Something to Argue About

Before introducing a new unit or activity, teachers will often use a pre-activity warm up to help introduce the topic and activate schema, which basically means to help remind the learners of what they already know about a topic. Here's the activity I like to use in class before introducing the genre of argumentative essay to my students. I put the following up on the board:

Write for five minutes

Think about an argument you've had in the past. Who was it with? What was it about? What was the outcome? What strategies did you use to try and win the argument? In retrospect, is there anything you would have done differently?

I set a timer and tell them to write quietly. I also tell them that they will not have to hand it in, though if any of them like, I'll give them the opportunity to share their experiences with the class. I like to have warm up activities that help the student connect the activity we're about to do with their real lives. I feel like too often students don't realize that skills they use in their actual lives are directly applicable to what they do in the classroom. The other goal I have with this quick writing activity is to help students realize that writing can be used for a lot of different purposes, in this case organizing your thoughts and making self-discoveries. I could just as easily have asked them to answer the question on the spot with a partner, but giving them time to write allows them to prepare more thoughtful answers.

Once the time is up I start taking volunteers to share their experiences. The arguments themselves aren't really important. What I'm interested in are the strategies they used since that's what I want to apply to their essay writing. As they share, I write these strategies down on the board.

One of the strategies students always mention first is using facts or examples to prove they're right. After that, since many of them still live with their parents, one will inevitably talk about an argument they've had with their father or mother.

"How often do your parents win those arguments?" I ask. The students reply that their parents nearly always win. "Is it because they have better facts or examples?" I then ask. The students say no, of course not. The reason their parents always win is because they can say "because I said so." I add "authority" to the list.

I teach mostly women, so I'm surprised that I'm the one who generally has to bring up being emotional as a strategy, since it's the strategy most of them try to use on me when arguing for a better grade. I tell them how at the end of every semester, I have students come to my office in tears. I demonstrate this in class by taking my glasses off and making the saddest face I can, before saying the following as melodramatically as possible: "But teacher. I have to get at least a B in this class or I'm going to lose my scholarship, and you will have personally ruined my life!" We then discuss the effectiveness of this, and the answer usually is that it depends on who you're arguing with. Sometimes you can easily sway someone by being emotional, but other people can see right through it and won't be affected.

The last one we usually discuss is some sort of name-calling or insulting. We might come up with a few others, but in general we always have the following four strategies:

• facts and examples
• authority
• emotions
• insulting

From this list, we then discuss how each might apply to essay writing and whether or not they're effective. The facts and examples are ones they're already familiar with, so I ask them about how they can give their writing more authority. The suggestion I ultimately make is to quote or reference an expert's opinion to strengthen theirs.

We then discuss becoming emotional and how effective that can be, and the conclusion we generally come to is it depends. A little bit of emotion can create a powerful impact upon the reader, but too much and you'll lose them. The last one--insults--I tell them doesn't belong in their paper, or in any good argument for that matter. I ask them if they've ever won an argument by insulting their opponent, and they all say no. No one ever responds to an insult by saying, "You know what? You're right. I am a stupid-stupid-head. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. Wanna get a pizza?" I let the students know that they're probably not going to directly insult their opponents in their essay, but every now and then students indirectly say something that could be offensive.

After this we start talking directly about how to organize an argumentative essay. The whole warm up usually takes about 15-20 minutes to complete, and the students always enjoy it.