Big new Writelike lesson: "Eight Argument Components"

Girl looks with laser focus at the component rooms within a building.

Happy new year! Let's open 2024 with a big addition to the Writelike lesson library:Eight Argument Components!

This lesson is the next in our argumentation series, continuing on from Two Types of Reasoning and Seven Types of Argument. (So list! Much systematic! 🐕)

Eight Argument Components explains the roles of issues, claims, reasons, evidence, rebuttals, limits, assumptions, & backing in argumentation.

An argument about reporting in the New York Times broken into four argument components: Issue, main claim, reason, and evidence.

There's a lot packed into this lesson, but it's all broken into small chunks with a diverse range of mentor texts including articles, book extracts, and advertisements:

In one part of the lesson, students are encouraged to analyse the evidence presented in an ad for Flex TAPE.

The purpose of the lesson is to build conceptual understanding, not to master writing entire arguments or even individual components.

So, the writing tasks in this lesson are more focussed on analysing mentor texts or playing with components in a loose, improvisational, Balderdash style:

A newspaper clipping about pet monkeys and raccoons is used as inspiration for a balderdash-style valuational argument.

The argument components in this worked example of the monkey/raccoon argument are highlighted: Issue, main claim, reason, evidence, rebuttal, limit.

If you want to reinforce any of these concepts via Frankenstories games, you'll find plenty of preset argumentation prompts in the library to get you started:

There are Frankenstories preset prompts to practice writing issues, claims, core arguments, and evidence.

Next up, we (probably) have a lesson about different sources and types of evidence, before we move from argumentation to persuasive writing and rhetoric.

You can explore the Argument Components lesson here.

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