Notes: Teaching Argument

-What students know (or dont know) about argument:

-students dont understand terms of academic argument, they have
misconceptions about argument
Confuse argument with debate, try to win points
Conceptualize argument as a fight, dont take time to understand the text
Think in black and white
Jump on bandwagon
Mistake argument for opinion, writing subjective papers
Weakly supported argument
Can be overwhelmed by complexity
Rely on old structures
-Developing critical thinking skills
Many do not challenge what they are reading or challenge their own ideas
Must make important critical choices
Professors may want to employ critical thinking pedagogy in class
-Elements of critical thinking
7 elements of critical thinking, not linear
Biases are not fact, students should challenge them
Back and forth between observation and inference, fact and assumption
-Elements of argument: claims and evidence
Three elements of argument: thesis, evidence, reason
o Thesis sentence (first, most important)
-The Claim
o Thesis can point to conflicting claims or raise a question
o Declare and observation rather than an argument
o Write a formulaic thesis
-Evidence
o Fail to write good theses because of lack of evidence or dont know how to use
the evidence they have, overlook evidence
o Students should discover and grow arguments using reasoning skills
Notes: Developing Your Thesis
-Writing a Thesis Sentence: An Introduction
o Thesis has the potential to assert, control, and structure the entire argument. W/o
is, the paper may seem unfocused
-A Good Thesis Sentence Will Make a Claim
o Offers a nuanced and interesting perspective that the writer can develop
o Will inspire other points of view
-Will Define the Scope of Your Argument
o Determines what you will and wont discuss
o How your argument will be presented
-John Donaghy
o Method founded on understanding that a good thesis comes from good analysis
 o Readers must break down the text, discover patterns, and come up with why
patterns exist
o Need to be conscious of examining parts of a text
o Determine how these parts and patterns are speaking to each other
o Put forward a proposition
-Sarah Biggs Chaney
o Student must examine their assumptions
-Karen Gocsik
o Umbrella Idea, move back and forth between a texts particularities and its big
ideas to find a suitable fit between the two that the students can write about
o 4 Steps to successfully employ the umbrella method
-Thesis Question
o Permits the writer to pursue all ideas, without committing to any
-Implied Thesis
o Thesis is the most important sentence in a paper, even when its not there
o Implied thesis
o Questions to ask yourself
-A good thesis usually relied on a strong introduction, sharing the work
o The introduction paragraph will help expand on your thesis
-The structure of your thesis, along with its introduction, should in some way reflect the
logic that brought you to your argument
-A good working thesis is your best friend
Reflect:
I think these three articles helped me see that a thesis goes much deeper than what I
was taught in high school. In order to create a thesis with a strong argument, one must
focus on more than biases, and good evidence must be found. You must do more
research and come up with a view point that is not biased and helps you form a strong
paper. Although a thesis is one sentence, you can use your introduction to form your
argument and help support your ideas and research.