
Argument Clinic 21