5.6: Developing an Argument

A. Parts of a Body Paragraph

There are four parts to a typical body paragraph:

1. Topic sentence: This sentence conveys your supporting point and acts as the main idea of the paragraph. Each topic sentence should match one of the ideas conveyed in the thesis, and this sentence should be the first sentence in the paragraph.
2. Subpoints or claims: These are 2-3 ideas that help support the topic sentence.
3. Evidence: There are many types of evidence, but it all should support the claims made in the subpoints.
4. Concluding sentence: This sentence should restate the topic of the paragraph in a new way and should be the last sentence of the paragraph.

A fully outlined essay would look like this:

6.A. Structure of an Essay Chart

A fully outlined body paragraph would look like this:

BODY

• Body Paragraph/Supporting Point
• Topic Sentence
• Subpoint 1
• Evidence
• Analysis of Evidence
• Subpoint 2

■ Evidence

• Analysis of Evidence
• Concluding Sentence

EXAMPLE:

Topic Sentence: Using social media is effective for making social change because the information on social media is extremely diverse, and people can communicate about their culture from long distances and use that communication to eliminate social bias.

Sub-point 1: With the development of the Internet and social media, communication between different countries becomes more and more frequent, especially for some countries with really long distances.

Evidence & Analysis: For those countries, they generally have greater differences in society or culture. Through social media, people in these countries can learn about the life and culture of people in other countries. People always like comparison, so they can know and follow the example of something from other cultures that they think is better than themselves or show the advantages of their own culture through social media. So, social media can allow many different cultures from different countries to compare and improve.

Sub-point 2: Second, a variety of sources can eliminate some unnecessary social bias.
Evidence & Analysis: Several years ago, there was a serious social phenomenon in China, which was called regional bias. Henan Province is an important example. Henan has the largest population in China. So some people from Henan chose to go somewhere else to work, then they took a lot of job opportunities in other provinces. This led to a large number of people having bad opinions of people from Henan, even if some of them had not really met people from Henan. After the widespread use of the internet and social media in China, many people from Henan could post their real life on social media to defend themselves against this regional bias online. It is actually very common for people to blindly believe others’ opinions, which will often cause some social issues, but it is obvious that the diversity of information on social media can prevent and eliminate such bias.

Concluding Sentence: Therefore, people can use social media to prevent many social problems through communication even over long distances thereby reducing social conflict.

REMEMBER! The example above is one complete body paragraph with two sub-points. An essay should have three body paragraphs in total.

PRACTICE 1: Analyzing a Body Paragraph
Below is a complete body paragraph. Highlight the parts of the paragraph using the key below. The first sentence has been done for you.

KEY:

• topic/concluding sentence
• sub-points
• evidence

The third advantage of Al is to minimize the casualties in war because of the military’s use of drones. Since there are drones nowadays which can be controlled from far away from the
battlefield, soldiers now can be much safer. Indeed, in "Drones, Ethics and the Armchair Soldiers," John Kaag mentions that "they now have ’leisure,’ meaning they are not constantly afraid of being killed." In my point of view, as for the release of drones and other high-tech military machines, less human soldiers have to appear on the battlefield, thus their lives can be saved from warfare dangers. To a certain extent, AI makes the soldiers less afraid of being killed, thus allowing them to focus on accomplishing the mission in the war. A second advantage of AI in a military context is there are robotic assistants that provide help to injured soldiers on the battlefield. There is a robot named Battlefield Extraction-Assist Robot (BEAR) that can use its powerful hydraulic system to carry wounded soldiers over long distances and rough terrains like rocks or stairs. From my perspective, this robot not only helps keep the soldiers away from the distraction of their mates’ injuries while fighting but also helps remove wounded soldiers quickly from the battlefield, hence possibly saving many more lives. To conclude, wars are always crucial and brutal but thanks to the existence of technology, fewer deaths occur on the battlefield.

