Here are the results of today’s class on argumentation. Above, you can see Lindsey’s whiteboard musings, and below are the results of both of our activities! (Hover over any photo to see a caption; click to enlarge it for easier viewing.)

After writing down questions and discussing the primary points behind The Craft of Research‘s chapters on argumentation, we began the activity portion of the class with an “exquisite corpse”-style game, where we traded off writing theses and evidence. Later, these papers were annotated for places where warranting seemed a probable necessity.

After some work isolating each paper’s primary claim, we used that as a starting point for an expanded version of the reasons and evidence activity in Chapter 9 of The Craft of Research. Colby and Laura wrote out their reasons/core ideas (white notecards) and key pieces of evidence (blue & green notecards), and then placed those two sets of information in relationship to one another visually. They were then invited to trade places and rearrange the other person’s material according to what they felt was the most logical pattern. Prof. Isenberg then weighed in, rearranging the work of both students into what he felt to be the most logical pattern. Finally, Colby and Laura added warrants to this structure (gold & yellow notecards), placing them where they seemed most likely to come up. Thank you to everyone for a constructive and thoughtful session!