How to write an Argumentative Essay

        In Language Arts, the class was learning about court cases. As a class we read 12 Angry Men, and also acted out a Mock trial. 12 Angry Men showed us that when you are a jury member you should not let your personal life or beliefs affect your decision on the court case. The Mock trial was about Riley Gardner, a young adult, and how his decision to text while driving caused a horrific accident. The case was used to give the class a visual reference to a real life court case. The trial was also the basis of our Argumentative Essay.

 

        The requirements and steps for this project, was that every student had to dissect the Mock trial, and find valuable pieces of evidence for the Prosecution and Defense. Then Ms. Harris divided the class, half were prosecuting (saying he’s guilty) Riley Gardner and half were defending (saying he’s not guilty) him. Base off if you were the Defense or Prosecution, you had to choose one piece of evidence. This evidence, in your opinion, should be the strongest to either defend or prosecute Gardner, and with that evidence you had to create an Argumentative Essay. The essay needed four paragraphs which were: Introduction, Evidence (with the Warrant and Backing), Counter Argument, and Conclusion (in addition a citation page). Then take your essay through the 5-step Revision Process. Two artifacts from this project, are my First Draft and my Final Draft. My First Draft’s wording was weak in the standards of trying to persuade the jury to side with the defense, rather than my Final Draft had strong evidence and the wording was persuasive.

 

       The Introduction paragraph was supposed to state if you were prosecuting or defending Riley Gardner. Evidence paragraph was supposed to list the evidence that supported your side of the case, and the Counter Argument was supposed to guess what weakness you have in your evidence; then expose the weakness of your opposition claims and/or evidence. Conclusion paragraph was used to sum-up your argument, and possible restate strong points in your argument to persuade the jury to side with you.

 

      My biggest challenge through this project was to create a solid Counter Argument paragraph. It was challenging because I wanted to pick the most powerful evidence (in my case) the prosecution might use in their justification of Riley Gardner’s guilt. Also, I wanted to make a strong Warrant and Backing in the Evidence paragraph. I persevered through the challenges by constantly re-reading my Counter paragraph, and constantly editing my paragraph to make sure the essay flows. I also had success in writing my conclusion paragraph; because I felt that I clearly restated my thesis statement and ended the essay strongly.

 

       One of the biggest things I learned while writing this essay, is using a Warrant and Backing. The Warrant is (in your opinion) the most “logical” solution to the evidence that you are introduced to. While the Backing is there to support the warrant with either data, pictures, or in this project the Mock trial script. Some new skills I can use in the real world thanks to this project, is for when I am called to jury duty I must not let my personal believes to interfere with my ruling about a case.

 

      Finally, I demonstrated one DRSS quality through this process, and the quality was Persistence. Persistence in this project was me repeatedly revising and editing my paper until it was fairly perfect. Persistence was displayed when I put my essay through the 5- step Revision Process. Which the process is 1) Revise for Content 2) Revise for Style 3) Revise for Grammar 4) Sentence Structure 5) Revise for Correct Punctuation. The process is supposed to improve your editing skills by only focusing on 1 step at a time. I showed Persistence when my group and I constantly worked on our storyboard, so we would know how the story was meant to flow. Persistence was enhanced because now I know that to have a great paper, you must be willing to constantly edit and revise it. That is how I was able to achieve a great Argumentative Essay.