Defining Your Problem
To make an effective evidence-based argument, you’ll need to develop a clear opinion or claim (what you’re arguing for or against) and back it up with facts that support it. Here are the basic steps that you’ll need to take:
- Define the problem you’d like to solve and the change you’d like to make in response.
- Identify your audience: Whom do you need to convince or persuade? (This could be someone who sets policy, like your school principal or your teacher, or your fellow students.)
- State your opinion or claim: What are you arguing for or against?
- Gather evidence: What facts support your opinion or claim? What research do you need to do?
- Use helpful phrases to make your argument clear and convincing.
Let’s get started on defining the problem you’d like to solve by answering the following question:
If you could change one thing to make your school a healthier place for students, what would it be?
To help explore the range of possibilities, get together in small groups and take 5 to 10 minutes to discuss ideas. Based on your group work, identify one change you personally feel strongly about and determine whom you’d need to convince to make it happen. After you have finished your discussion, answer the questions in Take Notes below.
Take Notes
- What is the problem you’d like to solve? What change(s) would you make to solve it?
- Who is your audience? In other words, whom do you need to convince?
(Click SAVE when you have finished. To see your saved or submitted work again, click MY WORK at the top of the page.)
