10.19/10.20
• Due:
• Objectives:
Mon/Tue
10.26/27: Vocab. 3 quiz
11.5/6: Argumentation quiz 1
11.9/10: Vocab. 4 quiz
11.20/23: Vocab. 5 quiz
12.1/2: Argumentation quiz 2
12.3/4: Vocab. 6
12.11/14: Vocab. 7 quiz
12.17/18: Argumentation
test
10.19/10.20 warm-up: Intro writing
• What three things am I looking for in an intro?
• Mention the author and the work.
• Specifically and definitively answer the prompt.
• Include at least (bare minimum) two topics that you’ll address in
answer the prompt.
10.19/10.20 activity: FRQ, the Adams prompt
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Today you’ll be doing a rhetorical analysis again.
What is rhetorical analysis again?
Well, you’re still learning.
The specific tasks asked of you will vary from essay to essay, and essays will vary based on
time periods and themes.
But you can almost always count on being asked to analyze for language, including rhetorical
strategies and stylistic elements.
We have not covered rhetorical strategies, but you should have a knowledge of stylistic
elements from the past.
You know modes. You know enough figurative language (tropes) that you can spot a simile
when you see it. Perhaps you know something about rhetorical appeals (ethos, pathos,
logos).
AP calls diction, syntax and tone the “holy trinity” of rhetorical strategies.
Technically, everything that was ever written has diction, syntax and tone, so finding those
strategies in an essay aren’t difficult (and can thus be sometimes viewed as “elementary
analysis), but they shouldn’t be ignored just because they’re easy to find.
10.19/10.20 activity: FRQ, the Adams prompt
• This one is from the 2014 test.
• It is very recent.
• You will have the usual 45 minutes to read, plan and write.
• Use that time wisely.
• Once you have finished, we will review the released essays and score
them.
• I’ll let you look at her while you write.
• Let her cold, dead stare bore into your brain.
10.19/10.20 activity: FRQ, the Adams prompt
• Step 1: Ten minutes in individual groups to
read and score assigned essays
• Step 2: Five to ten minutes with larger
groups to discuss scores (Groups 1 & 2;
Groups 3 & 4; Groups 5 & 6)
• Step 3: Remaining class time for groups to
present essays and discuss as a whole class
• Groups are as follows:
• Group 1 (2A): Bhavana, Jasiah, Reed, Hannah,
Rachel
• Group 2 (2A): Joseph, Anna, Janelle, Andrew
• Group 3 (2B): Richard, Max, Molly, Veda
• Group 4 (2B): Elizabeth, Syd, Grace, Anish
• Group 5 (2C): Anisha, Jill, Andrea, Rebecca,
Marlette
• Group 6 (2C): Kristi, Jenny, Sona, Ishan,
Williams
• DO NOT go beyond your assigned essay.
• DO NOT read the scores or justifications on the
last page.
• Read and score the essay and discuss the essay
you wrote as well.
CLOSE and HW
10.19/10.20
• Print, read and annotate the file “Atticus’ speech” found on my
website.
• As you read it, consider SOAPTTone elements and how Atticus uses
rhetoric to present his claim to a hostile audience. (Annotations do
not need to be typed nor does a complete SOAPTTone need to be
completed.)
• Begin bringing Strunk and White (Elements of Style) in addition to
Patterns every day. If you did not read Strunk and White over the
summer, read the introduction and first chapter (it might be helpful
for those of you who did read to review).
no date? close: Awakening essays
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Quote integration is very weak.
Avoid phrases like . . .
“In chapter 20 it says . . . ”
“On page 10 it shows . . . ”
And most of all:
“The reader can see . . . ”
“This shows the reader that . . . ”
And choosing a quote then cutting it up is weak, too.
Very rarely should you be using an entire sentence, especially in a literary
analysis.
no date? close: Awakening essays
• MLA need work on almost every angle.
• I refuse to help you format your actual page (header, pagination, spacing,
font, etc.).
• That’s stuff you can find just about anywhere especially if that anywhere is
called “Purdue OWL.”
• But we will work on:
• Correct citations.
• Punctuating quotes. (As a note, have you ever seen a full stop come after a
quotation mark??? “I like ice cream”.  like that? Ever?)
• Using ellipses correctly.
• Omitting information from quotes using brackets.
no date? close: Awakening essays
• Why you not follow SEE example? It’s super simple and makes analysis
easy.