B. Choosing and Organizing Supporting Points

When you brainstorm answers to your research question, you will likely think of more than three answers that appeal to you and that you may want to argue in your essay. You can’t argue everything, so how do you decide? Choosing which supporting point to include is an iterative process, meaning that you may revise multiple times before settling on one set of supporting points for your outline. You can start the decision-making process by answering the following questions:

1. Does this supporting point fully and directly answer the research question?
2. Does this supporting point connect to and support the argument in my thesis?
3. Is this supporting point broad enough that I can further divide it into two claims but narrow enough that it doesn’t deserve multiple paragraphs?
4. Do I have personal experience to support (or oppose) this argument?
5. Do my sources support (or oppose) this supporting point?

If you answer "yes" to the first three questions, the last two should be the final determiners of what supporting points you include.

The order of your supporting points should strengthen your argument: typically, writers put the strongest point at the end/body paragraph 3, second strongest at the beginning/body paragraph \(1 /\), and least strongest in the middle/body paragraph 2. (There should be no "weak" arguments!)

II Body Paragraphs:

1. 2nd strongest
2. 3rd strongest
3. 1st strongest

PRACTICE 1: Ordering Supporting Points
Copy/paste your working thesis below. Do you think the supporting points are in an effective order? If not, reorder them and rewrite your new thesis below. Then paste that thesis back into your Outline.

Current thesis:

New thesis:

C. Topic Sentences

BODY
- Body Paragraph/Supporting Point
    - Topic Sentence (YOU ARE HERE)
    - Subpoint 1
            ■ Evidence
            - Analysis of Evidence
    - Subpoint 2
            ■ Evidence
            - Analysis of Evidence
    - Concluding Sentence

The topic sentence acts like the thesis statement of the paragraph and is therefore the most important: it tells the reader what the topic is going to be and gives a preview of the claims/subpoints. It is a separate sentence from the claim in the paragraph’s first subpoint.

3 Important Points about Topic Sentences

1. Just like a thesis statement, topic sentences are general, the most general in the paragraph. Leave the details for the subpoints.

|l|l| &

A positive effect of globalization is

in education.

&

Globalization has another positive effect which is

that it helps many students in education,

specifically in getting study abroad experience

because when students study in another country,

they begin to learn parts of that culture in ways

that they couldn’t learn them at home, and also

studying abroad because of globalization gives

students opportunities in the workforce after they

graduate from school because they will have

gained a variety of perspectives.

Just Right

&

Another positive effect of globalization is that it helps many students to get

opportunities in education studying abroad and have multiple choices to study in

&

2. Topic sentences have a topic and a preview.

• Another positive effect of globalization is that it helps many students to get opportunities in education studying abroad and have multiple choices to study in various fields.
• First of all, some robots and technological devices can have positive impacts by behaving like human beings and performing tasks to help people to improve their quality of life.

3. They are grammatically complete sentences; they contain at least one subject and one verb.

|l|l| &

Distribution of educational

resources.

&

Lastly, the distribution of educational resources

in my city is an important problem because

resources are only in the rich areas and only

those areas attract the good teachers.

PRACTICE 1: Identifying Topic and Preview

Read each sentence and then highlight the topic and underline the preview.

1. Studying abroad can be a good way to practice skills and add those skills to your future resume.
2. Air pollution and the amount of garbage produced are both drawbacks of living in a large city.
3. Globalization can cause backlashes both politically and culturally.
4. Racial inequality shows up in many areas including in business and housing.
5. Meditation helps students’ health by lowering their blood pressure and letting their bodies relax.
6. In an increasingly automated world, people are losing their jobs to machines and they need to retrain to get new jobs, which is why a Universal Basic Income would have a positive effect on workers.

PRACTICE 2: Evaluating Topic Sentences

Each set of topic sentences below connects to the same thesis and research question. Read through the sentences and decide which one is best, too general, too specific, or not complete. Refer to the examples above for help.

|c|c|c|c|c| BEST &

TOO

GENERAL

&

TOO

SPECIFIC

&

NOT

COMPLETE

Set 1
a. More time for internships and resume-building skills.
b. Another positive effect of free college education would be that it allows low-income students to succeed by broadening school choice and eliminating the barrier to enter school.
c. A free college education would allow students to focus only on school.
d. Free college would allow students to get a job only if they wanted to, which would allow them to spend their time on academics without the burden of splitting their time between work and school, or if they preferred, they could get a part-time job to give them pocket money while still spending the majority of their time on their schoolwork.

