prepare the essay:

1. Claim: conclusions whose merit must be established. For ex, if a person tries to convince a listener that he is a British citizen, the claim would be "I am a British citizen."

2. Data: the facts we appeal to as a foundation for the claim. For ex, the person introduced in 1 can support his claim with the supporting data "I was born in Bermuda."

3. Warrant: the inferences or assumptions that may be taken for granted by the preparer. Warrants connect the claims and the evidence and describes why your data means your claim is true. In order to move from the data established in 2, "I was born in Bermuda," to the claim in 1, "I am a British citizen," the person must supply a warrant to bridge the gap between 1 & 2 with the statement "A man born in Bermuda will legally be a British Citizen."

4. Backing: credentials designed to certify the statement expressed in the warrant; backing must be introduced when the warrant itself is not convincing enough to the readers or the listeners. For ex, if the listener does not deem the warrant in 3 as credible, the speaker will supply the legal provisions as backing statement to show that it is true that "A man born in Bermuda will legally be a British Citizen."

5. Rebuttal: statements recognizing the restrictions to which the claim may legitimately be applied. The rebuttal is exemplified as follows, "A man born in Bermuda will legally be a British citizen, unless he has betrayed Britain and has become a spy of another country."

6. Qualifier: words or phrases expressing the speaker's degree of force or certainty concerning the claim. Such words or phrases include "possible," "probably," "impossible," "certainly," "presumably," "as far as the evidence goes," or "necessarily." The claim "I am definitely a British citizen" has a greater degree of force than the claim "I am a British citizen, presumably."