hi I'm Don Knight an English teacher from Westfield Indiana thanks for joining me today we are talking about the argument essay specifically we'll be talking about body paragraphs um if you didn't you might want to take a look at the last video where we talked about the thesis statement for the argument essay it's not a requirement in any way um but it does give you uh that kind of building block um that we'll be talking about today using thesis statements because that's always the focus of our essays um you also have access to um the uh passages The Prompt and passage for today um you're welcome to download that interact with it um if you don't want to that's okay you can follow along you'll see everything you need on the screen today so we are going to look at the same prompt as we started the last video with um with our gift from the sea um so in her book gift from the Sea author and Aviator an Maro Lindberg writes we tend not to choose the unknown which might be a shock or a disappointment or simply a little difficult to cope with and yet it is the unknown with all its disappointments and surprises that is the most enriching write an essay that argues your position on the value of exploring the unknown in your response you should respond to the prompt with a thesis that presents a defensible position and then what we're focusing on today in the body paragraphs provide evidence to support your line of reasoning and explain how the evidence supports your line of reasoning um just a reminder that that beginning part of the um prompt is just context or background it's not what the prompt is asking us to do instead we are asked to do this section here write an essay we always want to look for what is it telling us to do write an essay that argues your position on the value of exploring the unknown so you'll notice the um line of in in front of you um and this is just a diagram to show you how we're always focused back on the thesis statement it is the building block and then each body paragraph is going to be focused on supporting that thesis and I have two that you see on the screen in front of you um that's one so that you can see better um and two because writing two very well-written body paragraphs is going to be stronger than three or four just okay body paragraphs um but you might have three or four if you have time it's a timed essay if you have the evidence and the ideas and you can do that in that time that is completely fine we'll just use two today just for the purpose of this video so um we are going to use one of the thesis statements that um I talked about in the last video for this prompt just so we have that building block so the working thesis we'll use for today is although it can be dangerous to explore the unknown it is valuable to do so because it can lead to personal growth and important scientific advancements and because we are um focusing on supporting that thesis it makes sense that in our body paragraphs we have a claim that supports an element of that thesis so my first body paragraph might be focused on how exploring the unknown can lead to personal growth the second body paragraph I might focus on how it can be valuable to explore the unknown because it can lead to important scientific advancements you don't have to organize your essay this way this is just showing you how the claims of the body paragraph should support the thesis statement we're going to look at this first claim exploring the unknown can lead to personal growth and then we'll get to the second body paragraph that it can be valuable um notice that I've circled although it can be dangerous and that's because we are focusing on a more complex um thesis statement it's not a simple procon we're acknowledging that although this is my argument it can be valuable I want to acknowledge that it can also be dangerous and I'm going to talk about that potentially in my paragraphs as well so evidence selection um typically we want to avoid personal anecdotes when we can however ever this body paragraph is focused on personal growth so it's very appropriate here um if a personal anecdote is um a good piece of evidence that supports a claim we can certainly use it um the evidence should focus on then um supporting this particular claim how uh exploring the unknown can lead to personal growth and then our commentary will explain how the evidence supports the claim it should not ignore um that tension or complexity that that there might be some uh dangerous components there as well so I want to show you with a specific example I'll read it aloud but I want to point out at the bottom so that you have that kind of um see what we're doing here um first you'll notice the claim and then the specific examples that are included to support the claim um the commentary that explains how the exam support the claim but then I want you to take a look at that element or tension so that's getting to that complexity of the situation it's acknowledging that I have a deeper level of understanding about a complex issue um and that I haven't oversimplified it um and this gives um this makes the essay more sophisticated one of the ways exploring the unknown can be valuable is that it can lead to personal growth so that's our claim this was true when I moved to a new school as a teenager although it was challenging at first so I've acknowledged tension um or at the time I began to realize the opportunities that came with this strange new place I was a able to meet um people from different cultures and religions an opportunity I hadn't been afforded in my small Hometown because of its size my new school also had more class choices like photography and ceramics that allowed me to explore my more creative side and discover new talents so here I'm explaining how notice how I'm