Lesson 2

Stand on Issues
Supported
by Factual Evidences
English for Academic & Professional Purposes
A claim without evidence is merely an
opinion. In order to defend a stand on a
particular issue or topic, your claim must
be embedded with adequate evidences.
2023 English for Academic & Professional Purposes 2

Supported Facts and
Unsupported Facts
Facts not supported Facts supported with
with evidence evidence
Many students seek Wonderland University
(2016, p. 36) reports that
assistance with during the academic year,
their writing skills lecturers recommended that
396 internal and 267 external
at university. students should seek
assistance with their writing.

Facts not supported Facts supported with
with evidence evidence
Writing academic The Australian Association of

Essay Writing (2012, p. 129)
paragraphs is the claims that their research in
most important five universities shows that
students are required to write
skill in academic academic paragraphs in 90% of
writing. their assessment tasks.

Three most common
techniques in
supporting your claims
Quotations
•In its research project, the Literacy
Foundation (2014, p. 167) argues that
“common punctuation errors cause problems
with meaning-making in student writing”.

Quotations
Examples:
direct quotes
paraphrases
summaries
Examples
•Many student writers have difficulty with some aspects
of punctuation. For example, researchers (George et al.,
2016; Jones & Brown, 2013; Smith, 2012) find that many
students misuse commas, mix up colons and semicolons
and use capital letters incorrectly.
Examples
Example:
illustrations of your points

Statistics
•The literacy Reference Group (2017, para.10)
finds that more than 60% of the students who
were assessed on their literacy scale made
errors in their punctuation.
Statistics
Example:
facts
figures
diagrams
Using supporting and
opposing ideas
When you have sorted out the position you
will take in your essay, you will write a
number of paragraphs to provide support for
your stance. It is also equally valuable to find
information that does not support your stance
and argue against those opposite points of
view.
Writing support
statements
1. write support statement (sentence)
2. write the reasons /evidence to support what
you say (a number of sentences). Put your
most important reasons first.
Supporting Argument
A number of researchers have noted that assignment tasks

help students to learn the language of their subject (your
statement). For instance, Smith and Jones (2014, p. 27) find
that students who do assignments demonstrate a better use of
the terminology of their subject when they write in their
exams than students who do only exam assessment (evidence
to support your statement).

Writing about the
opposing ideas
1. write a statement with the idea you disagree with
(the opposing idea)
2. write the reasons/evidence you have showing how
your position is better (a number of sentences). Put
your most important reasons first.
Opposing Argument
Some educators argue that assignments are time

consuming to mark (your opposing statement).
However, evidence from student feedback surveys finds
that students value this feedback more than any other
learning experience in their courses (Jackson & Peters,
2015) (counter evidence to support your opposing
position).
Defending a Stand on
an Issue by Presenting
Reasonable Arguments
In making the defense, you must ensure that
you are addressing all sides of the issue and
presenting them in a manner that is easy for
your audience to understand. Your job is to
take one side of the argument and persuade
your audience that you have well-founded
knowledge of the topic being presented.
Citing Your Sources
It is important to cite your
sources. It signifies that you are
giving credit to the owner of
information and ideas you want to
include in your essay.
Ways on How to Do
Citations:
• Quoting: According to Source X, “[direct quotation]”
([date or page #]).
• Paraphrasing: Although Source Z argues that [his/her
point in your own words], a better way to view the issue is
[your own point] ([citation]).
• Summarizing: In her book, Source P’s main points are
Q, R, and S [citation].
Steps in presenting
arguments to defend or
support a stand on an
issue
1. Make Issue Criteria
Keep in mind that you have to persuade others and
make them believe in your claim. When shaping it,
consider and ask yourself the following questions to
ensure that you will be able to present strong
arguments on the issues.
1. Make Issue Criteria
Is it a real issue with genuine controversy and uncertainty?
Can I identify at least two distinctive positions?
Am I personally interested in advocating one of these
positions?
Is the scope of the issue narrow enough to be manageable?

2. Collect Evidences from
Properly - Cited Sources
Before deciding on a stand to defend, you should do
some research on the subject matter. While you may
already have an opinion on your topic and an idea
about which side of the argument you want to take, you
need to ensure that your position is well supported.

