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Chapter 6: The Toulmin Model of Argumentation
ACTIVITY #6.1: CONVERT ARGUMENTS TO TOULMIN MODEL. (To help students understand the
structure of the Toulmin model, and to help them understand how to use it to analyze arguments.)
PREPARATION: Prepare the projections described in the steps below, and argument handouts.
STEP 1: Review the parts of the Toulmin Model. Project the following so all students can see it, and talk
through it, answering questions. Leave it up for the next step as a reminder.
CLAIM: Statement you’re trying to prove.
MODAL QUALIFIER: words or phrases indicating how absolute the claim is.
STEP 2: Divide the class into groups of three students. Give each group the arguments below, with the
statements in scrambled order without the Toulmin model labels, or converted to a paragraph. Have
STEP 3: Reconvene as a class, to talk about the groups’ results. Ask a group to report on what they came up
with for each part of the argument. Before noting if they were correct or not, have other groups
report their findings if they’re different, and talk about why they made the different choices. Then
project the argument with the labels and explain why the parts fit the labels. Then do the same for
the second argument.
CLAIM #1: I can swim between the two islands without stopping.
WARRANT: People who have enough strength and endurance to swim two miles are able to swim
between the two islands.
EXERCISE #6.2: CONSTRUCTING AN ARGUMENT USING THE TOULMIN MODEL. (To help
the students understand the structure of the Toulmin model, to help them learn to use the model as a framework to create their own
arguments, and to help them understand that it applies to a variety of contexts.)
STEP 1: Project the seven parts of the Toulmin model from Exercise #`6.1 so all the students can see it.
Talk them through it as a review.
Instructions
(Separate the instructions for each group.)
Group 1: Make an outline of a simple argument about some national or international issue,
Group 3: Make an outline of a simple argument about the quality of some product, as if you
are talking to a friend, and write it as the parts of the Toulmin model. You don’t have to fill in
ACTIVITY #6.3: CONVERTING ARGUMENT FROM FORMAL LOGIC TO TOULMIN
MODEL. (To help the students recognize the connection between formal logic and Toulmin’s informal logic, and to help them
understand the structure of the Toulmin model.)
STEP 1: Have students bring the valid and invalid syllogisms they constructed for chapter 5 to class. (Or other
arguments that were in the activities for chapter 5.)
STEP 4: Reconvene as an entire class. Discuss what was difficult about doing the conversion. If there are
any conversions the students are unsure about, talk about them.
