This Week's Toulmin Assignment and Your Second Paper

This Week's Toulmin Assignment and Your Second Paper

Class,
For this Friday, you've been asked to fill out a worksheet that creates a sort of outline for the essay you're going to respond to in your second paper, using the Toulmin method and terms. Since you may have found the in-class work we did on Toulmin analysis a little confusing, I want to clarify what you should be looking for with this assignment.

1. The first thing is to determine what exactly the author is arguing in favor of. This is what Toulmin calls the "claim," although it's more commonly known as the thesis. This may be summarized in a single sentence somewhere in the essay but it's more likely you'll have to paraphrase it by taking parts from several sentences. Your paraphrase may end up being several sentences long, or one sentence may be enough to communicate it effectively.

2. After figuing out what the thesis of the article is, look for the main points of the argument that the author is making. In the Toulmin analysis, these are called "grounds." List at least three main points of argument under A, B, and C on the assignment sheet and answer the questions about each.

3. Think about the evidence for each point of argument and make a judgement on whether it's convincing or not. Is it based on something more than the author's opinion? Are they backing the claim up with other research? These questions can help you to see where the author's argument has its strong or weak points.

4. (Not part of the handout) Think about the above in relation to your own paper, which will be arguing a different viewpoint. What is the different approach you will take to this issue? How will you argue your case? What will your thesis, main points of argument and evidence be? Your article from Dialogues will give you an example of a specific opposing view. Some of your paper will be devoted to acknowledging opposing views such as this one and rebutting them, although the paper will mainly be your own argument for your point of view.

Answering the above questions will be the crucial thing to get out of this assignment, so don't worry too much if the specific concepts of the Toulmin analysis seem confusing. If you have any questions or comments about this assignment, feel free to post them in reply here.

Sue