Crafting a Central Idea and Position for Persuasive Writing

Remember the thirty minutes of news watching and news website perusing you did in the warm-up for this topic? You are now going to use the controversial issues you found in the news and what you learned in this topic about writing a claim to actually write your own claim. You will pick one of these trending issues and write a claim to post to the collaboration area/discussion board. Then, you will select an issue or claim proposed by any two classmates, and write an opposing claim to their original thesis. If a classmate has provided a claim that is not arguable, you may provide feedback as to what needs to be changed or revised to make his or her claim debatable.

When you have finished the Claim Discussion, take the quiz below.

Claim Discussion

Review the Claim Discussion Rubric to understand how your discussion posts will be graded.

Part 1

1. Select any one current controversial or trending topic from the news (or you may ask your instructor to provide you with a list of possible topics).
2. Decide on a position; pick a side of that issue you would like to argue.
3. Write a claim (thesis).
4. Post the issue and claim to the collaboration area/discussion board.

Part 2

1. Select an issue or claim posed by a classmate.
2. Write a claim that directly opposes the claim presented by your classmate.
3. Post your claim as a reply to your classmate’s original post.
4. Select a second issue or claim posed by a classmate.
5. Write a claim that directly opposes your classmate’s claim and post it as a reply. OR If a classmate's claim is faulty (not arguable), you may instead provide original feedback as to what needs to be done to make the claim valid. (You must give specific direction, and not simply say "your claim is not arguable." Offer a suggestion on how to make the claim arguable.)

 

Quiz

Now that you have learned how to write a claim for a persuasive essay, you will take a quiz based on this content. This quiz will allow you to complete the assignment and receive a grade immediately. In order to be prepared for this activity, you should make sure that you have:

1. Read or viewed the material that has been covered in this topic;
2. Taken notes on any assigned content; and
3. Reviewed your notes and instructor feedback from previous assignments.

Please visit the quizzing area to take your topic Application quiz.