Set 2

a. Wind energy is a more reliable source of energy than nuclear power because there are many places that have very strong winds that we can harness, and those places can be found around the world in all different types of climate so all countries can have access to this type of energy source.
b. More energy output for wind than nuclear energy.
c. There is less waste after making wind energy than nuclear energy sources, which is why it’s better.
d. Nuclear energy is less safe than wind energy because the waste is dangerous to store and nuclear technology can also be used to make bombs.

PRACTICE 3: Composing Topic Sentences

Read the paragraph below and then write a topic sentence that describes the paragraph’s topic and preview the claims/subpoints.

Write a topic sentence for the paragraph here:

Many college students spend too much on social media and it influences their health and daily life. I and almost all of my friends have the habit of using social media before sleep and that’s the main reason why we stay up late. But it’s not a good habit. It makes students very tired during the day and unable to concentrate in class. Furthermore, social media will reduce students’
learning efficiency. When you have social media on your cell phone, you will always want to use it. Once I had an assignment which was connected with my final grade. At that time I only had less than 24 hours to finish it. I opened my cell phone to search for some information, but I was distracted by a message on social media. I forgot what I was doing and played on social media for three hours. When I remembered my homework, I didn’t have enough time to finish it. In the end I got the lowest grade in my final because of the assignment. That experience made me realize that social media could give us a very big influence on our study. To sum up, social media has a negative impact on students’ life and study.

Assignment: Write your topic sentences in the Outline in the Supporting Points Column 1.

FOCUS ON COHESION

See the section on Cohesion. Which cohesion strategies would be the most effective to connect the topic sentences and thesis statement? List them below.

Write your thesis statement and three topic sentences below. Using some of the strategies that you listed, revise the topic sentences so that they demonstrate cohesion with the thesis statement. Remember to paste your revised topic sentences into your outline.

Thesis statement:

Supporting Point 1 Topic Sentence:

Supporting Point 2 Topic Sentence:

Supporting Point 3 Topic Sentence:

D. Subpoints

BODY PARAGRAPHS

• Body Paragraph/Supporting Point: topic sentence
• Sub-point 1 (YOU ARE HERE)
• Evidence
• Analysis of Evidence
• Sub-point 2 (AND HERE)
• Evidence
• Analysis of Evidence
• Concluding sentence

Subpoints, or claims, are a further way to divide up your argument. These claims should be related to the thesis and research question, but they should directly connect to the body paragraph’s supporting point. While some research questions or prompts will dictate exactly how to structure your subpoints, a good rule of thumb is that your subpoints/claims should answer the questions "why" or "how" the supporting point is valid. For example:

Research question: Why do some animal species become endangered or extinct?
Thesis statement: Loss of habitat, overhunting, and pollution are three reasons why animal species become endangered or extinct.

|l|l|l|

Supporting Point 1: loss of

habitat

&

Claim 1: loss of food supply

&

Claim 2: forces animals into

competition when they

otherwise wouldn’t

Research question: Consider the advantages and disadvantages of using social media to make social change. Is using social media to make change in society mostly effective or mostly ineffective?

? =0

⁹

??=0

¹⁰

abilities to disseminate information, image-build, and interact with a wide range of people.

|l|l|l|

Supporting Point 1:

disseminate information

& &

Claim 1: people can

communicate about culture

over long distances

&

does disseminating

information create social

change?

&

Claim 2: that communication

can eliminate social bias

PRACTICE 1: Selecting Subpoints

Choose the subpoint(s) that best connect to the supporting points below. Some answers may not be used, and some may fit in more than one category. Be ready to justify your decision.

Research question: How can meditation affect students?
Thesis statement: Mediation positively affects students’ physical health, mental health, and ultimately their academic progress.

Supporting Point 1: helps students’ physical health Possible claims:

Supporting Point 2: helps students’ mental health Possible claims:

Supporting Point 3: helps students’ academic progress

Possible claims:

Claims:
A. Lowers blood pressure
B. Reduces stress
C. Builds skills to manage stress
D. Increases empathy
E. Improves sleep quality
F. Raises confidence
G. Reduces memory loss
H. Improves concentration
I. Relaxes muscles
J. Reduces negative emotions
K. Increases creativity

PRACTICE 2: Brainstorming Subpoints

Brainstorm subpoints for the supporting point below.

|l|l|l|

Research question: Compare the effectiveness of nuclear energy and renewable energy

resources.

