All communication is, to some extent, persuasive. Think, for example, of how you try to convince people to share your ideas, your values, or simply your plans for the evening. Writers do the same thing. Whether they write a news story, an article in a magazine, a book, or copy for an advertisement, their goal is to get readers to believe something or to do something.

This section focuses on argumentative writing in which a writer presents his or her main idea as a claim or assertion and supports it with evidence. You will explore the strategies persuasive writers use and learn about the common errors of logic that will help you detect faulty arguments while you read others’ work and your own.

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This video defines the elements of argument.

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CONTINUE THROUGH THE UNIT

The study pages include practice activities with short passages. As read you through the study pages and practice with LearningCurve before taking the post-test, focus on recognizing the elements of argument.

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