Welcome to Unit 1: Claims, Reasoning, and Evidence!

In this unit, you will be taught to make claims, support them with reasoning, and provide evidence from texts. A claim is a statement or argument that is made about a topic, while reasoning refers to the logical connections and justifications that are used to support the claim. Evidence, such as quotes or paraphrases from texts, is used to back up the reasoning and support the claim. This process helps students develop critical thinking skills and the ability to analyze and evaluate texts. By learning to make claims, provide reasoning, and use evidence effectively, students are better equipped to analyze and interpret a wide range of texts and make their own arguments.

Essential Knowledge 

Information from College Board's AP English Language and Composition CED.

• The rhetorical situation of a text collectively refers to the exigence, purpose, audience, writer, context, and message.
• The exigence is the part of a rhetorical situation that inspires, stimulates, provokes, or prompts writers to create a text.
• The purpose of a text is what the writer hopes to accomplish with it. Writers may have more than one purpose in a text.
• An audience of a text has shared as well as individual beliefs, values, needs, and backgrounds.
• Writers create texts within a particular context that includes the time, place, and occasion.
• Writers convey their positions through one or more claims that require a defense.
• Writers defend their claims with evidence and/or reasoning.
• Types of evidence may include facts, anecdotes, analogies, statistics, examples, details, illustrations, expert opinions, personal observations, personal experiences, testimonies, or experiments.
• Effective claims provoke interest and require a defense, rather than simply stating an obvious, known fact that requires no defense or justification.
• Writers relate source material to their own argument by syntactically embedding particular quoted, paraphrased, or summarized information from one or more sources into their own ideas.

1.1 Identifying the purpose and intended audience of a text

Identifying the purpose and intended audience of a text is an important skill for students to develop. The purpose of a text refers to the reason the author wrote it and what they hope to achieve with it. The intended audience refers to the group of people the author is trying to reach and communicate with. Understanding the purpose and intended audience allows students to better analyze and interpret a text. By considering the perspective of the author, students can gain a deeper understanding of the text and identify any biases or persuasive techniques that the author may be using. In addition, understanding the intended audience can help students understand why certain language and structures have been used in the text. Additionally, it also can help students to create their own texts that are tailored to specific audience and purpose.

1.2 Examining how evidence supports a claim

Examining how evidence supports a claim is an essential skill for students to master. Evidence refers to the facts, examples, statistics, or other information that is used to support a claim. When analyzing a text, students must identify the evidence that the author uses to support their claim and evaluate its effectiveness. This means analyzing the relevance, credibility, and sufficiency of the evidence. Additionally, students should be able to identify any fallacies or biases in the evidence that may weaken the claim. By learning to examine how evidence supports a claim, students develop the ability to critically evaluate the arguments presented in a text and to use evidence effectively in their own writing. This skill is important in both interpreting the texts and creating their own arguments, whether it's a literary analysis or an argumentative essay.

1.3 Developing paragraphs as part of an effective argument

Developing clear and effective paragraphs is essential to constructing a strong argument. A paragraph is a group of related sentences that develop a single idea. Each paragraph should have a clear topic sentence that states the main idea, and the rest of the sentences should provide evidence, explanations, and elaboration to support that idea. In addition, transitions between paragraphs should be smooth and logical to guide the reader through the argument. Effective use of evidence, reasoning, and analysis is crucial in developing effective paragraphs. By learning to construct clear and effective paragraphs, students are better equipped to organize their ideas and present a well-supported and cohesive argument in their writing.