• See:
• Edna’s past before her awakening was essentially a deception as she had
been confined and restricted to the social [societal???] and gender roles
placed upon her without allowing her to be an individual. Edna’s
awakening is happening in the present, so by continuously remembering
her past sets her back [sic] in her quest to fully awaken and become
independent. Edna’s future holds much promise in regards to her
individuality, but the past “offered no lesson which she was willing to
heed,” only harming rather than helping Edna in her quest to
metamorphose [ahem, choose the simplest word] into an awakened
woman (10). To awaken is to realize that her old life was one lived in
ignorance, that she was not in control, and that she had no independence.
Edna has no other choice but to move away from the past in order for her
to become this newly awakened person and begin to see herself shift so.
no date? close: Awakening essays
• Why you not follow SEE example? It’s super simple and makes analysis easy.
• See:
• In Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening, Edna’s suicide, the costly result of an
attempt at self-definition, symbolizes that a culture hostile to freedom of
expression is not a culture worth living in. Part of Enda’s “despondency” comes
from those “who had overpowered and shout to drag her into the soul’s slavery”
because she felt a lack of control over her own life (115). In contrast to the
exhausting environment Edna had been living in, Chopin uses connotative
descriptions like “seductive,” “gleaming,” “inviting” and “soft, close embrace” to
show how accepting and nearly maternal the sea’s solitude is to Edna [citation
needed]. Overall, Edna did “dare” to branch out in self-discovery via her affairs,
but did not “defy” because she could never act spontaneously without feeling
some sort of inner turmoil and conflict. Chopin chose to write the ending this
way to express that if one cannot live as they are meant to be, living itself
becomes an undesirable burden.
no date? close: Awakening essays
• Things you should know:
• Avoid run-ons.
• Avoid first and second person in a literary analysis. (Both have their
place. Neither has a place in a lit analysis.)
• Omit needless words.
• Consider your audience for a lit analysis. That audience doesn’t need
a summary of the novel.
• Constantly focus on the question “why?” Why is Chopin showing us
this? Why does she make the decisions she does in this text?
• We will practice and practice and practice this.
10.21/10.22
10.26/27: Vocab. 3 quiz
10.28/29: argumentation essay assigned
11.5/6: argumentation essay due
11.5/6: Argumentation quiz 1
11.9/10: Vocab. 4 quiz
11.20/23: Vocab. 5 quiz
12.1/2: Argumentation quiz 2
12.3/4: Vocab. 6
12.11/14: Vocab. 7 quiz
12.17/18: Argumentation test
Wed/Thu
• Due: Atticus’ speech. In tracker as
“ATTICUS!”
• warm-up: Apostrophe
• activity 1: rhetorical triangle
• activity 2: analyze an argument
• notes: intro to grad paper
• close: return to test and Chopin
essays
10.21/10.22 warm-up: Possessives
• Charles’ dog was eaten by a coyote today.
• Charles’s dog was eaten by a coyote today.
• Strunk and White certainly suggest that this is the only way to do it (with the exception of
historical figures).
• Purdue OWL claims this:
• add 's to the singular form of the word (even if it ends in -s): James’s cat was mauled by a
zombie.
• add ' to the end of plural nouns that end in -s: “These cats’ eyeballs are tasty!” thought the
zombie
• I think we’ll agree that “These cats’s eyeballs are tasty” doesn’t look right. (In fact, I get a
red squiggly just for typing that.)
• Consider how weird this would look, too: “The classes’s rooms were sieged by dead dogs
and cats.”
• But I’ll offer that just adding the apostrophe is acceptable (mostly because I was taught it
was ok).
• So I type: “James’ pets have all been killed today.”
• Most style manuals (Strunk and White, Purdue OWL) demand the 's, so I guess that’s what
you should default to. Regardless . . .
10.21/10.22 warm-up: Apostrophe
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An apostrophe only does two jobs in this world.
It contracts and shows ownership.
It contracts: don’t; won’t; ain’t; y’all; shouldn’t’ve.
It shows ownership: ElRoy’s paella; LeRoy’s cat; RoyLee’s confederate flag;
Society’s societal problems . . .
So . . .
I was born in the 1970’s.
Neither contracts nor shows ownership.
1973’s top-selling album was Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon.
Even though I was born in the 1970s, my favorite decade is the ‘60s.
