So far in this Workshop, you have not been asked to write about your own position on the question you have been exploring. This is intentional; too often writers go into a topic already knowing their position, which can blind them to the complexity of the issue. But now, after conducting research and thinking about your own personal experiences with the topic, it is time for you to begin thinking about how you would answer the question you’ve been thinking about. You cannot have a successful argument if you do not have a claim, which is what you are hoping to prove, or convince your audience to believe. All strong arguments have a claim that the reader can identify and debate.

In the speech during his trial for supporting and planning terrorist attacks against the South African government during the apartheid period, a time of forced separation of whites and blacks, Nelson Mandela stated this claim:

I must deal immediately and at some length with the question of violence. [. . .]

We first broke the law in a way which avoided any recourse to violence; when this form was legislated against, and then the government resorted to a show of force to crush opposition to its policies, only then did we decide to answer violence with violence.

403

But the violence which we chose to adopt was not terrorism. We who formed Umkhonto were all members of the African National Congress, and had behind us the ANC tradition of non-violence and negotiation as a means of solving political disputes. We believe that South Africa belongs to all the people who live in it, and not to one group, be it black or white. We did not want an interracial war, and tried to avoid it to the last minute.

You can see that Mandela, while admitting that he participated in and planned violence, claims that this violence was not terrorism because it was the only means left to him to oppose the oppression of his people.

It’s important to remember that an argument’s claim must be debatable. Without a debate, there is nothing to prove. So, when making a claim, be sure that it is something that people are able to disagree with. You should also avoid simply stating a preference (“chocolate is better than vanilla”). There is no way to prove a claim like that using hard evidence. In addition, you should avoid a claim that just states a fact that is easily proved or disproved (“teenagers require more sleep than adults”). If it’s a proven fact, it’s not debatable. Mandela’s claim might seem undeniable because it has the force of history behind it, but a reasonable person might argue that violence is never justified, no matter what oppression and atrocities are committed upon you. The South African government at the time certainly disputed his claim: they sentenced him to life in prison.