Common Core Standard For English Language Arts (Page 24 of 43) in pdf

Common Core State StandardS for engliSh language artS & literaCy in hiStory/SoCial StudieS, SCienCe, and teChniCal SubjeCtS

postures, and expressions); to use dialogue and interior monologue that provide insight into the narrator’s and char-

acters’ personalities and motives; and to manipulate pace to highlight the significance of events and create tension

and suspense. In history/social studies, students write narrative accounts about individuals. They also construct event

models of what happened, selecting from their sources only the most relevant information. In science, students write

narrative descriptions of the step-by-step procedures they follow in their investigations so that others can replicate

their procedures and (perhaps) reach the same results. With practice, students expand their repertoire and control of

different narrative strategies.

Texts that Blend Types

Skilled writers many times use a blend of these three text types to accomplish their purposes. For example, The Longitude

Prize, included above and in Appendix B, embeds narrative elements within a largely expository structure. Effective stu-

dent writing can also cross the boundaries of type, as does the grade 12 student sample “Fact vs. Fiction and All the Grey

Space In Between” found in Appendix C.

the special Place of argument in the standards

While all three text types are important, the Standards put

particular emphasis on students’ ability to write sound argu-

“Argument” and “Persuasion”

ments on substantive topics and issues, as this ability is critical

When writing to persuade, writers employ a

to college and career readiness. English and education professor

variety of persuasive strategies. One common

Gerald Graff (2003) writes that “argument literacy” is fundamen-

strategy is an appeal to the credibility, char-

tal to being educated. The university is largely an “argument cul-

acter, or authority of the writer (or speaker).

ture,” Graff contends; therefore, K–12 schools should “teach the

When writers establish that they are knowl-

conflicts” so that students are adept at understanding and en-

edgeable and trustworthy, audiences are

gaging in argument (both oral and written) when they enter col-

more likely to believe what they say. Another

lege. He claims that because argument is not standard in most

is an appeal to the audience’s self-interest,

school curricula, only 20 percent of those who enter college are

sense of identity, or emotions, any of which

prepared in this respect. Theorist and critic Neil Postman (1997)

can sway an audience. A logical argument, on

calls argument the soul of an education because argument

the other hand, convinces the audience be-

forces a writer to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of mul-

tiple perspectives. When teachers ask students to consider two

cause of the perceived merit and reasonable-

ness of the claims and proofs offered rather

or more perspectives on a topic or issue, something far beyond

than either the emotions the writing evokes in

surface knowledge is required: students must think critically and

the audience or the character or credentials

deeply, assess the validity of their own thinking, and anticipate

of the writer. The Standards place special

counterclaims in opposition to their own assertions.

emphasis on writing logical arguments as a

particularly important form of college- and

The unique importance of argument in college and careers is as-

career-ready writing.

serted eloquently by Joseph M. Williams and Lawrence McEner-

ney (n.d.) of the University of Chicago Writing Program. As part

of their attempt to explain to new college students the major

differences between good high school and college writing, Wil-

liams and McEnerney define argument not as “wrangling” but as “a serious and focused conversation among people

who are intensely interested in getting to the bottom of things cooperatively”:

Those values are also an integral part of your education in college. For four years, you are asked to

read, do research, gather data, analyze it, think about it, and then communicate it to readers in a

form . . . which enables them to assess it and use it. You are asked to do this not because we expect

you all to become professional scholars, but because in just about any profession you pursue, you

will do research, think about what you find, make decisions about complex matters, and then ex-

plain those decisions—usually in writing—to others who have a stake in your decisions being sound

ones. In an Age of Information, what most professionals do is research, think, and make arguments.

(And part of the value of doing your own thinking and writing is that it makes you much better at

evaluating the thinking and writing of others.) (ch. 1)

In the process of describing the special value of argument in college- and career-ready writing, Williams and McEner-

ney also establish argument’s close links to research in particular and to knowledge building in general, both of which

are also heavily emphasized in the Standards.

Much evidence supports the value of argument generally and its particular importance to college and career readi-

ness. A 2009 ACT national curriculum survey of postsecondary instructors of composition, freshman English, and sur-

vey of American literature courses (ACT, Inc., 2009) found that “write to argue or persuade readers” was virtually tied

with “write to convey information” as the most important type of writing needed by incoming college students. Other

curriculum surveys, including those conducted by the College Board (Milewski, Johnson, Glazer, & Kubota, 2005) and

Common Core Standard For English Language Arts Page 24

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