hello and greetings from mrs. Girardi today we’re going to be talking about writing an argumentative essay which is our first unit together so grab your whisk and let’s get started let’s talk about the word argumentative maybe you’ve heard this word maybe somebody has called you argumentative if somebody calls you argumentative don’t say thank you when you used to describe a person argumentative means that that person likes to fight and likes to argue in an argumentative essay we’re not going to be doing any fighting it’s less in-your-face than the word argumentative when you use to describe a person let’s talk about what it means so in argumentative writing there is a logical pattern of thinking that’s followed so the main word when we think of argumentative writing is logic compare that to persuasive writing the job of persuasive writing is to convince someone to do something to believe something and so on you can think of ads and pieces of propaganda as persuasive writing so we are doing argumentative writing which focuses on logic and not persuasive writing which focuses on convincing someone in our first paragraph the introduction you’re going to include some general information about the topic and in our case we’re going to be talking about Nelson Mandela or Malcolm X and how they were able to effectively bring about social change for their people you’re going to include a thesis statement which is the main claim of the essay so a thesis statement answers the question why are you trying to argue for in this essay so just review introductory paragraph general information thesis statement and there were going to be reasons why so here are some thesis statement examples that you could use for this essay example one Nelson Mandela’s method of bringing about social change for black South Africans was effective because reason one reason two and reason three next example Malcolm X effectively brought about social change for african-americans because reason one reason two and reason three the last example of a thesis statement is because reason one reason two in recent three Nelson Mandela’s method of bringing about social change for black South Africans was effective here’s a sample introductory paragraph and as I’m reading it I want you to think about where is the general information about the topic located where’s the thesis statement and where are the three reasons why people have been living in harmony with animals for centuries however some animals are more apt to live as pets than others while dogs and cats are both popular pets in the United States dogs make better pets than cats because dogs are easier to are eager to please their masters they protect their owners and they can be trained to help their masters or others as service dogs so look for general information thesis statement and three reasons why after introducing the topic and giving your thesis statement we’re going to move on to reason one body paragraph your body paragraphs all three of them will begin with a topic sentence that introduces reason one which supports your thesis statement then you provide textual evidence that supports reason one in the form of a direct quote from the article the direct quotes need to be cited and parenthetically documented we’re going to talk about that in class then you need to explain and interpret the quote which is the second column of your graphic organizer that came with your article then EDA should explain why does this matter the third column of your graphic organizer then you will transition to the next paragraph you think of a way to link reason one with a reason to you can ask yourself the question how do the two reasons relate to each other so this is where organization and logic come into play so you may come up with your three reasons but you need to make sure that you organize them in your essay so that they follow a logical pattern and that you’re able to make these transitions these links to one another so they follow a logical format here’s a sample sample body paragraph I want you to look for the theis for the topic sentence the textual evidence and explanation and interpretation of the textual evidence why does it matter and a transition five different things are going on here in general dogs are easier to please their masters and in turn people derive joy from owning dogs Sandra Kelly states dogs are wired to submit to their masters they hope to win affection and treats for their good behavior as pets dogs cannot hunt outside for food so they depend on their masters to supply them with a nutrition therefore dogs behave well and please their masters to obtain food by behaving well their masters are more likely to give them affection thus reinforcing why people like to keep dogs as pets they are a source of joy and happiness but dogs do not simply bring joy to humans they also protect their masters and their masters families so look for the topic sentence textual evidence in the form of a quote an explanation interpretation of the quote why does it matter and a transition to the next body paragraph and an important part of your body paragraphs are the quotes the textual evidence and we do not simply drop a quote down in the middle of your paragraph and leave it stranded quotes need to be introduced so let’s look at these two examples Invictus creates the mood of hopelessness and hopefulness for the reader through Henley’s selection of words he creates a pattern in the mood of the play Smith 12 there is no introduction of the quote is just drop down in the middle of that paragraph so let’s look at how quotes can be introduced and should be introduced Invictus creates the moods of hopelessness and hopefulness for the reader William Ernest Henley achieves this through his careful selection of words which creates a pattern in the mood of the poem in the second example with yes William Ernest Henley achieves this through his careful that’s the introduction I don’t just drop the quote down I introduce it with some material that will come before this helps situate it within the paragraph I’m not going to spend too much time here it’s the body paragraph two with reason two is the same essentially as body paragraph 1 reason 1 but now you need to change your reason 1 to reason 2 so now we’re talking about the second reason we’re giving the second piece of textual evidence that supports reason 2 we’re going to interpret and explain that quote tell why that quote matters and that issue matters then transition to the next paragraph think of a way to link reason to with the reason 3 again you need to be strategic and careful of how you organize your reasons in your paragraphs and look at that reason 3 body paragraph same thing as 1 & 2 the only thing I want to know that’s different about reason 3 body paragraph is that the end you’re not transitioning to the next reason you need to use some sort of concluding sentence then this is where we’re putting in our counterclaims so this can become one paragraph or two paragraphs it depends on your writing but to the first sentence of your counterclaim paragraph or paragraphs tells the reader that there are opposing viewpoints on this issue example while many people agree that he was a great leader in the civil rights movement others disagree or although he made significant changes for African Americans black South Africans some people suggest that he was a more effective leader in bringing about social change this shows that there are differing viewpoints on the issue of civil rights leaders counterclaim paragraphs bring in textual evidence from the other article to show why the other activists was less successful quote the other article directly interpret and explain the quote and then make your case of why Malcolm X or Nelson Mandela is still the better leader you will do this two times with two quotes in your counterclaim remember you are defending your thesis here to show the difference in opinion use words like although even though however despite in contrast counterclaim paragraphs you may find it easier to separate the counterclaim into two paragraphs so in paragraph one you may want to state that differing opinions exist counterclaim quote number one interpretation explanation defense of your thesis then paragraph two counterclaim quote to interpretation explanation defense of the thesis and then a concluding sentence on the whole counterclaim business finally concluding paragraph state why this topic is important restate your thesis write one or two sentences that summarize what you’ve already argued so that’s reason one two and three your body paragraphs concluding paragraph can be quite short finally a title the purpose of a title is to give readers an idea about the topic of an essay you need to also remember that your title rather should be center-aligned do not use quotation marks around your title unless you are quoting from a source other than yourself so if you’re coming up with your title yourself do not use quotation marks if you like how somebody put something in an article and you want to use that as part of your title then use quotation marks remember to capitalize the first words of the title and all other important words in the title and there you go you’ve written an argumentative essay rejoice we’ll talk a lot more about that in class but I think you have a great idea of how to structure your argumentative essay