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HW2: Introduction to Claim/Evidence/Warrant

and Longer Answers on
When Worlds Collide

All assignments for this course are listed on the day assigned, not the day due. Unless otherwise noted, assignments are due by blackboard by classtime

WORTH: 15% of semester grade

A FRITZ SUGGESTION: At 15% of your semester grade, this is the single most important homework of the course. It's worth 15% not because it's long (it's not actually that long) but because the assignment helps you develop a skill you will use for the rest of the semester and I want you to give the homework the care and attention that it merits.

Note also that students who receive less than an 82/100 on this homework will have to do additional exercises until they demonstrate competency.

So, it makes a lot of sense to do this assignment carefully and acquire the skills you will be using for the class.

CAN THIS BE TURNED IN LATE?: NO

BE SURE TO FOLLOW THE FILE-NAMING CONVENTIONS FOR THIS COURSE (5% penalty if you do not).

All files should be saved on your computer as: your last name, followed by an underscore ("_"), followed by the first two letters of your first name, followed by an underscore ("_"), followed by the assignment number. So if a student named Saddam Hussein were to submit assignment number 2, the file name would be:

hussein_sa_2.doc

THIS IS ASSIGNMENT2

Making & Supporting

Logical Arguments with

Claim/Evidence/Warrant

Ths is Homework 2, and the exercises/questions that you will need to answer in writing and submit through blackboard appear further down. Before the written homework, however, I've given you the explanation of claim/evidence/warrant and other material that will prepare you to actually answer the written questions. You will find the written homework much easier to do if you read the material below with care. If you don't, you will likely find the written homework nearly impossible to do. Don't stop until you see the line: "end of assignment"

Much of this class will be focused on a central skill of both college and workplace writing: making an argument.

More immediately, you will be using the skills you learn here for the rest of the semester -- so it makes sense to devote the time to mastering them now.

An argument generally involves three elements:

Element	Description of Element
The Claim	What you want your readers to believe; the "point" you hope to persuade your reader of
The Evidence	What you will use to support the claim; your "proof" -- often a direct or indirect quotation from a text, but sometimes a statistic or the like
The Warrant	A general principle that explains why you think your evidence is relevant to your claim

You might want to think of making a point with evidence in a paper as a conversation with a friend in which you attempt to persuade that friend of a particular perspective.

Listed below are the questions your friend might ask as you tried to make your argument, followed by the element described above that would answer your friend's questions:

Question from Friend	Element
What are you trying to demonstrate?	The Claim
What proof do you have?	The Evidence
Why do you think that your proof is relevant to your claim?	The Warrant

You must always state both your claim and your supporting evidence explicitly; one without the other is either pointless evidence or an ungrounded opinion.

Taking a fairly straightforward example:

I know it rained last night because the streets are wet.

Element

Text

The
Claim

What are you trying to demonstrate?

I know it rained last night

The Evidence

What proof do you have?

the streets are wet

It would be difficult to take issue with this claim-evidence relationship.

But most evidence-claim relationships are not so simple.

Most evidence-claim relationships require an additional element: a warrant.

(click here continue on to next page and the discussion of the warrant--->)