English 1B   Essay #1

How do you know you know what you know?

Read and reread and reread and reread and underline and annotate and reread and reread this assignment in its entirety and follow the directions carefully.  Everything written here matters, and few things can hurt your essay's grade more than not following directions from the beginning. 

Claims (or thesis statements) express a kind of knowing.  They say, "This is what I know." And what surrounds a claim in an essay are the evidence and reasons, which say, "And this is how I know what I know."  Just as there are different ways of knowing things, there are different kinds of claims.  Claims of value argue for the quality or character of something (e.g. The Fort Bragg Police Department is not able to effectively prevent street crime.)  Claims of policy argue for some kind of action (e.g. Fort Bragg should increase the number of police officers foot patrolling the streets.)  Claims of fact argue that a condition or phenomenon has existed, exists, or will exist (e.g. Police foot patrols reduce street crime). 

Assignment

***Write an essay that defends a claim of fact about a condition that has existed or exists.***

Sample Questions at Issue that Elicit Claims of Fact:

Does capital punishment reduce violent crime?

Does criminalizing private handgun ownership increase public safety?

Does "abstinence-only" sex education in public schools reduce teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases?

Does involvement in organized religion produce physical health benefits?

Does violent television programming lead to violent behavior in children?

Is human activity a significant cause of global warming?

You are free to work with any of the examples above or create a question at issue of your own. 

Some Fundamental Concepts

Topic: A subject.  Virtually anything--e.g. a chair, the debate about evolution and creationism, my Aunt Sally, fertilizer use in commercial farming, etc.  Remember that a topic does not express a point of view or a judgment.  It just is.  Remember also that an academic audience is likely to find some topics more worthy of contemplation than others.

Question at Issue: A carefully worded question that points to a specific conflict/controversy within a topic.  A question at issue is an "unresolved" question, a question that reasonable people can answer differently (the qualifier "reasonable" is important here since we are not interested in making well-reasoned arguments to unreasonable people). 

Thesis/Claim: A precisely worded answer to a specific question at issue.  A thesis/claim states a focused, arguable position on the conflict/controversy pointed at in the question at issue.  The thesis/claim acts as the driving force in the essay.  It expresses what the writer wants readers to understand, contemplate, believe, or do after having read the essay.

More Specific Information about Claims of Fact

1. Not all claims of fact are arguable.  If the claim is easily verified by our own senses or by quick reference checks, or if the claim of fact is already widely regarded as established fact, it is not arguable.  This means that claims like "Most CRMC students live in Fort Bragg" or "Plums are sweeter than corn chips" are not matters for argument.

2. Legitimate claims of fact engage a conflict or disagreement on the factual map.  New information can cause us to reevaluate our conclusions, and this process requires that we make arguments about the significance/nature of the new information. 

3. Claims of fact are often generalizations.  For the sake of accuracy and honesty, claims of fact often contain language that qualifies the claim--e.g. something generally or usually causes something else to happen.

4. Claims of fact often require careful and precise definition of terms.  In the examples above, what we mean by capital punishment, violent crime, handgun, public safety, etc. is important--crucial, really--to the argument. 

5. Claims of fact are defended with data, authorities, and inferences.  Your job is to make sure your data is sufficient, appropriate, and accurate; that your authorities are reliable and respected by an academic audience; and that your inferences (i.e. interpretations of facts) are logical. 

Some Important Ideas to Keep in Mind

1. Make sure there is information available on your topic.  Of course, the information needs to be reputable, verifiable, accurate, and sufficient.

2.  Be very aware of your audience.  Remember that the success of your argument depends on getting your audience to acknowledge that you have offered a legitimate, reasonable way of responding to the question at issue.  Have you provided the right kinds of data and enough of it?  Will your audience accept the authority of your sources?  Will your audience see the logic of your thinking?

3. Have a workable, focused, precise question at issue to work with. 

4. Keep focused on the goals of this assignment:

(NOTE: You cannot accomplish any of the first four goals without a collection of good sources.)

To demonstrate your ability to use CR subscription databases to find high-quality information.

To amass powerful evidence in support of a claim.

To use the credentials and authority of sources to bolster an argument.

To recognize and write according to the demands of an academic audience.

To correctly integrate and document according to MLA format sources.

To use logic and critical thinking to expose the complexity of the question at issue and to support a specific position.

For a more thorough explanation of the grading criteria, read the grading criteria sheet.

5. Make sure you focus on a claim of fact, not of value (think carefully about this; people often trip right here at the first step). 

6. Read the student sample essays:

Sample Essay #1: Coffee: The Buzz behind the Beans

 

Sample Essay #2: Deterrence and Brutalization

 

Sample Essay #3: The One that Got Away