Students should be able to examine specific components of an argumentative text and make determinations about how and/or why the components were used. Students should know that argumentative texts have unique characteristics such as a claim, an intended audience, and the use of facts in support or refutation of an argument. Students should also understand that argumentative texts tend to be structured based on the structure of the claim. For instance, if the claim is that one course of action might be better than another, an advantage/disadvantage structure would likely be used.

a text written to demonstrate to an audience that a certain position or idea is valid and that others are not The writer appeals to reason, develops, defends, or debates the topic, connecting a series of statements in an orderly way so they lead to a logical conclusion.

Students are expected to identify the intended group meant to receive an author’s message. Authors may have various motivations for what they decide to write. They may want to inform readers about something, explain something to the reader, persuade them to do something, or simply entertain them. It is also possible that the author intends to do any number of these things within the same text. It is also important that students think about who would be interested in the topic being presented and be aware that the intended audience could be a single person, a group of people, or the general public.