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:

 

 

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--->)