Listing the pro and con sides of the topic will
help you examine your ability to support your
counterclaims, along with a list of supporting
evidence for both sides. You will find many
kinds of evidentiary sources.
Here is a list of the most common:
surveys, descriptive studies, case studies, academic journals,
popular magazines, biographical information, quotes or
summaries of work from established authorities, statistics,
interview of an authority or ordinary citizen, laboratory
research, and textual analysis.
3. Make an Appeal to Your
Audience
To convince a particular person that your own
views are sound, you have to consider the
audience way of thinking.

Audience
Appealing to the audience is another important
part of defending a stand on an issue. This can
help you strengthen your position or claim.

Audience
In an academic argument, logical appeals are
the most common, however, depending on
your topic, ethical and emotional appeals may
be used as well.

Three Major Types Of
Appeals
a. Logical Appeals
This is the use of facts in order to support and

defend a position. This means reasoning with your
audience, providing them with facts and statistics,
or making historical and literal analogies. It
persuades the audience by targeting their thinking.
Example:
More than one hundred peer-reviewed studies have been
conducted over the past decade, and none of them suggests
that coconut milk is an effective treatment for hair loss.
In this argument, the peer – reviewed studies are used as
factual supports.

b. Emotional Appeals
This is the use of the audience’s feelings for the

subject of the paper such as anger, pity, and aversion
in order to persuade. It may also refer to values that
the reader may identify with such as the importance
of family ties, hospitality and the bayanihan spirit.
Example:
How can you say that the government shouldn’t censor the
internet? Think of the poor children who might be exposed to
inappropriate content.
This type of argument attempts to elicit a strong emotional
response, since people will generally want to protect children, and
since no one wants to adopt a stance that will purportedly harm
them.
c. Ethical Appeals
This is the use of convincing an audience

through the credibility of the persuader, be it a
notable or experienced figure in the field or
even a popular celebrity.

Example:
As a doctor, I am qualified to tell you that this course of
treatment will likely generate the best results.
Here, people tend to believe the opinions of doctors in
the matter of medical treatments. The audience consider
the argument because of the credibility of the speaker.
4. Organize your Viewpoints
or Arguments
In presenting arguments, you are typically asked to take
a position on an issue or topic and explain and support
your position with research from reliable and credible
sources. The argument you are making should be clear
within your thesis statement.

4. Organize your Viewpoints
or Arguments
You should have several reasons or points of discussion
that help you to support your argument. You will
explain and support these reasons. As with all academic
writing, you’ll need to cite any information that you
used from a source.

Sample Outline
I. Introduction
A. Introduce the topic
B. Provide background on the topic
to explain why it is important
C. Assert the thesis (your view of the
issue).
Your introduction has a dual purpose:
to indicate both the topic and your
approach to it (your thesis statement),
and to arouse your reader’s interest in
what you have to say.

One effective way of introducing a topic is to
place it in context – to supply a kind of
backdrop that will put it in perspective. You
should discuss the area into which your topic
fits, and then gradually lead into your specific
field of discussion (re: your thesis statement).

II. Your Arguments
A. Assert point #1 of your claims
1. Give your educated and informed opinion
2. Provide support/proof using more than one source (preferably three)
B. Assert point #2 of your claims
C. Assert point #3 of your claims

You may have more than 1 overall
points to your argument. Each
argument should be supported with
properly - cited sources.

III. Counter Argument
A. Summarize the counterclaims
B. Provide supporting information
for counterclaims
C. Refute the counterclaims
D. Give evidence for argument
You can generate counterarguments by
asking yourself what someone who
disagrees with you might say about each
of the points you've made or about your
position as a whole.

Once you have thought up some counterarguments,
consider how you will respond to them--will you
concede that your opponent has a point but explain why
your audience should nonetheless accept your
argument? Will you reject the counterargument and
explain why it is mistaken? Either way, you will want to
leave your reader with a sense that your argument is
stronger than opposing arguments.

Be sure that your reply is consistent with
your original argument. If considering a
counterargument changes your position,
you will need to go back and revise your
original argument accordingly.

IV. Conclusion
A. Restate your argument
B. Provide a plan of action but do
not introduce new information

Now, you have known that when
defending a stand on an issue it is very
important that you must organize your
arguments clearly.

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Stand on Issues

2023 English for Academic & Professional Purposes 2

2023 English for Academic & Professional Purposes 4

Writing academic The Australian Association of

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A number of researchers have noted that assignment tasks

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Some educators argue that assignments are time

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This is the use of facts in order to support and

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This is the use of the audience’s feelings for the

This is the use of convincing an audience

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