As usual, S&W and Purdue OWL are your defaults here:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/621/01/
10.21/10.22 notes: Rhetorical Triangle
message
logos
10.21/10.22 notes: Rhetorical Triangle
• Usually called the rhetorical triangle or sometimes the Aristotelian
triangle because Aristotle totally invented it. (Not the triangle.
Pythagoras invented triangles.)
• The audience is swayed by pathos.
• The thesis of the text relies on logos to make its case.
• The speaker of the text relies on ethos to make herself credible.
• Ethos, pathos and logos are called rhetorical appeals.
• Let’s get a quick definition for each.
10.21/10.22 notes: Rhetorical Triangle
• pathos: emotional appeal.
• Relies on feeling to sway the audience.
• logos: logical appeal.
• Creates a logical argument either by citing data or by using,
well, logic.
• ethos: ethical appeal.
• Establishes credibility and authority of speaker.
10.21/10.22 notes: Rhetorical Triangle
• Identifying pathos.
• Diction choices that lead to an emotional tone.
• Exemplification
• Figurative language (metaphor, personification, hyperbole,
etc. )
• Personal anecdotes (experiences or stories)
10.21/10.22 notes: Rhetorical Triangle
• Identifying logos
• Facts
• Statistics
• Research
• Referring to experts
• Cause & effect
• Syllogisms (wha’? I dunno what that means)
10.21/10.22 notes: Rhetorical Triangle
• Identifying ethos.
• Stating qualifications for expertise
• Using first person plural pronouns (“we”)
• Citing relevant authorities
• Citing relevant allusions
10.21/10.22 activity: Atticus’—er, Atticus’s
argument
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Who is his audience?
How does Atticus appeal to his audience?
What is his claim?
Is he successful in present his claim?
What evidence does he use to support his claim?
Does he present himself ethically as an unbiased participant?
What rhetorical appeals does Atticus use to create his argument? What does his
rhetorical triangle look like (and don’t say it’s flat on the bottom and pointy on
the top—I won’t be fooled like that again . . . ).
• This same basic technique for analyzing an argument will be applied to every
argument we look at this unit.
• Including your grad paper . . .
10.21/10.22 notes: The Graduation Project
• You’ll begin the grad project with an essential question on a topic
in which you have a genuine interest.
• You should not be an expert in the field of your topic.
• The question may grow out of interest that you have had for
some time or one that has arisen recently through course work or
personal experience.
• Your search for the resolution to your topic will ultimately reveal
what you need to know about it.
10.21/10.22 notes: big picture
• You will learn to:
• Set goals that are manageable.
• Identify meritorious sources
• Frame your research with an argumentative claim.
• Synthesize data to prove your claim.
10.21/10.22 notes: formulating an idea
• You will begin with an essential question
• That essential question will guide your initial research.
• Your initial research will inform your claim.
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Your argument should be classically modeled and follow this basic outline.
Claim
Evidence
Explanation of evidence
Acknowledgement of counterargument
Refutation of counterargument
• You will learn more about how to create AP-worthy argumentation as we study it
and practice it in class.
10.21/10.22 notes: paper structure
• Begin by identifying a social problem that can be solved. (Occasion)
• You will create a claim that will present a solution to that problem. That
solution you identify should be debatable. (Subject/Thesis)
• You will identify an audience (or audiences) for whom the solution will
be beneficial. (Audience)
• You will establish ethos through your presentation of scholarly research
that proves the benefit of adopting your claim. (Speaker)
• You will convince the audience to adopt your claim through rhetorical
appeals (ethos, pathos, logos). (Purpose)
• You will maintain an unbiased tone throughout your argumentation in
order to pacify a potentially hostile audience. (Tone)
• Oh, bugger. This class really is just SOAPTTone, innit? AP Language and
SOAPTTone.
10.21/10.22 notes: Researching your topic
• Research will be, for the most part, conducted independently. We
will occasionally (infrequently? hardly ever?) have research days in
which I take you to the library or bring in a laptop cart.
• Research will be cited according to MLA guidelines.
• I will periodically review MLA guidelines. And I mean review. As in a
two-minute warm-up.
• If your knowledge of MLA guidelines is insufficient, the Purdue OWL is
your new best friend.
• Let me demonstrate . . . (time to Google stuff now, Camp. Thanks,
man!)
10.21/10.22 notes: Researching your topic
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Research should take a variety of forms.
