Evaluating Evidence

Writing Workshop - Research Based Argument Essay - Self Selected Topic - Lesson 4

Today, you will be able to evaluate evidence to ensure that your arguments are solid. You will continue to do research and add more evidence today. This is the last day to gather evidence before we start to fill out our essay pillar.

Think of your argument essay like a house of cards. Without a solid foundation, your argument could collapse.

Some reasons and evidence are better than others. Some reasons and evidence are stronger and lead to valid arguments, and some are weaker and can create invalid arguments.

Let's look at some sample arguments and determine if they are strong or weak and why.

"Should a town build a skateboard park?"

Sample arguments:

A: "We shouldn't have a skateboarding park. Our town needs money for other, more important things. Our football team needs new uniforms, for example. If we build that skateboarding park, our team will be embarrassed on the field."

*Person A takes for granted that everyone buys into the idea that football is more important than skateboarding. But that assumption is not supported by evidence. There is no answer to the question, "How do you know?"

B: "We shouldn't have a skateboarding park. I know someone who skateboarded all the time and so he stopped doing his homework and started getting bad grades and this shows everyone who uses it will get bad grades."

*Person B makes a generalization. He assumes that what happens in one particular example will happen to every one.

C: "We should have a skateboarding park. I had one in my town when I was growing up and I loved it. All the kids will love it like I did."

*Person C generalizes from a personal example and assumes that what happened to him or her will happen to every one.

D: "We should have a skateboarding park. All these people who are saying we shouldn't are just cranky and trying to deny our kids a little fun."

*Person D's argument attempts to discredit the character of critics rather than discrediting the quality of the critic's argument.

E: "We should have a skateboarding park. Right now kids who want to skateboard use the sidewalk and that's dangerous. Only last week, I saw an older woman almost being run over because skateboarders were on the sidewalk."

*Person E takes one articular example and applies it to every one - the same as B and C.

F: "We should have a skateboarding park. Skateboarding is exercise and it gets kids involved in a healthy activity. It's better than having them just sit around with nothing to do or get in trouble."

*Person F links 2 events as if they are casual. He suggests that if kids don't skateboard they'll get into trouble, but there is no evidence that lack of exercise causes trouble.

Common Flaws in Reasoning

Generalizing (assumes specific example will be true everywhere)

Discrediting (insults people's character rather than taking issue with their points)

Assuming Consequences (implies cause-and-effect relationship that isn't proven)

Questionable Assumption (argument founded on something that might not be true)

The work you just did in analyzing the logic of someone's argument should be applied to your own writing. When you find one of these flaws in your own writing, you need to stop and rewrite that part.

As you continue to do research, think about your arguments and ask yourself if they are valid.

When you are finished with the assignment, here is what you can do:

Just keep writing.
Keep adding seeds.
Add to a already started seed.
Decide to take a seed through the writer’s process.
Reread your writing.
Edit your writing.
Work with a writing partner (with permission).
NEVER say "I am finished"

You need to be writing for a minimum of 30 minutes.

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