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Understanding elements of argumentation
aCTIvITy 2.11
Learning Targets
• Evaluate a writer’s ideas, point of view, or purpose in an argumentative essay.
• Determine how the writer manages counterclaims.
• Identify and apply the six elements of argumentation.
Preview
In this activity, you will read and analyze part of an eighth-grader’s argumentative essay.
Setting a Purpose for Reading
• As you read the essay, use three different highlighters to identify the parts of the writer’s argument. Mark text evidence with the first color, reasoning with the second color, and counterclaims used to support the claim with the third color.
• Circle unknown words and phrases. Try to determine the meaning of the words by using context clues, word parts, or a dictionary.
Private Eyes
by Brooke Chorlton (an eighth-grader from Washington State)
1 “Private eyes, they’re watching you, they see your every move,” sang the band Hall and Oates in their 80s hit “Private Eyes.” A popular song three decades ago is quite relevant to life today. We do not live very private lives, mainly due to the Internet, whose sole purpose is to help people share everything. But there are still boundaries to what we have to share. Employers should not require access to the Facebook pages of potential
or current employees because Facebook is intended to be private, is not intended to be work-related, and employers do not need this medium to make a good hiring decision.
2 It is true that the Internet is not private, and it is also true that Facebook was not created to keep secrets; it is meant for people to share their life with the selected people they choose as their “friends.” However, Facebook still has boundaries or some limits, so that members can choose what to share. As a fourteen-year-old girl I know for a
fact, because I have seen it, that when you are setting up your Facebook account, you are able to choose the level of security on your page. Some choose to have no security;
if someone on Facebook were to search them, they would be able to see all of their friends, photos, and posts. And, according to Seattle Times journalists Manuel Valdes and Shannon McFarland, “It has become common for managers to review publically available Facebook Profiles.” The key words are “publically available.” The owners of these profiles have chosen to have no boundaries, so it is not as big a deal if an employer were to look at a page like this. But others choose to not let the rest of the world in;
if you search them, all that would come up would be their name and profile picture. That is all: just a name and a picture. Only the few selected to be that person’s friends are allowed into their online world, while the strangers and stalkers are left out in
the cold. It is not likely that you would walk up to a stranger and share what you did that weekend. Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor and former federal prosecutor, states that requiring someone’s password to their profile is, “akin to requiring [their] house keys.” If we expect privacy in our real world life, shouldn’t we be able to have privacy in our online life as well?
my Notes
aCademIC voCabUlary
An argument is a logical
appeal, supported by
reasons and evidence, to
persuade an audience to
take an action or agree with
a point of view.
Unit 2 • The Challenge of Utopia 141
learNING STraTeGIeS:
QHT, Marking the Text, Graphic Organizer
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