Analysis and Practice of Argumentative Writing [ LROM1321 ]

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As for all the courses available for students in ROM, ROGE or LAFR, excellent working knowledge of French is required, both in reading and writing. As far as the argumentative writing is concerned, no specific prerequisite is required.

The theoretical principles of the argumentative analysis of the speech: her foundations rhetorics, logical and pragmatic, her approach and its privileged objects;
The analysis of argued papers: interpretation of political, advertising, literary, scientific speech, the report of Master's degree);
The practice of argued papers: the essay, the problem of research...

In the term of the training, the student will have to be able:
- To analyze finely the driving argumentative locatable in heterogeneous discursive kinds : political, advertising, literary, scientific speech (the work of the end of cycle, the report of Master's degree);
- To produce a relevant argued paper: an essay, an argument concerning the problem of research held for the report of Master's degree;
- To know and to clarify the main concepts appropriate for the argumentative analysis of the speech.

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

At the first examination session (January) the evaluation takes the following form:
- For the part of the course provided by prof. E. Durante (10 points): Time-limited (2 hours) written work produced in class during the last class of the semester. The work will consist in writing an introduction from a given corpus of texts chosen among the essays of the required reading (see bibliography below). The introduction will be written in accordance with the instructions given by the teacher during the course.
- For the part of the course provided by S. Delneste (10 points): Time-limited (4 hours) written essay, which will be produced during the examination session. The essay will be written according to the instructions given by the teacher during the course.
The final score will be in the overall average established from the marks obtained in both the tests.

At the 2nd examination session (September), the evaluation takes the following form:
- For the part of the course provided by prof. E. Durante (10 points): Written work produced at home and sent by email in PDF format (via ICampus) no later than the 1st day of the examination session. The work will consist in writing an introduction from a given corpus of texts. The introduction will be written in accordance with the instructions given by the teacher during the course.-
- For the part of the course provided by S. Delneste (10 points): Time-limited (4 hours) written essay, during the examination session. The essay will be written according to the instructions given by the teacher during the course.
The final score will be in the overall average established from the marks obtained in both the tests.

The course, provided by Prof. E. Durante, is organized into five sessions of 3 hours. Each session deals with a particular aspect of argumentative writing: the teacher presents theoretical contents and invites students to implement it from examples mostly selected from the required reading (see bibliography below). The aim of this part of the course consists in both to observe discursive strategies in critical texts and to practice argumentative and academic writing following the instructions given by the teacher.

The practical work (TP), supervised by S. Delneste, teaching assistant, is also organized into five sessions of 3 hours and is intended to make students able to produce a written essay. From a corpus of several essays, students will first recognize discursive indicators specific to the argumentative writing. They will then gradually be invited to produce an essay.
NB: participation in TP classes is mandatory. An unjustified absence penalizes students in the final evaluation.

The course provided by E. Durante deals mainly with the analysis and practice of argumentative writing in the literary field, considering it both, from a reading point of view (observation of textual examples provided by the teacher and/or students + study of a homogeneous group of critical texts related to the topic chosen for this academic year, see required reading in the bibliography below) and from a writing perspective (production of an introduction concerning the topic of the required reading). The practical work (TP) classes provided by Ms. Delneste will be devoted to the discursive analysis and practice of a critical academic essay.

A bibliography is communicated to students at the beginning of the semester. Some of this bibliographical materials will be available on ICampus platform or by other means.

Required readings:
PIEGAY-GROS, Nathalie, Le Roman, Paris, Garnier Flammarion, coll. « GF-Corpus », 2005, 255 p.

Reference readings:
AMOSSY, Ruth, L'Argumentation dans le discours, Paris, Armand Colin, 2012.

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