Week 12 — The Research-Based Argument

Welcome to your Week 12 Start Here page.

Why this matters

A grant writer making the case for a food pantry, an engineer recommending a safety step to a plant manager, and a parent asking a school board for a later start time all need sources that back a claim of their own.

In plain language

This week you put your sources to work for a claim of your own. A report (writing that passes along what sources say) collects; an argument makes a case, and its sources back up the writer's claim instead of replacing it. You learn to bring each source in with the four-part integration move (a signal phrase, the quotation or paraphrase, the citation, and your own analysis). Then you put sources in conversation, answer the other side with real evidence, keep your own voice in charge of every page, and check that your citations and your works-cited list match. You practice on the running draft about phone-free lecture sections and its four real sources, including a 2016 study by Louis-Philippe Beland and Richard Murphy.

• Already covered: Weeks 9–11 chose, integrated, and documented the sources.
• This week: argument vs. report, the four-part move, and the other side.
• How they connect: your sources now serve one claim of your own.
• Where we're going next: Week 13, Revision & Style, re-sees the whole draft.

Focus

How do I make my sources support my claim instead of replacing it?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] turn a paragraph that reports sources into one that argues
• [ ] integrate a source with all four parts
• [ ] answer the strongest objection with real evidence
• [ ] match citations and the works-cited list both ways

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 12 (about 45 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes) and the practice set (about 20 minutes).
3. Do the Writing Studio (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
4. Take the quiz.

Checkpoint: open one paragraph of your draft with your claim, then check every source in it for four parts.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor early if a step snags.

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