Books.
Magazines.
Newspapers.
All online or print.
You will actually have to read all these scholarly articles in order to synthesize what a
variety of experts say about your topic and cull a large sample of facts.
You should not rely on “info dump” sites.
Here’s a rule of thumb you’ve been taught: if the URL ends with “.org” it’s good for
research.
Well . . .
https://www.change.org/
But “.edu,” that’s ok, right???
http://www.phoenix.edu/
10.21/10.22 notes: Researching your topic
• There is no hard and fast rule for what is acceptable research and
what is not.
• My best suggestion?
• If it doesn’t have an author you can identify, it’s probably not very
scholarly.
• As usual, Purdue OWL is better at explaining this than I:
• https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/553/01/
10.21/10.22 notes: final notes
• Mentor? Not required this year.
• Do you want one?
• Find a teacher whom you trust and ask.
• I will have a form for you to document your time with your mentor.
• Your mentor will have to document, too, what help she has provided.
• I will not be your mentor.
10.21/10.22 notes: final notes
• The senior portion of the grad project has changed (at least from my first
year).
• CMS is requiring you to complete service hours that relate to your project.
• So, for example, let’s say you’re concerned about literacy rates for povertylevel school children.
• Your paper will advocate a solution to this problem (based on the synthesis
of your research).
• Your service will show you volunteering locally to effect that change.
• You will document the effectiveness of your volunteer-ship and present
your research in the form of a 6-10 minute speech to a board of teachers.
10.21/10.22 notes: final notes
• The paper is 8-10 pages long.
• I will grade the paper according to the rubric provided to me by
CMS.
• You now have that rubric and due dates.
• We will have a research day on 10.26/10.27 (4A in library, 2B with
computer cart in classroom). Feel free to bring your own
technology.
• I will give you some pointers on that class day to get you started
in the right direction.
10.21/10.22 notes: final notes
• The paper counts for 40% of your fourth quarter grade.
• Additionally, you will have to save each step of your paper in your
portfolio (this can be kept in class).
• The portfolio should be an easy check, 50/50 test grade—provided
you do everything and don’t lose anything . . .
• Remember, you do not have a final in this class.
• Here’s stuff. Let’s look over it; then file and don’t lose it.
10.21/10.22 CLOSE: grading a grad paper
• Here is a paper a student wrote for me a few years ago.
• Read through the paper, check it against the rubric.
HW
10.21/10.22
• We’re about to get heavy into the argumentation unit, and your grad
paper will start to be a pressing concern.
• While we won’t cover it next class, if you want to get started with the
unit, we will begin it properly on 10.28/10.29.
• Have the introduction to the argumentation unit read as well as the
Declaration of Independence. You will have to answer Purpose and
Audience 1-5 and Style and Structure 1 (p. 560-561). Again, this will
be due on 10.28/10.29.
• Vocab. 3 quiz next class as well as our first grad paper work day.
• Feel free to bring technology to assist your research.
10.26/10.27
• Due:
• warm-up: analytical or
expository?
• quiz: vocab. 3 quiz
• post-quiz: identifying
theses.
• activity: library for initial
grad paper research.
Mon/Tue
10.26/27: Vocab. 3 quiz
10.28/29: argumentation
essay assigned
11.5/6: Argumentation quiz 1
11.9/10: Vocab. 4 quiz
11.20/23: Vocab. 5 quiz
12.1/2: Argumentation quiz 2
12.3/4: Vocab. 6
12.11/14: Vocab. 7 quiz
12.17/18: Argumentation
test
10.26/10.27 warm-up: Writing a thesis
• Different types of papers:
• An expository (explanatory) paper explains something to the audience.
• An analytical paper breaks down an issue or an idea into its component
parts, evaluates the issue or idea, and presents this breakdown and
evaluation to the audience.
• An argumentative paper makes a claim about a topic and justifies this
claim with specific evidence. The claim will be a policy proposal for a
known problem. The goal of the argumentative paper is to convince the
audience that the claim is true based on the evidence provided.
10.26/10.27 warm-up: Writing a thesis
• Example of an expository (explanatory) thesis statement:
• The life of the typical college student is characterized by time spent
studying, attending class, and socializing with peers.
• The paper that follows should:
• Expose the audience to facts about how students spend their time
studying, attending class, and socializing with peers.
• There is no interpretation or analysis or convincing going on. Just
exposure to facts.
