1qaSADJ

Special Focus:
Writing Persuasively
Finally, since not only nonfiction and argument but also creative literature effect a
rhetorical transaction, the following example from a student essay results from the
application of the Toulmin model to a novel. Arguing the case for Tim O’Brien’s method,
one student writes:
The Things They Carried is not an accurate depiction of the Vietnam
War, but rather a portrayal of personal truth—what the war meant to the
soldiers and how it changed them. O’Brien is trying to bridge the gap
between the soldier and the audience. This chapter (“How to Tell a True
War Story”) is important to the story as a whole because it undermines the
conventions of storytelling.
Data
(The selected chapter undermines
the conventions of storytelling.)
Claim
(It is important to
the story as a whole.)
↑
Warrant
(The novel’s unconventional narrative structure
is a significant feature of its literary merit.)
(The selected chapter demonstrates that significance.)
↑
Backing
(Narrative method is an important feature of fiction.)
(The content, style, rhetoric, and theme of the chapter)
In this case, the warrants and their backing indicate what will become the substance of
the body of the essay. Arguing that the story, and not the war, is O’Brien’s subject, her
essay concludes, “It is in this way that true war stories are never about war. They are about
love, memories, and sorrow—the heaviest things they had to carry.”
AP® English Language and Composition: 2006–2007 Workshop Materials 29