Introduction to High School Writing (SPES)

Directions: In groups, try to figure out what happened to Arthur. To help you get
started, there are some questions on the back of the worksheet that you should
answer.
Police Report:
At five-feet-six and a hundred and ten pounds, Queenie Volupides was a sight to behold. When she
tore out of the house after a tiff with her husband, Arthur, she went to the country club where there
was a party going on. She left the club shortly before one in the morning and invited a few friends to
follow her home and have one more drink.
They got to the Volupides house about ten minutes after Queenie, who met them at the door and said,
Something terrible happened. Arthur slipped and fell on the stairs. He was coming down for another
drinkhe still had the glass in his handand I think hes dead. Oh, my Godwhat shall I do?
The autopsy conducted later concluded that Arthur had died from a wound on the head and confirmed
that hed been drunk.

Police Photo:

Directions: In groups, fill out the rest of the chart.

In the first column, write down specific opinions on what you think happened.
These opinions are called Statements. They should be grounded in fact.
In the middle column, write down what you see in the picture or report that helped
you form your opinion. This will be called your Proof. It always supports your
Statement.

Statement
Arthur most likely fell
backwards.

Statements are opinions, so we

use qualifiers like most likely to
show that they are not 100% true.

Proof
He is lying on his back.

We can SEE that Arthur is lying on

his back from the photo, so this is a
good proof.

Explanation
Generally speaking, if someone
lands on their back, it is
because they fell backward. So
he probably fell back.

When we try explaining our proof, we often

explain how the world normally works, so
we use terms like generally speaking or
usually.

In the last column, write an Explanation that tries to show how your Proof
supports your Statement. In other words, why is your Proof good? What does it tell
us? Why should we care about it?

Directions: On a separate sheet of paper, write a SPES paragraph, that explains

what happened. A good paragraph will usually have 1 Statement, and at least 2
Proofs and Explanations.