Reverse-Engineering the Argumentative Essay
Read the article called Are Men Born with Power by Helen Fisher. Now you will work on putting it into outline form to see how the author arranges her information and support. Try to practice your paraphrasing skills when creating your outline. Also, think critically about the essay. Is the thesis statement debatable? What could be an opposing argument? Is the argument convincing? What strategies of persuasion does she use? What could she have added to make it more convincing?
Read the article called Are Men Born with Power by Helen Fisher. Now you will work on putting it into outline form to see how the author arranges her information and support. Try to practice your paraphrasing skills when creating your outline. Also, think critically about the essay. Is the thesis statement debatable? What could be an opposing argument? Is the argument convincing? What strategies of persuasion does she use? What could she have added to make it more convincing?
Outlining Support
Take a look at the words written on the board. Choose one that you are familiar with and do one of the prewriting activities: listing, clustering, free-writing, or questions for 5 minutes. Then write a debatable thesis statement so that you can begin creating your own outline. (Check that your thesis is debatable by trying to think of a possible opposing argument.) You will need 3 Main Topics, with 2 Supporting details each, and you should use at least 2 of the persuasive strategies that we have talked about in class to make your argument more convincing. You don’t need to do any research for this assignment, but if you decide to use any sources, you must list them on your outline. Finish the outline for homework.
Example
Example
