Unit 1- Assignment and Essential Question Reflection

What makes an effective argument?

Creating an effective argument requires a multitude of steps in order to successfully persuade an audience to agree with the rhetor. In order for the rhetor to effectively support, refute, or qualify a claim, they must first gather a plethora of information for their argument. This may be through looking at past work, brainstorming, or free-writing, as well as asking others and experts on the specific topic. This content is known as Logos, which is one of Aristotle's Appeals that he suggests a rhetor use to offer a clear, central idea to the reader. In addition, the rhetor must know who their intended audience is. This appeal is known as ethos. Ethos immediately establishes credibility to show the audience that they are believable and have only the readers' best interests at mind. Finally, in order to create a moving argument, a rhetor uses pathos, the final Appeal Aristotle suggests. When a speaker uses pathos, he/she is connecting to the audience at a deeper level by drawing in their emotions and interests. This is done through personal stories and figurative language. Aristotle's three Appeals form a strong, well-developed argument that engage the rhetor and audience to connect in the process of meaning and coming to an understanding.

Out of all of the helpful activities this class achieved in order to help us students understand the major topics discussed in Unit 1, I found that Kundera's Claim activity helped me the most. This paper helped me to understand the scoring of the AP English exam and I was able to differentiate sophisticated analyses from simplistic ones. In addition, working with a partner helped me to collaborate ideas and see what claim my partner was able to draw from this passage, and how similar his/her thinking was to mine. Finally, filling out the outline on the specific claim I decided on from the passage benefitted me for I was able to effectively organize my thoughts and visualize each aspect of a successful argument. This activity assisted me on the in-class essay we had to write a few weeks ago for I was able to successfully organize my thoughts and to include each aspect such as the support, refutation, and thesis statement in my paper.