Use of the Toulmin Model

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The article “When Children Become Criminals” from The New York Times is an opinion piece by the Editorial Board. It discusses how New York is one of the only states to prosecute 16 year olds as adults; resulting in harsher sentences than if they were tried in juvenile court (2014, p. 1). The Toulmin model can be applied in order to analyze the argument. This model consists of a claim, grounds, backing, a warrant, a qualifier, and a rebuttal. In the New York Times editorial board article “When Children Become Criminals” from January 19, 2014 authors claim to try to persuade the readers that the age for adult criminal prosecution should be raised. To help further understand the claim, it is important to know the definition of a claim, which is defined as “a statement that you want others to accept and act on” (Rieke, Sillars & Peterson, 2012, p. 3). In order to develop this claim, I determined that the authors used the following grounds, which is, that minors prosecuted as adults commit more violent crimes and become career criminals. Grounds can be defined as “the primary source of support in answer to the question” (Rieke, Sillars & Peterson, 2012, p. 53). The grounds for a claim aren’t very persuasive without the assistance of backing. Backing is the extra details or evidence that help support the grounds and warrant thru further persuading the readers (Rieke, Sillars & Peterson, 2012, p. 54). The backing for the grounds in the article is “this system needlessly destroys lives and further endangers the public”(Editorial Board, 2014, p. 1). Both the grounds and the backing can be seen as sub claims helping to support the claim. The grounds and backing support the claim by describing the consequences of not changing the age fo... ... middle of paper ... ...tted non-violent crimes are being prosecuted as adults. One other element of the article that really stuck out to me is that New York is only one of two states to prosecute 16 years olds as adults (Editorial Board, 2014, p. 1). This served to form a new opinion on the topic in my mind, which is that the age should be 18 that you are tried as an adult, because this is also the age that the government views you as an adult. Works Cited Editorial Board. (2014, January 19). When children become criminals. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/20/opinion/when-children-become-criminals.html?_r=0 Hingstman, D. (2014, January). Toulmin Model of Argument. Lecture conducted from University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. Rieke, R., Sillars, M., & Peterson, T. R. (2012). Argumentation and critical decision making. (8th ed.). Pearson.

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