10.26/10.27 warm-up: Writing a thesis
• Example of an analytical thesis statement:
• An analysis of the college admission process reveals one challenge
facing counselors: accepting students with high test scores or
students with strong extracurricular backgrounds.
• The paper that follows will examine these two topics:
• Analyze the difficulty counselors face in deciding which criteria should
be used to admit students.
• There’s a lot of exposure still to facts, but you’re also figuring out why
those problems exist.
• You are not, however, attempting to fix the problem . . .
10.26/10.27 warm-up: Writing a thesis
• Because that’s what argumentation does.
• Example of an argumentative thesis statement:
• High school graduates should be required to take a year off to pursue community
service projects before entering college in order to increase their maturity and
global awareness.
• The paper that follows should:
• Claim that there is a benefit to students taking a year off (the “gap year”) and give
evidence to prove that claim.
• You are convincing your audience that there is a problem (“students go into
college unprepared” sounds like the problem here) and that your claim will fix
that problem.
• Easy as cooking a delicious owl.
• By the way, I stole most of this from the Purdue OWL.
• https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/
10.26/10.27 quiz: vocab. 3
• Usual quiz procedure.
• Every good research paper should be begin with a good question.
• That question should, in theory, become the thesis—or, for our
purposes, the claim.
• So take the questions on the next slide and make them into claims or
vice versa.
• NOTE: When dealing with the questions and converting them into
claims, consider this question: What would be the benefit(s) of
adopting this claim?
10.26/10.27 post-quiz: argumentative claims
• NOTE: When dealing with the questions and converting them into claims,
consider this question: What would be the benefit(s) of adopting this
claim?
• Should the American government mandate a daily 45-minute exercise
block for all high school students in order to promote a healthy society?
• Should local and state governments be allowed to decriminalize marijuana
despite it being classified as a Schedule 1 drug?
• School officials should promote a diversity of foreign language studies in
order to promote scholarship and encourage multiculturalism for today’s
high school students.
• High school and collegiate literature classes should include controversial
and emotionally impactful studies of texts given the social, mental and
scholastic benefits of begin exposed to a variety of literary subjects.
CLOSE and HW
10.21/10.22
• I’m going to extend the topic proposal due date to 10.30 (4A) and
11.2 (2B).
• Today in the library, work diligently and ask lots of questions.
• If you are unsure of how to proceed with your topic and need more
guidance, come see me during tutoring times.
• Have the introduction to the argumentation unit read as well as the
Declaration of Independence. You will have to answer Purpose and
Audience 1-5 and Style and Structure 1 (p. 560-561). Again, this will
be due on 10.28/10.29.
10.28/10.29
• Due: Declaration of
Independence questions.
Tracker as “Jefferson.”
• warm-up: visual
argumentation
• activity: Toulmin notes
• close: create an argument
Wed/Thu
10.28/29: argumentation
essay assigned
11.5/6: Argumentation quiz 1
11.9/10: Vocab. 4 quiz
11.20/23: Vocab. 5 quiz
12.1/2: Argumentation quiz 2
12.3/4: Vocab. 6
12.11/14: Vocab. 7 quiz
12.17/18: Argumentation
test
10.28/10.29 warm-up: ARGUE!!!
• Read through the ad on p. 555.
• Consider what the rhetorical triangle is for the ad.
• Advertisements are perhaps the simplest form of argumentation and,
indeed, rhetoric.
• Consider the following . . .
10.28/10.29 warm-up: Argue
• As far as exercise equipment goes, nothing is more
state of the art than a dog. Not only is walking a
dog great exercise, this is one piece of equipment
that won’t take “no” for an answer. Plus no
treadmill or stair-climber comes with these
particular features: friendship, loyalty and
unconditional love.
• Your local animal shelter has hundreds of puppies
and dogs read to start you on a terrific
cardiovascular workout for around $50 (including
vaccinations). So if you’re ready to provide the
care and love a dog needs, why not adopt one
today? Because while walking a dog is good for
your heart, so is adopting one from the pound.
• What claim does this ad make (what, in other
words, is it persuading its audience to do)?
• What evidence does it use to support its claim?
• What assumption does it make about what
everyone in its audience wants? (Phrase it like
this: “All people want . . . ”)
10.28/10.29 notes: Stephen Toulmin
• Stephen Toulmin, originally a British logician, is now a
professor at USC (maybe? I should probably look this up to see
if he’s dead yet or not).