&

Thesis statement: Renewable energy sources are more effective than nuclear energy in terms

of their safety, waste, and storage.

&

Supporting Point 1:

safety

&

Possible Claims:

\(\bullet\)

Compare your claims/subpoints with a partner. Which claims are the most effective in proving the argument? Could you each make improvements?

PRACTICE 3: Developing Subpoints

Write your supporting points in the chart below and brainstorm possible subpoints.

|l|l| Supporting Point 1: &

Possible Claims:

\(\bullet\)

Supporting Point 2: &

Possible Claims:

\(\bullet\)

Supporting Point 3: &

Possible Claims:

\(\bullet\)

Assignment: Using words and phrases only, write your subpoints in the Outline under the Subpoint column (Column 2).

E. Evidence

BODY PARAGRAPHS
    - Body Paragraph/Supporting Point
    - Topic Sentence
    - Subpoint }
        ■ Evidence (YOU ARE HERE)
        ■ Analysis of Evidence (AND HERE)
    - Subpoint 2
        ■ Evidence (AND HERE)
        ■ Analysis of Evidence (AND HERE)
    - Concluding Sentence

Body paragraphs are developed using evidence that supports the argument put forth in the writer’s claim/subpoint, supporting point, and thesis. You can use evidence to support your argument, give an example, acknowledge a weakness in your argument, and/or add credibility to your argument by showing that others agree with you. In order to be considered effective, each piece of evidence must directly relate to the claim/subpoint that it’s proving. Evidence is what makes research papers unique: at least some of the evidence used in your research paper should be from a previously-approved (and cited!) outside source that is carefully chosen to support your argument.

You’ll learn how to incorporate these sources into your body paragraphs in the Composing Source Sandwiches section later on in the chapter.

i. Types of Evidence

There are multiple types of evidence that you can use in your essay, and you should vary the type of evidence used based on the argument you’re making and the evidence available. As stated previously, if you can’t find evidence to support your claim/subpoint, outlining your essay may become a dialogue between your ideas and what evidence you can use to support those ideas, and you might consider changing your argument to fit the evidence you have.

Here are some popular types of evidence and examples.

Facts: statements that can be proven or are generally known.
Ex: Access to natural resources has been dwindling around the world for the last few decades.

Statistics: numbers, dates, data that usually come from published research or polls.
Ex: While the Earth’s surface is nearly \(70 \%\) water, only \(2.5 \%\) of that volume is fresh, drinkable water.
Outside Sources: information taken directly from reputable sources such as newspapers, academic journals, experts, lecturers, etc. These can come in the form of paraphrases (see Chapter 2), summaries (see \(\underline{\text { Chapter 3) , or quotations (words, phrases, sentences taken }}\) directly from another source). When quoting, you use double quotation marks (" . ..") to show the exact words you’re using.
Ex: According to a report from the National Intelligence Council, "there are significant scarcity challenges for a number of key natural resources with potential impact on US security."

Examples: These are usually stories - sometimes true and sometimes hypothetical - that prove your argument.

Ex: Lake Chad, on the border of Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon, is extremely important in the region but has steadily been drying up in recent decades.

Personal Anecdotes: stories and experiences that you, yourself, or someone you know have experienced.

Ex: My grandfather’s farm relies on a nearby river for water, but recently, there have been longer droughts, and he has been having trouble watering his crops.

For your own essays, you’ll want to choose a variety of evidence types, as this not only maintains the reader’s interest but also strengthens your argument by showing that multiple types of sources support it.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

After you read through the types of evidence above, discuss with a partner:

• What are some situations when each type of evidence might be appropriate?
• Which types of evidence seem the most appropriate for your research question?
• Which types of evidence are you planning on using for your own essay? Why?

PRACTICE 1: Identifying Types of Evidence
Match the evidence below to its type.

1. According to Andy de Santis, in his article "Move Toward a	\(\square\) Facts
Stronger Immune System: Diet and Exercise Have a Huge
Impact," if people do more exercise, their immune system
will become stronger, which is what the students need (81).	\(\square\) Statistics
	\(\square\) Eutside sources
Examples
Personal anecdotes