Teacher/Employee of the Year Argument

In all classes, we did a speedy review of argumentation, focusing on the claim, evidence, and warrant components.

A claim is one position (of many possible) that you will attempt to prove in an argument. A claim should be original (not obvious), engaging, specific (not vague), logical, debatable, and hypotactic. Words to avoid in a claim are "should" and "should not," which create a persuasive purpose instead of a logical argument.

Evidence comes from statistics, facts, historical documentation, expert research and opinion, and, if it fits and you have ethos, personal anecdote.

A warrant is the evaluation or connection of the claim and evidence. If you are looking at this mathematically, claim plus evidence equals warrant.

How does organizing a paper look with the aforementioned argumentative components?

When writing an introduction, you now have your claim instead of your thesis statement (it acts in the same manner to clarify the paper's main idea and purpose).

When writing each body paragraph, you now have a sub-claim acting in place of your topic sentence, which indicates the focus of this paragraph; you now have an evidence acting in place of supporting details; you now have a warrant acting in place of your concluding sentences.

As you may note, essay structure does not change with an argument.

Today and for tomorrow's class, you will be working on your argumentative essay on whom you would nominate for teacher or employee of the year. Since this is not a timed prompt, I would recommend keeping the writing to 3-4 paragraphs. I also recommend having one paragraph detail the nominee's work and impact to all people at the school and then one paragraph detailing how the nominee has impacted you specifically.

One draft will be required for this assignment. Before the end of class time tomorrow, you will show me your draft, and I will give you feedback. At this point, you have finished your requirements for the points.

However...if you intend to nominate this person officially, you will need to revise your work (I am here to help proof for you), fill out a nomination form, and turn this in by Friday, December 16, to Mr. Sutton's office.

If your essay is read during the announcement of the nominees, you will receive 25 extra credit points for next semester.