In addition to activities that target specific skills, practice exercises with the writing process in general are beneficial. Often, since students are expected to write argument papers only in certain settings, “students do not yet see argument as a part of everyday life” because the texts they read when they are taught argument writing are old and outdated, so the students cannot relate to them (Petit & Soto, 2002, par. 3). While literary analysis can be difficult to relate to the present for a student, especially when teachers are required to teach older texts, argument can and should be related to students’ lives. While they might just be writing an argument essay about an older text or concept, “the key question, therefore, becomes how will a work interpreted today make students more astute interpreters of works to be read tomorrow?” (Hillocks, 2011, p. 8). While specific works are not always applicable, concepts and skills translate well to the present. The goal is to prepare the student not only to write the assignment they are given, but also to be familiar with the genre and ready to use it again in the future.
Activity #1: Convince Me Source: Petit & Soto, Journal Of Adolescent & Adult Literacy A good way to start is to have students explore argument in an organic way, using what they already know about persuasion. Students can be broken up into groups, and the teacher will determine that a prize will be awarded to one group (Petit & Soto, 2002, par. 7). The game is “won” when the group convinces the teacher that they should win the prize, but using any reasoning they think necessary. Students will come up with all kinds of creative reasons that demonstrate the rhetorical appeals without even realizing it. Each group will have a few minutes to brainstorm and write down their ideas, and then one by one the groups will have a few minutes to present in front of the class. The teacher will then award the prize to whatever group that either the teacher or the class thinks did the best job of convincing.
Throughout the process, the teacher does not mention ethos, pathos or logos. Only afterwards does the teacher explain to them the appeals, and this reverse activity “succeeds because it demonstrates to students where their expertise in argument truly lies – within their ability to draw from a repertoire of persuasive strategies and assumptions about good argument that they share with one another” (Petit & Soto, 2002, par. 9). This makes argument less intimidating for students because they realize that they already know a lot of what they need to learn, and they simply need to develop how to use these strategies intentionally. The teacher can also continue the activity by asking students to write down their reasoning for winning the prize, and identify each reason as ethos, pathos or logos. This continues to make the concepts less abstract because the students themselves are providing their own real-world examples.