Balanced Arguments

for our benchmark task for this particular learning unit asked you to identify all the points for and against treating the crashed german pilot well in letters from the lighthouse what we're going to have look at today is looking at this kind of writing which is called balanced argument or discussion we're going to have look at it in bit more detail so i'm going to go through this powerpoint presentation and then i've got some arguments for you to have look at for you to identify the features of discussions or balanced argument texts so our learning intention is to identify the features of balanced argument and these are non-fiction texts so discussion text presents balanced argument so that means that you have points for and you have points against you must have both of those for it to be balanced argument and generally we have three points four and three points against so for example the crash german pilot we may have said that three points four treating him well he's human being and we should treat people as we want to be treated that's one point for treating him well another point for treating him well is well he's he's quite horrifically injured and he needs medical attention because he's in pain that's another reason to treat him well and the third reason to treat him well is one of the villagers says well we're not animals we're not going to treat him badly just for the sake of it and so treating him well shows what the villagers are like as good decent people three points against treating him well he was responsible for bombing raid on this country so he's an enemy that's point against treating him well another one is he is he could be involved in the persecution of the jewish people that's another reason for treating him not very well and another reason could be well simply he is an enemy and he and his friends and his family are against us so then we got three points for treating him well three points for treating him not so well so that's balanced argument and they're written for anyone who's interested in subject who wants to know all the facts and the different opinions so let's have look at where we would find balanced arguments we find them in essays which are pieces of writing we find them in leaflets or articles giving balanced account of an issue we can find them in newspapers sometimes in non-fiction book on particular issue or topic that might be in the news like global warming write-up of debate or discussion this is what they need they need an aim purpose they have to be about particular subject so they explain the issue being debated and they have to state both sides clearly and fairly they must give both points of view to be balanced and they are to help the reader draw conclusion based on the evidence that is the reader needs to come to their own ideas they must make up their own mind from reading the two points of view so this is how they're structured they need clear opening statement we've learned about that kind of thing before that is the introductory paragraph which sets out what the writing is going to be about we need the arguments and the evidence we need to say our point and explain why that point is relevant set out clearly we need language who's going to help the readers follow the argument okay we'll look at that little bit later on and then of course we need conclusion so we need our introductory paragraph we need our argument supporting we need our arguments against and we need our conclusion okay let's have look at these features because this is what you are going to be identifying in the examples i've given you there's title that says what we're writing about there's an introduction that states what the discussion is about arguments for arguments against and conclusion which summarizes the debate you can give your opinion at that stage as well so that's simple checklist for you of what kinds of things to find in the argument let's have look at some more detail balanced arguments are written in the present tense because people are still discussing these things they're written in third person they're about something else they use statistics to reinforce arguments that is they use facts they might use percentages like the example here 50 of households in sweden use wind power they will use facts and figures to support the points for or against they use connectives to link paragraphs such as therefore consequently on one hand alternatively they use very formal impersonal voice when looking at the evidence so we've got some sentence openers there as well they will ask questions of the reader to get people thinking and get people talking should students still wear school uniform who is to blame questions like that they use particular type of language that shows that people are arguing about something not arguing where they're falling out but debate no one can deny there is lot of debate some people might say other people think that kind of thing they're using motive powerful language to try and persuade people to make up their mind either for or against it's shocking innocent animals suffer and they use technical language some examples there infrastructure economy tourism global warming but the language will be different in yours depending on the subject you are going to be writing about language about the subject so we've looked simply at the features of balanced argument and there are some other features which are looking at it in more detail they don't take sides they say what people think so you might see phrases like some people maintain others argue advocates of zoos would claim that those against zoos replied so it's not about you it's about what other people might think they keep it balanced on the one hand on the other hand and they're not too definite it could be claimed this might mean possibly perhaps so we use modal verbs in here as well okay have attached some examples of balanced arguments and what would like you to do is using those statements that i've just gone through which are checklist of the kind of features you would see in balanced argument want you to see if you can identify those features in the text that have attached there is text for those that normally do sheets there is text for those that normally do sheets and there is text for those that normally do sheet so choose the appropriate text and remember how we do these we do color coordinated key and then we underline evidence in the text in the appropriate color we've done that many times before in class so you know what you're doing with that so your task today is to identify as many features as you can of balanced argument you