• He became frustrated with the inability of formal logic to
explain everyday arguments, which prompted him to develop
his own model of practical reasoning.
• There he is!
• Thanks for the tool, man!
• Groan . . .
10.28/10.29 notes : The three basic elements:
• Claim (assertion or proposition)
• Grounds (proof, grounds, support)
• Warrant (inferential leap or connective tissue)
10.28/10.29 notes : Claims
• A claim is the point an arguer is trying to make. The claim
is the conclusion, proposition, or assertion an arguer wants
another to accept.
• The claim answers the question, "So what is your point?”
• example: “Rosario is an American citizen because she
was born in the United States.”
• example: “High school students should take a year off
before entering college in order to grow as a person.”
• example: “Tonald Drump is a great businessman, so he
is totally qualified to lead this country.”
10.28/10.29 notes : More about claims
• Four basic types.
• fact: claims which focus on empirically verifiable phenomena
• judgment/value: claims involving opinions, attitudes, and subjective
evaluations of things
• policy: claims advocating courses of action that should be undertaken
• definition/classification: indicates what criteria are being used to
define a term or what category something falls into
• Which one of these are you using for your grad paper?
10.28/10.29 notes : Grounds (proof or data)
• Grounds refers to the proof or evidence an arguer offers.
• Grounds can consist of statistics, quotations, reports,
findings, physical evidence, or various forms of reasoning
• example: “I’m a vegetarian. One reason is that I feel
sorry for the animals. Another reason is for my own
health.”
• example: “I made the dinner, so you can do the dishes.
10.28/10.29 notes : More about grounds
• Grounds are the support the arguer offers on behalf of his/her
claim. The grounds answer questions such as:
• "What is your proof?“
• "How do you know?“
• "Why?”
• example: “It looks like rain. The barometer is falling.”
• example: "The other Ritz Carlton hotels I've stayed at had great
pools, so I'll bet this one has a great pool too."
• example: “90% of all college professors agree that AP Lang is a
terrific class.”
10.28/10.29 notes : Still more about grounds
• grounds can be based on:
• evidence: facts, statistics, reports, or physical proof
• source credibility: authorities, experts, celebrity endorsers, a close
friend, or someone's say-so
• analysis and reasoning: reasons may be offered as proof
• premises already held by the listener
10.28/10.29 notes : Clue words for identifying
grounds
• The grounds for an argument often follow words such
as “because,” “since,” “given that . . . ”
• example: “Airports should x-ray all luggage because a
bomb could be placed in a checked baggage.”
• example: “I expect to do well on the test, since I
studied all night for it.”
• example: “Tonald Drump might be an orangutan
because he has orange skin and red hair and acts all
super-aggressive.”
10.28/10.29 notes : Warrants
• The warrant is the inferential leap that connects the claim
with the grounds.
• The warrant is typically implicit (unstated) and requires the
listener to recognize the connection between the claim and
grounds
• The implicit nature of warrants means the “meaning” of an
argument is as much a part of the receiver as it is a part of
the message.
• Some arguments are “multi-warranted”; they are based on
more than one inferential leap
10.28/10.29 notes : More about warrants . . .
• The warrant performs a "linking" function by establishing a
mental connection between the grounds and the claim
• example: “LeRoy is running a temperature. I’ll bet he has an
infection.”
• warrant (sign/clue): A fever is a reliable sign of an infection.
• example: "That dog is probably friendly. It is a Golden
Retriever.”
• warrant (generalization): Most or all Golden Retrievers be
friendly
10.28/10.29 notes : types of warrants
• Common Warrants
1. Argument based on Generalization
A very common form of reasoning. It assumes that what is true of a well
chosen sample is likely to hold for a larger group or population, or that
certain things consistent with the sample can be inferred of the
group/population.
2. Argument based on Analogy
Extrapolating from one situation or event based on the nature and outcome
of a similar situation or event. Has links to “case-based” and precedentbased reasoning used in legal discourse. What is important here is the extent
to which relevant similarities can be established between two contexts. Are
there sufficient, typical, accurate, relevant similarities?
10.28/10.29 notes : types of warrants
3. Argument via Sign/Clue
The notion that certain types of evidence are symptomatic of some wider
principle or outcome. For example, smoke is often considered a sign for
fire. Some people think high SAT scores are a sign a person is smart and will
do well in college.
