Level of the students: Intermediate
Lesson Type: Speaking skill integrating reading, and writing
Aims:
• To provide students with practice in editing and revising
• To provide practice in scan reading skills
• To provide practice in expressing opinion
• To provide practice in intensive reading skills
• To integrate reading into speaking and writing skills
Time: Approximately 70 minutes
Assumptions: Students should
• Know how to effectively analyze and point out features of text ( paragraphs, tense, grammar)
• Know how to write an essay ( Introduction, body, and conclusion)
• Know how to give effective feedback
• Know how to organize and write an argumentative paper
Anticipation problems and solutions:
• Student might have problems with write a conclusion for an argument paper. The teacher might want to go over the key components of a conclusion.
• Student might have difficulty with creating an effective “resounding thought” for an argument paper. The teacher might want to explain what a “resounding thought” is and how to use it effectively.
• Students might struggle with transitions and adding their own ideas to the paper. The teacher should encourage students by explain that adding in one’s personal experience refines the paper. Also, the teacher might want to explain that having transitions in a paper makes it more coherent.
Aids:
• Handout - Argumentative revision checklist
• Handout – Essay key components
Procedure:
Step 1: Speaking Skill – Discussion. Reviewing the fundamentals of a closing argument of a paper by asking a series of questions. Ask about hook, transitions, resounding thought, etc.
Expected Performance:
*Have the students take out notebook paper and write conclusion as the title.
Teacher: What are ...
... middle of paper ...
...iter uses transitions effectively.
Conclusion
The main points of the paper are restated
The writer uses transitions effectively.
The writer addressed the audience for a final time (resounding thought)
Comments:
*I will walk around the classroom and monitor their discussions. If any of the pairs seem as though they are struggling to identify the key components, I will ask probing question to ease the progress.
Speaking - Have student’s conference with their partners about the pros and cons of the paper. Students should explain how they score the paper; afterwards, students should write encouraging statements about each other’s paper in the “comment” section.
Procedure:
Step 1: Have students revise their previous argument paper by check if they have all the main key components (Introduction, 3 bodies, conclusion, transition, hook, etc.) of an argument essay.
As students we are taught that in order to have an effective argument, we need a claim, reasoning, and evidence. When comparing, “Two Years Are Better than Four” by Liz Addison, and “Colleges Prepare People for Life” by Freeman Hrabowski it was made obvious that the passage written by Addison had a more effective argument because of the passages claim that was clear to the readers, great reasoning and evidence that backed up her claim.
... analyze historical significance without me telling them what to think. This way the students could possibly see the argument in a more tangible way, see how and why the two sides differed, and both sides’ basis of justification. The students could then independently decide which side they actually favor.
Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with Readings. 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2012. Print.
Before the start of this school year, I was not clueless as to how to craft an argument, but, to say the least, I was unexperienced. I thought that “argumentative” was simply a fancy name for “persuasive”—needless to say, I was mistaken. Blinded by this fallacy, I avoided acknowledging any opposing views in my essays (such as in my TV argumentative impromptu), which only made it seem as if I did not have sufficient information to defend my arguments. I thought I had to induce my audience to agree with me and that if I mentioned any alternatives, I would lose them.
We would do research on a subject or a person, and write about them. We, once again, were not allowed to be unique in our writing or think creatively or critically. This is the time when I was taught the five paragraph essay. As stated in Gray’s article, the five paragraph essay is detrimental to students’ writing. This format for writing is damaging because it doesn’t allow students to express their own ideas about a topic. It does not allow for any creativity or uniqueness in a paper. In tenth grade, I wrote many papers for my English class, but I never once got an A on them. I was led to believe that my writing was weak because I could not relate to what I was writing about. I did not have any emotional connection to the research papers I had to write, and it made it harder for me to write them. I had grown up not being allowed to think critically, and therefore, my papers in high school lacked creativity and deeper
Argument can be defined as claim or thesis statement. The aim of an argument is to convince audience. It is essential to make sound argument so that audience could engage in and align with the author’s view. Therefore, one of the key elements could be identified as the awareness of audience. Another key element is evidence. In order to persuade audience, argument should be consolidated through evidence and authority. The credibility of author and argument could be enhanced by means of using evidence and referring to authorities. The strength of evidence could determine the degree of sound argument. Besides, sound argument should be logical. Firstly, evidence should be consistent with arguments. Secondly, the structure of argument should be clear. It consists of premise and conclusion. The function of premise is to state proposition. The conclusion is based on and supported by accurate premise. In sound argument both premise and conclusion are valid. However, according to Tyler, Kossen and Ryan (2005: 168) sound argument is both valid which means logically consistent and true argument. Hence, the premise of an argument also need to be true. Furthermore, counterargument could be considered as another key element of sound argument. Using counterargument in text can reinforce writer’s argument through discussing and addressing opposed opinion. However, writers need to ensure that your reply to counterargument is consistent with your main argument. The last element is to avoid fallacies. There are two kinds of common fallacies, legitimate and illegitimate methods of argument. Both of them may lead to flaw or fault in the reasoning and logic.
