The Research Argument: Building an Original Claim: Reading Unit 8, Grade 11 (Letters & Devotion)

Description

The Research Argument: Building an Original Claim is Unit 8 of American Voices, American Arguments: Literature and Rhetoric in Context (Part 2) (Grade 11), the Letters & Devotion Reading course, complete in one printable PDF: 11 lessons, the unit check-up and the answer key, 98 pages.

• The distinction between a fact question, a yes/no question, and an arguable research question
• Criteria for source credibility (authorship, purpose, corroboration) as distinct from surface professionalism
• MLA in-text citation and works-cited entry format
• MLA citation mechanics applied to a specific source
• Points of agreement, disagreement, and non-overlap among sources spanning different historical periods
• A thesis statement that synthesizes rather than summarizes sourced positions
• Organizational structure of a synthesis-based argument (claim-driven vs. source-driven organization)
• A documented, multi-source research argument draft
• The writer’s own source-selection and counterargument reasoning
• The multistructural-to-relational boundary in a peer’s draft paragraphs (listing sources vs. synthesizing them)
• Source-credibility and synthesis criteria transferred to a non-course topic

Every lesson is written for a parent with no teaching background: it opens with a short script to read aloud, names the specific wrong idea a student is likely to reach for and how to correct it, and closes with a practice sheet you may copy for your household. Scripture references are King James Version throughout. Black-and-white, 8.5 x 11 in. The whole year of this course is also in this store as a single book.

AI note: The written content of this resource was drafted with AI tools, then reviewed and edited by the author.