lesson 8: Stating your claim
Remember, we are learning how to construct an academic argument.
In the last lesson, we learned that we would be writing an academic argument essay on one of two topic options:
Do you think college athletes should be paid to play?
OR:
Do you think people shouldn't be allowed to read certain books?
In the last lesson, we conducted our research. Hopefully, you wrote your facts, examples and expert quotes down on a piece of paper (or somewhere where you can access them). If you haven't, no sweat! this lesson provide you some links to conduct your research and gather your facts.
Today's lesson focuses on developing your academic argument claim.
In the last lesson, we learned that we would be writing an academic argument essay on one of two topic options:
Do you think college athletes should be paid to play?
OR:
Do you think people shouldn't be allowed to read certain books?
In the last lesson, we conducted our research. Hopefully, you wrote your facts, examples and expert quotes down on a piece of paper (or somewhere where you can access them). If you haven't, no sweat! this lesson provide you some links to conduct your research and gather your facts.
Today's lesson focuses on developing your academic argument claim.
Choosing Your position
Slide 2 offers links to continue your research.
Writing your claim
There is a worksheet given to you on slide 3. Fill it out. It walks you through step-by-step how to develop a claim sentence.
Remember back to the beginning of the unit--a claim is what your position in an argument is.
So, basically, you are writing a sentence telling what you think or believe about the topic you've chosen.
For example: College athletes should not be paid to play because it is a personal choice to play.
Don't worry about filing in the text field on slide 3.
Do not turn in the worksheet on slide 3...the only thing that matters from it is the claim. Not the steps you took to get to your claim.
Copy and paste your claim onto a Word doc and save it.
Remember back to the beginning of the unit--a claim is what your position in an argument is.
So, basically, you are writing a sentence telling what you think or believe about the topic you've chosen.
For example: College athletes should not be paid to play because it is a personal choice to play.
Don't worry about filing in the text field on slide 3.
Do not turn in the worksheet on slide 3...the only thing that matters from it is the claim. Not the steps you took to get to your claim.
Copy and paste your claim onto a Word doc and save it.
Writing your counterclaim
There is a worksheet given to you on slide 4. Fill it out. It walks you step-by-step how to develop a counterclaim sentence.
Remember back to the beginning of the unit--a counterclaim is the opposite position of a claim. It's what people who disagree with you may believe.
It is important to acknowledge the counterclaim in an argument. Mostly so that you can disprove it.
For example: College athletes should not be paid to play because it is a personal choice to play; however college athletics earns a lot of money for the school.
Don't worry about filing in the text field on slide 4.
Do not turn in the worksheet on slide 4...the only thing that matters is the counterclaim, not the steps you took to get to your counterclaim.
Copy and paste your counterclaim onto a Word doc and save it.
Remember back to the beginning of the unit--a counterclaim is the opposite position of a claim. It's what people who disagree with you may believe.
It is important to acknowledge the counterclaim in an argument. Mostly so that you can disprove it.
For example: College athletes should not be paid to play because it is a personal choice to play; however college athletics earns a lot of money for the school.
Don't worry about filing in the text field on slide 4.
Do not turn in the worksheet on slide 4...the only thing that matters is the counterclaim, not the steps you took to get to your counterclaim.
Copy and paste your counterclaim onto a Word doc and save it.
Write an opening paragraph
Slide 5 give you the instructions to write an opening paragraph.
There is a worksheet provided to guide you through writing an opening paragraph, if you'd feel you'd benefit from it, by all means!
However, please do not make writing an opening paragraph more complicated than it really is.
The function of an opening paragraph is to get your reader's attention and let them know what your claim is, That's it.
The form of an opening paragraph is 5 sentences--generally starting with a 'hook' (attention-grabber) and ending with your claim. Sophisticated writers include the counterclaim in the middle of the paragraph and quickly discount it.
For example:
College athletics can spark fierce rivalries, fan loyalty and mega-bucks! The typical sport that comes to mind when considering college sports is football. Very rarely do other sports such as swimming, volleyball or even rowing come to mind as college sports, but they are! If all college Football certainly creates a lot of money for the school, but not every sport generates a profit. Choosing to play sports in college should come from a person's desire to play. Students chose to play sports, and therefore, should not get paid to play.
That took me about 10 minutes to write. I know I'm a teacher and I've done this a lot, but writing 5 sentences arranged as a paragraph is not that difficult. Please don't make this a bigger deal than it is. It might take as long as twenty minutes to half an hour to write a 5 sentence paragraph...that's ok!! Writing can be a demanding task. Don't get frustrated; stick with it!
Write your opening paragraph on your Word doc that has your claim and counterclaim. Save it. That's what you'll be submitting for this lesson.
There is a worksheet provided to guide you through writing an opening paragraph, if you'd feel you'd benefit from it, by all means!
However, please do not make writing an opening paragraph more complicated than it really is.
The function of an opening paragraph is to get your reader's attention and let them know what your claim is, That's it.
The form of an opening paragraph is 5 sentences--generally starting with a 'hook' (attention-grabber) and ending with your claim. Sophisticated writers include the counterclaim in the middle of the paragraph and quickly discount it.
For example:
College athletics can spark fierce rivalries, fan loyalty and mega-bucks! The typical sport that comes to mind when considering college sports is football. Very rarely do other sports such as swimming, volleyball or even rowing come to mind as college sports, but they are! If all college Football certainly creates a lot of money for the school, but not every sport generates a profit. Choosing to play sports in college should come from a person's desire to play. Students chose to play sports, and therefore, should not get paid to play.
That took me about 10 minutes to write. I know I'm a teacher and I've done this a lot, but writing 5 sentences arranged as a paragraph is not that difficult. Please don't make this a bigger deal than it is. It might take as long as twenty minutes to half an hour to write a 5 sentence paragraph...that's ok!! Writing can be a demanding task. Don't get frustrated; stick with it!
Write your opening paragraph on your Word doc that has your claim and counterclaim. Save it. That's what you'll be submitting for this lesson.
Assessment: portfolio
Submit your Word doc. that has your claim/counterclaim statements AND your introductory paragraph.
Please highlight your claim and counterclaim.
Your paragraph should be indented and double-spaced.
This is an example of what to turn into for this assignment:
Please highlight your claim and counterclaim.
Your paragraph should be indented and double-spaced.
This is an example of what to turn into for this assignment:
Rubric: How its graded
This assignment is the first of many portfolios that are worth a lot to your grade. I'd like you to know how to earn the most points possible on the assignment. Please review this rubric (how an assignment is graded) before submitting your work.
what's next?
Lesson 9 will ask you to prepare an outline of your essay!
See you there!!
See you there!!