California State University English Placement Test



Prove It! From Oral Argument to Written Argumentation

Marlene Carter

UCLA Writing Project

The activities are designed to become increasingly complex to guide students into deeper, more insightful argumentation.

1. Paired Role Play

This activity introduces students to the idea that argumentation is a conversation. Speakers learn to consider audience, present and respond to counterarguments, and look for the most convincing argument.

Assign roles and a scenario, for example a teenager trying to persuade a parent to let him/her go to a party. Each person gets to speak for one uninterrupted minute. After the role play, chart the response. Discuss which arguments and/or counterarguments were most effective.

|Teenager’s Argument |Parent’s Counterargument |Teenager’s Response |

| | | |

| | | |

| | | |

| | | |

Repeat with a different topic and different roles. Students see that strong arguments go through the argument-counterargument- response.

2. Spar

This activity allows students to learn to debate in a supportive environment. Divide the class in half. Students plan their arguments as a team. Any member of the team may speak for the team, sharing the time with other team members.

Affirmative (Opening argument) 1 minute

Negative (Opening argument) 1 minute

Clash (Teams take turns speaking) 3 minutes

Negative (Closing Argument) 1 minute

Affirmative (Closing Argument) 1 minute

During the debate everyone, including the teacher, needs to take detailed notes. After the debate, chart the arguments and counterarguments. Determine teams attempted to address each of the other team’s arguments. Not doing so is called “dropping a point” which is a major flaw in debating. Discuss which arguments or counterarguments were strongest.

If you decide to have students write essays on the topic, you can allow them to use the chart.

3. The Purpose of Argumentation Is to Find Truth

The purpose of this activity is to help students to see the difference between argument for the purpose of winning a debate and argument that attempts to seek the truth.

Have the class sit in a big circle. Establish protocols that let students know that it is okay to “think out of your mouth.” Let the class struggle together to understand a passage and to take a position on the idea(s).

After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it. Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?--in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable? Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.

Henry David Thoreau

Civil Disobedience

To make the passage more accessible, try dividing it into smaller chunks.

Writing Task: Select one of the quotations below. Write a one-page paper in which you defend, attack or qualify the quotation. Support your position with examples and reasons.

1. After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest.

2. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.

3. Can there not be a government in which the majorities do not virtually decide right and wrong, but conscience?--in which majorities decide only those questions to which the rule of expediency is applicable?

4. Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then?

5. I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

6. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right.

4. Write Essay Topics Modeled After the CSU or UC Placement Tests

California State University English Placement Test

The California State EPT tests your ability to read, write and think at the level necessary for success in college. To prepare for the real test, practice with the question below. Take the time to do each step of the process so that you will end up with a good essay.

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Practice Question

Directions: You will have 45 minutes to plan and write an essay on the topic assigned below. Before you begin writing, read the passage carefully and plan what you will say. Your essay should be as well organized and as carefully written as you can make it. (Notice the time limit given for the real test.)

Far too many Americans of African descent believe their history starts in America with bondage and struggles forward from there toward today’s second-class citizenship. The cost of this obstructed view of ourselves, of our history, is incalculable. How can we be collectively successful if we have no idea, or worse, the wrong idea of who we were and, therefore, are? We are history’s amnesiacs fitted with the memories of others. Our minds can be trained for individual career success but our group morale, the very soul of us, has been devastated by the assumption that what has not been told to us about ourselves does not exist to be told.

Randall Robinson

author of The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks

Explain Robinson’s argument and discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with his analysis. Support your position, providing reasons and examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.

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1. Look at the essay topic again. (It begins with the word “explain.” Number the 3 things you have to do in your essay.

2. Reread the passage carefully. What is the passage about? (What is the topic?)

_____________________________________________________________________

3. What is the writer’s position on the topic? In other words, what is the writer’s argument?

_____________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

4. Do you agree or disagree? ______________

To what extent do you agree or disagree?

______________________________________________________________________

strongly disagree partly partly agree strongly

disagree disagree agree agree

from They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing

by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein

To make your thesis statement clear and sophisticated, try expressing the writer’s argument using the templates below.

1. Start by filling in the blank.

Randall Robinson says _______________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

2. Now, make it more sophisticated by picking a better verb.

Randall Robinson ___________________that ____________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Words to try: states argues believes insists suggests

3. Add your position showing the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement.

a. I agree with Robinson; (restate Robinson’s argument) _______________________

___________________________________________________________________

or

b. I agree with Robinson’s argument because it sheds insight on the difficult problem of

_____________________________________________________________________

or

c. I think Robinson is mistaken because he overlooks _________________________

____________________________________________________________________

or

d. Although I agree with Robinson up to a point, I cannot accept his overall conclusion

that (restate Robinson’s argument) __________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

or

e. I’m of two minds about Robinson’s claims that _____________________________

________________________________________________________________________

On the one hand, I agree that ________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________

On the other hand, I’m not sure if ____________________________________________

1. What are your non-negotiables?

2. How might you use the strategies presented in this session?

3. What topics would your students enjoy debating?

4. What texts, issues, etc. might you introduce into your classroom for argumentation?

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