Best Answer
The Toulmin Model refers to a way of making arguments. It breaks the argument into six parts: claim, grounds, warrant, qualifier, rebuttal, and backing. The first three parts, the claim, grounds, and warrant are considered the fundamental parts of the argument, with qualifier, rebuttal, and backing considered as supplementary to the argument. The claim refers to what you are trying to prove. In this assignment, you would either be trying to prove that curfews are beneficial or detrimental.
One of the difficulties with your assignment is that it is not clear what type of curfews you need to address. There are three basic types of curfews that come to mind. One is a curfew that parents have for children. The next is a curfew by a government body, usually a local one like a municipality, that applies to juveniles and prohibits them from being out past a certain time. The final one is what we would consider an emergency curfew and is being implemented to restrict people’s movements after a certain time period. Around the world, many jurisdictions have imposed nighttime curfews to try to slow the spread of COVID-19. Therefore, before you make your claim about the efficacy of curfews, you want to make sure and explain which type of curfew you are addressing. This explanation will help you with the warrant for your argument, because the warrant either expressly or impliedly links the grounds of the argument to your claim. Fully explaining the claim is one way to make sure that your audience understands how your grounds relate to the claim.
Then, you want to focus on the grounds that support your argument. If you are arguing for a curfew, explain what the curfew is designed to accomplish and then provide evidence that it does accomplish those goals. If you are arguing against a curfew, then you want to show what a curfew is designed to accomplish, provide evidence that it does not accomplish those goals, and go further to describe how it is a civil rights violation.
