“[One] way of describing the structure of argument was introduced by the philosopher Stephen Toulmin…. Toulmin observed that although formal Logic is effective for analyzing highly specialized arguments, it is inadequate for describing the arguments that occur in everyday life. Although Toulmin was primarily concerned with the structures of arguments at the level of sentences or paragraphs, his model is also useful when dealing with longer arguments.
In its simplest terms, a Toulmin argument has three parts—the claim, the grounds and the warrant. The claim is the main point of the essay—usually stated as a thesis. The grounds are the evidence that a writer uses to support the claim. The warrant is the inference—either stated or implied—that connects the claim to the grounds.
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Real arguments—those that you encounter in print or online every day—are not as simple as the three-part model…. To be convincing, arguments often contain additional elements. To account for the demands of everyday debates, Toulmin expanded his model [to include the following]: Claim…Reason…Warrant…Backing…Grounds…Qualifiers…and…Rebuttals.”
– Practical Argument 2nd Edition
Using the above as a guideline, your assignment is to write a Toulmin essay that addresses (directly or indirectly) the following prompt: Videogames are changing the world. Perhaps you feel that this is a positive or a negative change, but you should clearly and narrowly define how they are changing the world, and what that means. Feel free to use examples of how they have already changed the world as well as examples of how they might possibly in the future; but above all, make sure that you have good sources that back up your claim.
You may use any of the games and essays we have talked about in this class, but you are also able to use any other games or essays as well (if you use a game not from our syllabus, you MUST give me a heads up that you are using it beforehand so that I have time to familiarize myself with it).
This essay will be 1,300-2,000 words long, and MUST include AT LEAST four different sources. More are highly encouraged. Standard MLA formatting is required. As always, I want to encourage you to think outside of the box about how you can use the lessons and examples that you have learned in our class and apply them in novel and interesting ways.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
This is a very broad prompt. Do not write a very broad essay. You don’t have the space to address such a wide issue at face value. Rather, you should concentrate on how videogames are changing the world through a SPECIFIC instance/topic/category/etc. and elaborate on why that is important. For instance, Jane McGonigal, in the TED talk we watched, argues the narrow topic that games should be played more often, as they foster useful attributes, Simon Ferrari argues that games inherently foster a kind of self-literacy and Clint Hocking argues that they are best when generating procedural experiences. Use specific, narrow arguments to make your point.
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