focused on that claim and and supporting the thesis that um it can lead to personal growth um another uh way of exploring the unknown uh led to personal growth was when I got scuba certified although it is beautiful I've always been afraid of the ocean's power not because of the wildlife because of its depth and rip tides that can easily overcome even the best of swimmers I decided to conquer my fear by taking a certification class while the class reminded me of the ocean's dangers there was an entire chapter devoted to all the ways it could kill me it also gave me the tools for exploring this unknown World despite being nervous when I let the air out of my vest to sink into its depths I did it in doing so I experienced something few people get to Swimming with Sharks Barracuda Turtles and more AES to name a few even though I was still nervous I was also able to enjoy the beauty and peacefulness um the ocean is still a dangerous place but exploring its depths made me a stronger and more confident person both of these illustrate how exploring the unknown while difficult and even dangerous can lead to personal growth so again with that second example um we see the idea of personal growth and how it led to confidence and how um it made this person stronger but also acknowledging the nervousness the danger um and so focused on the claim acknowledging the tensions and complexities and explaining how the evidence supports the claim all right so your turn we're going to look at body paragraph 2 this time so this time the claim is that it can be valuable to explore the unknown because it can lead to important scientific um advancements so we want to make sure that we are focused on that claim when we are thinking about evidence um you also want to site evidence with as much detail as possible in order to illustrate credibility now that's going to be hard since you don't have sources for this particular prompt you're using your memory but you can still site Apon class or AP History Class or Ceramics or Netflix documentary um so as much information as you have maybe you heard it on NPR and so you site NPR um but be sophisticated um in your evidence be specific um try to avoid fiction and that's because fiction is just that it's fiction when we use fiction we want to make sure that it's credible and that we can explain why despite the fact that um it's something that is fiction it can still be applicable to the real world so for example if I'm writing an essay um about the carelessness of the 1920s I might use something from The Great Gatsby but only because I can explain how it's widely acclaimed as capturing the essence of the 1920s I couldn't use just any piece of fiction to do that um and then finally we're drawing on our knowledge of current events historical events classes you've taken and more um one of the things I suggest is trying to be up on current events so maybe once a week just look at a reliable credible source for current events so that you are up on some things that you might be able to include as evidence all right so we are going to do another multiple choice this time to look for um examples that would be sophisticated and relevant to include as evidence to support the claim that it can be valuable to explore the unknown because it can lead to important scientific advancements a an experiment in a science class helped you better understand how molecules move B the space race between the United States and Russia led to technological developments used in everything from cell phones to Health Care exploring DNA led to Major advancements in health and medicine was C D Mars exploration enables scientists to better understand understand climate change that was from a Netflix documentary and E early explorers often brought Devastation and disease to the places they explored all right so pause here and take just a second to think about which of these you think would make good um pieces of evidence that are sophisticated and relevant when you're ready you can hit play all right if you chose B that's a great example um it definitely is focused on a scientific advancement um and specific evidence of um a scientific advancement that um is was um exploring the unknown um C is another good example exploring DNA which is the unknown um leads to advancements in health and Medicine D is also a good example that Mars exploration again exploring something that's relatively unknown helps scientists understand climate change so if you answered B C and or D you did great um a is an example of science um but it doesn't really it's not really exploring the unknown and it certainly doesn't really talk about the scientific progress aspect e um we have some exploration um of the unknown but it doesn't really show any scientific progress so again we want to make sure we're focused on all elements of the claim all right body paragraph two this time I would like you to try to write a body paragraph using the claim it can also be valuable to explore the unknown because it can lead to Scientific advancements we've selected some pieces of evidence so you can use one or two of those maybe even all three if you want um maybe look back at that pre previous paragraph that we read through and see if you can explain how the evidence supports the claim and even trying to delve deeper into some of the complexity showing some of the tension when you're ready um just press play all right so to recap you want to write a nuanced argument that in that includes the complexities of the situation select evidence that is relevant convincing and sophistic ticated and delve deeper in your commentary to explore the tensions or complexities of the argument thank you so much for joining me today as always just a reminder to be kind to yourself and to others thank you so much