C1coursebymf.files.wordpress.com



Useful Language for Argumentative Texts, by MF (Jan 2015)

From language work with Angela Davis’s essay “Abolitionist Alternatives”, chapter 6 in Are Prisons Obsolete? (Seven Stories Press, NY, 2003)

Learning to write from what we read.

As you read this essay, try to notice the content structure (outline) and how language helps to build the text, linking things together. Notice how analysis works: how we pose the question, address an answer, and then how we go back to the question or a related question, and then try to find an answer and how it turns out that all of these questions and answers end up forming a larger picture, which is the topic that was announced, but more than that because after the analysis we have a deeper understanding of the question. Try to work out her outline for this essay (a simple outline, not a detailed outline, ok?)

These notes intend to show you what I’m learning as I notice some of the things I’m paying attention to.

pages 105-107

Starts text with a clarifying quote on the essay subject, and then starts her own points by posing a question.

If … are to be abolished, then what will replace them? This is the puzzling question… Why should it be so difficult to imagine…?

Starts answering.

There are a number of reasons why we tend to… First of all, we think of … as a(n)… and thus have great difficulty envisioning…

Use comment adverbials.

Ironically,

Comparatives (equality, superiority, inferiority) and superlatives (the most and the least).

The most rational alternative to…

Clauses – notice which kind occurs more often

Even … tends to rely on the assumption that…

(al)though…,

as (adj) as it may be,

Modals

We should be conscious of… / (keep in mind that…)

(Also, need to be…)

Noun phrases

The emergence of… (LoM: emergent – emergence; important – importance; dominant - dominance)

The dominant form of…

Degrees of certainty, Conditionals, Comparatives

though … was supposed to serve as…

It is true that…

It is very hard to imagine… If, however, we shift our attention from … to …, it may be easier to…

It may be easier…

Paraphrase, Comparison

In other words, a more… may yield more… than if we simply attempt to…

Logical progression, Hypothetical language

A critical engagement with this … would involve taking seriously the possibility of ---ing…

The first step, then, would be to…

Present perfect for situations beginning in the past and reaching the present time

has coexisted

Since (date), … has become increasingly …(past part.)

Logical progression

Thus, …

Paraphrasing: clarifying – instead of “in other words”, just state what it is, what there is.

It is a …

Conditionals, logical progression

If it is true that… , then the most effective … will contest … and propose…

Posing questions.

What, then, would it mean to imagine…? How can we…?

Answers.

An … approach that seeks to answer questions such as these would require us to … , with the ultimate aim of removing …

In other words, we would not be looking for…. Rather, (doing this other thing) we would (be working for/attempting) / (Instead, …)

More Useful Language

Is to be – announcing a pursued aim or target

The problem that leads to…

Useful Verbs: Involves, to contest (an idea), to argue (that), to contend, seeks (to answer),

Useful Modifiers: puzzling (question), a number of (reasons), the existing (system), capable of (handling)

Useful Adverbs and Adverbials: eventually (al final), currently (being held), Ironically (comment adverbials),

Pages 108-110

As you can see, I’m focusing here on useful language for reasoning out sentences.

Within the … system, it is important to emphasize the current…

To reiterate, rather than try to…, we might envision …

It is within this context that it makes sense to consider…

This is not to suggest thatall…

However, anyone, regardless of…, should be able to…

But unlike …

Current campaigns that call for the …

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download