Today I will be addressing a topic that I find very interesting: making arguments. In high school, I would never have imagined myself saying a sentence like the former. However, after 5 weeks in a college-level writing class and with plenty of new information in my brain, I am actually starting to find certain things to be much more appealing than they previously were. In chapter 7 of The Craft of Research, the authors make crafting claims and supporting them seem far less intimidating by connecting it to regular conversation.
This chapter makes it evident that rather than thinking of research papers as big, scary essays that we just want to finish writing, these papers should be enjoyable and exciting to craft by treating them like you would a casual, friendly argument. In common arguments, whether between friends, family, or strangers, you make claims, give your reasons, then use evidence to support your claims. Acknowledging and responding to the claims of others is also a daily occurrence in regular conversation. In the chapter, the authors state that using these same steps to craft a paper is simple: “there’s nothing arcane in any of that, because you do it in every conversation that inquires thoughtfully into an unsettled issue”(108).
Most people make claims every single day, just in regular life. For example, times such as right now when an important election is near, conversation is centered largely around politics, and arguing is often part of this conversation. This happens on social media quite often too – people will post media that makes a claim, viewers will comment on the post with conflicting views, and more will join into the conversation with their own claims and reasoning to support their views. I think that recognizing this idea – and understanding that essays and research papers are just fancy types of conversation – makes approaching a new piece of writing far less stressful.