Week 7 — Readings & Resources

Your primary reading is Chapter 7 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 56–65 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more practice, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (18–21 min total)

• Warrants in an Argument — Mark Sutton
• CRITICAL THINKING - Fallacies: Straw Man Fallacy — Wireless Philosophy
• Illogical Arguments — Writing Studio

① Where is the link? Claims, grounds, and the warrant

Chapter 7, Section “Find the warrant: evidence alone is not an argument” · Session 1, Segment 2, “Claims, grounds, and the warrant” · Remember: the grounds are what you point to, and the warrant is the principle that says why they count.

• The Toulmin Model of Argumentation — David Wright — a short tutorial that defines the model's parts and shows how to use them both to build an argument and to analyze someone else's, from the claim and the grounds to the warrant that joins them. This builds on Week 4's work with the arguable, specific thesis: the thesis is the claim the model starts from. (video, 6 min) (captions: automatic)
• Warrants in an Argument — Mark Sutton — a closer look at the one part most writers leave unstated, with examples of the assumptions that link evidence to a claim. Pause after each example and say the warrant in your own words before the video does. (video, 7 min) (captions: automatic)
• Toulmin Argument — Writing Centers — a one-page guide to all six parts, worked on a single advertisement so you can see the claim, the data, and the warrant side by side. Compare its warrant with the running draft's. Use it while working through the Week-7 module overview. (reading, 4–6 min)

② How do I answer the other side? Counterargument, rebuttal, and common ground

Chapter 7, Section “Steel-man the other side, then answer it” · Session 2, Segment 1, “The counterargument and the rebuttal” · Remember: state the strongest objection in words its holders would accept, grant what it gets right, and then answer it.

• Argumentative Essays: Counterargument and Rebuttal — Writing Better — how to find the view that opposes yours, where to place it in an essay, and how to answer it without losing your own position. Listen for the moment a concession turns into a rebuttal. (video, 11 min) (captions: automatic)
• Rogerian Argument — Ryan Hitch — the basics of the common-ground approach: what it is, how its order works, and why a reader who feels understood keeps listening. (video, 6 min) (captions: creator)
• Considering Counter-arguments — Writing, Speaking, and Argument Program — a short handout that treats an objection as a question a real reader would ask, with sentence starters for granting a point and then answering it. Try one starter on the running draft's third point. (reading, 3–5 min)

③ Is the reasoning sound? Fallacies by definition

Chapter 7, Section “Spot the fallacies by definition” · Session 2, Segment 2, “Fallacies by definition” · Remember: a fallacy swaps a real reason for something that only looks like one, so name the flaw and say what the argument needs instead.

• CRITICAL THINKING - Fallacies: Straw Man Fallacy — Wireless Philosophy — what happens when an arguer answers a distorted version of a claim instead of the real one, and why that answers nothing. Set it beside the chapter's steel-man test. (video, 6 min) (captions: creator)
• CRITICAL THINKING - Fallacies: Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc — Wireless Philosophy — why one event coming after another does not show that the first caused the second, and when it is too quick to conclude that it did. (video, 6 min) (captions: creator)
• Illogical Arguments — Writing Studio — a longer list of fallacies, each with a one-line definition and a plain example. Read the entries the chapter teaches first, then skim the rest; lists like this one name more fallacies than any single course covers. (reading, 5–8 min)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

• Toulmin Argument — Online Writing Lab (OWL) — a short reference page defining the model's six parts, claim, grounds, warrant, backing, qualifier, and rebuttal; use it to check a label when you map an argument this week. (reading, 2–4 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com