Today's blog will concentrate on argumentation, which many of you have done in past English courses.
Argumentation is not persuasion. So, how do these discourse cousins differ? Argumentation is based on logic, logos. You are appealing to a person's reason and attempting to bring strong evidence and theory to a writing. Persuasion is stuck on emotion, pathos, in an attempt to change people's ideology.
Argumentation breaks down into this structure: claim, evidence, warrant, counterclaim, rebuttal, and conclusion. When constructing your argument, the ability to bring in relevant examples and evidence is necessary. While each of you brings in your own ethos on a subject or two, it would behoove you to learn examples from various subjects to indicate your mature comprehensive level. For instance, keep an eye on current events, politics (can't escape it so might as well use it), history, science, math, literature, pop culture, and any other topic that suits your fancy.
Lastly, on a mechanical note, be aware of your apostrophe usage. Apostrophe mistakes have reached an epidemic level in the past few years, and even the ACT has been throwing these errors on its English portion. Apostrophes are for contractions (can't, won't) and possessive nouns (Laura's). You do not need apostrophes for plural nouns (four pencils - not four pencil's), verbs (runs - not run's), or possessive pronouns (its - not it's, hers - not her's). Keep an eye on these little details as these mistakes do add up for your eventual reader.
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