Argumentation
Foundational Elements
These three main elements—claims, analysis (reasons), and evidence—are the foundation for most academic arguments. If you at least have a strong claim in your paper, support it with clear, insightful reasons, and back up those reasons with sound evidence, you are virtually guaranteed to generate a reasonably good paper, both in this course and others.
Additional Elements
The additional elements of acknowledgement and response and warrants also help to advance your argument and credibility as a scholar.
| Element of argumentation | What it means | What it does |
| Claim | The main idea, belief or opinion of an argument. Claims are debatable i.e. they may be true or false. | What’s the point? |
| Analysis (Reasons) | Explanations, or interpretations of evidence, that help support the claim. Reasons, like claims, are debatable. | What explanations help make the point believable? How is evidence interpreted to support the point? |
| Evidence | Specific data that is presented and typically analyzed to support the claim e.g. personal experience, observations, facts, statistics. Evidence is not debatable, though its interpretation may be. | What specific facts or details support and demonstrate the point? |
| Acknowledgement and Response | Admission of possible counterarguments, followed by reassertion (and maybe revision or qualification) of your argument in your response. | Is the claim still valid despite other opinions? How? Why? |
| Warrants | Assumptions that connect your claim to supporting evidence and reasons. They should be explicit if you think your reader doesn’t share your same assumptions. | How are the claim and evidence (assumed to be) related? How are the claim and reasons (assumed to be) related? |
Identify the Elements of Argument
Given that Harry was born in Bermuda, we can presumably claim that he is British, since anyone born in Bermuda will generally be British (on account of various statutes), unless his parents were aliens, say.
Mr. X was an incredibly lazy anthropology teacher. In almost every class, while Mr. X napped at his desk, we watched movies that had very little educational value. Mr. X also used old tests that seemed to be designed to save him time rather than to gauge our knowledge of material. Some of the movies we watched included Little Big Man and Last of the Mohicans; he did not once discuss the relevance of these movies to the subject. During two tests, I had to show him as many as eight questions that covered material he had never assigned. Both times, he told the class to skip those questions. It’s true that half the class named him as their favorite teacher; however, the same half of the class slept through class every day. Teachers ought to be engaged, attentive, and hardworking. Furthermore, teachers should only test students on material covered in class.
66% of the Nigerian population lives below the poverty line on less than US$1 a day; only 40% of households have access to portable water. Lack of proper diet and clean environment negatively affect the health status of Nigerians and expose them to risk of infection by HIV. To compound this problem, young people assessing the poor economic circumstances in their homes often assume the responsibility of breadwinners by practicing prostitution, placing them at even higher risk of contracting HIV. For these reasons, the country’s poor economic conditions are directly connected to the region’s rising HIV rate.
In The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald uses both repetition and symbolism to draw readers’ attention to the theme of time—and in particular, the past, for which his main characters yearn. The novel begins “In my younger and more vulnerable years…” and ends “borne back ceaselessly into the past.” Fitzgerald goes on to use some 450 time-words, including 87 appearances of the actual word ‘time.’ The Buchanan lawn is described as “jumping over sundials”; Gatsby knocks over a clock during his reunion with Daisy; and Klipspringer plays “In the meantime, In between time—.” The clock, sundial and frequent use of ‘time’ all reinforce for the reader the importance of the theme of time and the inevitability of time passing. Fitzgerald seems to want to remind the reader that time will always get in the way of Gatsby and his dreams, and his desire to return to the past—there’s no turning back the clock.