In English 1102, I was exposed to a variety of different genres, including, argumentative research paper, an annotated bibliography, an analytical paper, and a workplace specific piece. Entering this class the majority of papers I had written were all analytical, and in this class we went above and beyond the basic 5 paragraph essay. Though each paper had a different genre and style, I learned that each project was similar in composition.
...ragraphs that support the argument. The easiest part of this component was actually inserting it in my essay after I understood the purpose for it, because at the beginning I was confused on the whole thesis concept. The thesis was the most challenging because I kept asking myself "Can I really argue this for five to six pages?" and also "Is this even considered a thesis statement?" I noticed that I can speak and write more effectively when I'm thinking critically and intellectually. My sentence structure has always been strong and I feel it has grown because of the practice we have had in class with finding thesis statements in our readings. My overall issue with this component of the writing process is using a justifiable argument and remembering to support my argument with claims and trying not to put unnecessary points in my paper while maintaining my ethos.
When I transitioned into 7th grade, I was very clueless when it came to grammar and sophisticated writing techniques; little did I know how to use commas, semicolons, and transition words in a sentence. Throughout the year, not only did my grammar enhance, but also my sentence structure matured vastly. Reading my papers from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, I knew that my writing has improved.
Inch, Edward, Barbara Warnick. Critical Thinking and Communication: The use of Reason in Argument. 4th ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2002.
A persuasive essay takes a position on a topic and attempts to prove that position.
Research and Argument are probably two of the most interesting forms of writing and literature to learn about, to me, because I am a person who is critical and a perfectionist. I first realized this when I was peer reviewing and editing a friend’s paper during my freshman year of high school. During this process, I wrote some many notes on their paper that at the end, you could have almost mistaken the paper as a piece of modern art. Arguments, on the other hand, are completely different. Arguments all I need to believe in something are facts and that the argument sounds logical. So, it was interesting to learn about the three main modes of persuasion in this class.
During the course of this semester; the variety of writing styles and essays assigned to me in my communication skills class encouraged the development of my writing skills, as well as provided me with more self-assurance in my abilities. My writing, research, and presentation abilities enhanced through practice, determination, and the understanding I gained during this course. With every single writing assignment, I learned new innovative approaches and skills, which enhanced my abilities to improve my thoughts logically, enabling me to write more clearly, and to organize my papers more effectively. At the beginning of this semester; despite the fact that I already knew the terminology MAP: message, audience, purpose; I never really understood the significance of MAP. For this reason, my writing lacked clarity, organization, and my writings appeared less focused on the topics. As a result my research papers and essays did not flow as smoothly from one passage to the next. Furthermore, I was unaccustomed with the precise procedures used when writing an essay. For instance, my previous classes before college, although requiring a reference page, did not require me to include proper citations in my writings. After evaluating the quality of my writing toward the end of the semester, I recognized vast improvements in several areas of my writing. By concentrating on the beginning stages of my writings, I could distinguish ahead of time my audience and my message. As a result, my essays are clear, and I remain on topic. In addition to that using transition phrases efficiently also helps my writing to flow smoothly. The proper use of transitions makes my writings easy to follow from one topic to the next. I also learned that pre-writing...
My first weakness is how to write a proper conclusion. Conclusions are difficult for me to write because; I don’t know what information is important enough to restate. According to the Webster dictionary the definition of Conclusion is a final decision or judgement. An example of a bad conclusion I wrote came from an essay I had to write about Supreme Court cases. “Supreme Court cases take part in a lot if not most, of the reasons why our government is the way it is today. The decisions of all of the cases, including the Miranda v. Arizona case and the Tinker v. Des Moines case have gotten the
Building your argument in the main body of your exam questions will give you opinion credibility. English Jamb questions, for instance, need you to explore both sides of an argument and after that choose the best possible answer to the question.