Kristen Kuchay's Reading Response - Curious Researcher

For the reading from the Curious Researcher, Bruce Ballenger talks about the many sides and work put into an argument paper. An argument paper is not just the writer’s opinion on the topic or the supporting facts for his opinion, it is both sides to the topic. The writer can include his or her opinion, but needs to support it with facts and research; along with the other side of the argument and facts on why that particular argument is introduced. The writer needs to introduce the topic and the argument in an interesting yet educational way to grab the reader’s attention. Anyone can simply write their opinion and their topic and begin right off the bat with it. Ballenger explains how this is crucial to a paper because if the introduction is not interesting enough for the reader, then what was the point of the argument paper?
He next goes on to say that you should do a closed model of the argument by starting off with your pre-existing opinion, being followed by gathered evidence that supports this opinion and then finally your argument with your pre-existing belief and the research behind it (Ballenger). This is an effective method because it helps the writer see where he stands on his topic and put all of his evidence and research in an organized fashion, which will later help in the writing of the argument paper. The next type of model Ballenger suggests is the inquiry-based argumentation model, where you begin your argument paper opinion free, begin exploring, explaining, evaluating and reflecting, followed by your opinion or hypothesis which you can test against evidence. This helps because the writer can then see all of the evidence in front of his and decide whether or not to change is created opinion/hypothesis (Ballenger). This normally works for the writer when they are interested in a topic but do not have an opinion either way. Normally people write their argument papers on topics they are interested or passionate about and already have a formed opinion.
This is very helpful for writing our argument paper for the classes because it gives you methods to help in your research and even change your opinion on evidence. Not only do you research the topic with your opinion in mind, but you get to research the other side and other opinions from people on the topic. You get all the information on your topic without really knowing it. I always felt argument papers were a strong point for me because the question or opinion I base my argument paper on is normally something I am very passionate about and want to educate people on with my views. At the same time, I get to see why other people feel the way they feel and eliminate any biases I may have. It helps you to create an introduction where even you as a writer would be interested in reading this paper if you came across it. You want to make it interesting enough where it can grab most, if not all of the people’s attention.