Thursday, September 6 th , 2012

1. Thursday, September 6th, 2012 Journal Write Mini-lesson: Writing arguments  making claim Workshop session: Writing arguments  making claim

2. Journal Write

3. Argumentative Writing Mini-Lesson • A claim persuades, argues, convinces, proves, or provocatively suggests something to a reader who may or may not initially agree with you. What a Claim Is • A claim is the main argument of an essay. It is probably the single most important part of an academic paper. The complexity, effectiveness, and quality of the entire paper hinges on the claim. If your claim is boring or obvious, the rest of the paper probably will be too. • A claim must be argumentative. When you make a claim, you are arguing for a certain interpretation or understanding of your subject. •  A good claim is specific. It makes a focused argument (MTV’s popularity is waning because it no longer plays music videos) rather than a general one (MTV is a bad channel).

4. Opinion vs. ArguableClaim • MTV is a bad channel. • We Beat the Street is a good book. • MTV’s popularity is waning because it no longer plays music videos. • The informational text, We Beat the Street, provides interesting details about the three doctors’ lives as they grew up in the streets of Newark, New Jersey. How are the arguable claims different from the opinions?

5. Workshop Session: Argumentative Writing • List three claims you have about the book We Beat the Streets. • Refer to the text to begin to SUPPORT your claims.