Exercises — Week 24: Week 24 — Argumentation with Expository Models
2 hands-on tasks. Do them in order; each one feeds the Canvas item it names.
40 min · written
1. Exposition-to-Argument Draft
- Write three paragraphs. Paragraph 1: genuinely explanatory — describe a specific condition or pattern, including evidence that both supports and complicates what you will argue.
- Paragraph 2: argumentative — using the explanatory foundation, make a specific claim about what the condition means or requires. Begin with your hinge sentence.
- Paragraph 3: address one objection to your claim by drawing on the expository material you established in paragraph 1.
- Label the hinge sentence in paragraph 2.
Turn in / bring: Three-paragraph draft with hinge sentence labeled and at least one complicating piece of evidence in paragraph 1.
20 min · analysis
2. Tendentious Exposition Audit
- Find an explanatory passage in an editorial or opinion piece — one labeled as context or background for the argument to follow.
- Identify two choices the writer made that steered the reader toward a conclusion: what evidence was included, what was excluded, or how framing language shaped interpretation.
- Write one sentence for each choice explaining how it advances the argument without appearing to.
Turn in / bring: Two labeled observations with one-sentence explanations each.