Teaching Argument Writing with Frankenstories

Key questions

• What is this worth? How do we value it?

Used for

• Resolving disputes of value, worth, and quality

Makes use of

• Criteria match reasoning
  • Establish criteria for a good/bad member of this category
  • Demonstrate relevant properties of the subject
  • Show how they match the criteria
• Illustrating, comparing, emphasising connectives:
  • For example, such as, equally, especially, in particular...

Other notes

• This is not about moral value!
• Rather "Is this a good or bad example of an element within this category?"
• Assumes everyone agrees on what the element is (i.e. what category it belongs to)
• In practice, these arguments work better when the category is narrowly defined:
  • Broad: "Is this a good phone plan?" is broad 
  • Narrow: "Is this a good phone plan for a teenager who constantly goes over their data limit?" 
• Revolves around adjectives:
  • Good vs bad, inspiring vs depressing, skilful vs incompetent...
• Often a precursor to a proposal argument ("So should we buy it? What should we do with it?")

Context ideas

• Speaker roles: Critic, consumer
• Situations: Purchasing, reviewing