Lesson overview

Introduction
Argument
Middle years and up
argument
persuasive
causal
factual
definitional
proposal
valuational
ethical
This lesson introduces a range of argument types used to tackle disputes about reality and values. Using excerpts from YouTube essays, news articles, interviews, petitions and advertisements, we explore factual, causal, valuational, and ethical arguments—and more. As with the reasoning lesson, this lesson is less about writing and more about thinking. The goal of this lesson is to help students learn the distinctive qualities and requirements of each argument type and get a sense of how the types can interact.