Description
Applying Toulmin to Anne Lamott’s Essay
Read Lamott’s “Shitty First Draft” essay, choose one of her paragraphs and use Toulmin’s process to analyze the paragraph.
Note which paragraph you have chosen (they are numbered–so simply note the number)
Identify the paragraph’s claim, evidence, and warrant as well as any of the other terms Toulmin discusses (backing, qualifier, etc.). Note that not all of the paragraphs in Lamott’s essay include all of Toulmin’s terms, so be thoughtful when choosing which paragraph to analyze.
Once you have labeled the paragraph using Toulmin’s terminology, write a paragraph that discusses the benefits of this kind of analysis. For example, you might explain how understanding claims and evidence help you formulate your own arguments, or you might highlight the ways warrants explain and support the claim they are associated with. You can discuss whatever you like as long as it is explicitly connected to Toulmin’s method.