4. Causal Argument
Arguing that a given occurrence or event is the result of, or is effected by,
factor X. Causal reasoning is the most complex of the different forms of
warrant. The big dangers with it are:
• Mixing up correlation with causation
• Falling into the post hoc trap. Closely related to confusing correlation and
causation, this involves inferring “after the fact, therefore because of the
fact”).
10.28/10.29 notes : types of warrants
5. Argument from Authority
Does person X or text X constitute an authoritative source on the issue
in question? What political, ideological or economic interests does the
authority have? Is this the sort of issue in which a significant number
of authorities are likely to agree on?
6. Argument from Principle
Locating a principle that is widely regarded as valid and showing that a
situation exists in which this principle applies. Evaluation: Is the
principle widely accepted? Does it accurately apply to the situation in
question? Are there commonly agreed on exceptions? Are there “rival”
principles that lead to a different claim? Are the practical
consequences of following the principle sufficiently desirable?
10.28/10.29 notes: Counterargument
• “When gathering your evidence, keep in mind that you cannot ignore
arguments against your position.”
• At least that’s what Patterns says (those chumps). But why can you not
ignore it?
• Let’s go back to Jefferson (557).
• Jefferson argues that “Great Britain [has] a history of repeated injuries and
usurpations” against the colonies.
• What would a logical counterargument be?
• “That stuff we did was totes necessary to protect not only British interests
but also the interests and safety of the colonies.” (Say it with a British
accent and it totally works.)
• How does Jefferson refute that counterargument?
10.28/10.29 notes: Refutation
• Directly addressing objections to your claim.
• It makes your arguments more sound, more believable if the
audience can’t poke holes in it.
• Refutation can happen when you show that counterarguments are
unsound, unfair or weak.
• You have to present evidence to demonstrate this.
• What happens when you can’t refute an opponent’s
counterargument? What if their counterargument is too strong?
10.28/10.29 activity: Toulmin practice
RoyLee shouldn’t be
allowed to walk at
graduation
He done cheated on
his test!
Grounds
Claim
Warrant
(unstated) principle:
Cheaters don’t deserve
special privileges or
recognition
10.28/10.29 activity : Toulmin practice
It was nominated
for 10 Academy
Awards
Slumdog Millionaire is a
wonderful movie.
Grounds
Claim
Warrant
(unstated) generalization:
wonderful movies are often
nominated for Oscars.
10.28/10.29 activity : More about warrants . . .
Biff was probably in a fight
He has a black eye
Claim
Grounds
Warrant
(unstated) Sign: A black eye is
a reliable indicator that a
person has been in a fight
10.30/11.2 activity: Toulmin practice
If you surf at
Huntington Beach
right after it rains you
risk getting a bacterial
infection
Runoff from the
rain washes
bacteria into the
ocean
Claim
Grounds
Warrant
(unstated) causal: bacteria in
the water causes surfers to
get ill.
10.28/10.29 activity : Toulmin practice
You should be able to do this for just about any argument we
examine. So let’s apply the basic model below to Jefferson.
Claim
Grounds
Warrant
10.28/10.29 activity : Limitations regarding
the Toulmin model
• The Toulmin model offers a somewhat static view of an argument
• Focuses on the argument maker, not the target or respondent
• Real-life arguments aren’t always neat or clear
• The Toulmin model is an analytical tool
• Useful for dissecting arguments before or after they’ve been
made
• Not as useful, practical in the “heat” of an argument
• Since warrants are unstated, different listeners may perceive them
differently
10.28/10.29 activity: create an argument
• Choose one of the following topics and outline a brief argument for one
of the following topics
•
•
•
•
•
AK’s cell phone policy should be less strict
Homework should be optional at AK
The grad paper should be optional at AK
The AK school day should be shortened by one half hour (8:15-2:45 or 7:45-2:15)
Students should be allowed to leave campus for lunch
• Consider who your audience for you argument would be.
• Consider what type of rhetorical appeals would be most effective for
reaching that audience and the tone you’d adopt as a credible speaker.
CLOSE and HW
10.28/10.29
• Topic proposal due date is 10.30 (4A) and 11.2 (2B).
• Here’s your rubric for your argumentative essay.
• Let’s look.
• Due on 10.30/11.2.
• Pay attention to the information on p. 531-536 of Patterns