Arguments

Ali Sparkes is a children’s author who leads writing sessions for Junior and Young Writers every Saturday morning at MAST Mayflower Studios. To learn more about her, visit her website: https://www.alisparkes.com and click on her profile: https://artfulscribe.co.uk/facilitators/ali-sparkes

Susan L. Edser, MA graduate in Creative Writing and Publishing and winner of Bournemouth University’s prestigious Vice Chancellor Award 2024, is Ali’s assistant and writes the weekly blog. To learn more about her, click on her profile: https://artfulscribe.co.uk/facilitators/susan-l-edser

Ali and Sue began the session this week by arguing about the topic.

‘Today we are going to cover arguments,’ Ali said.
‘No!’ Sue said. ‘I don’t want to do that!’

This caused a stir in the group and got them in the zone for our session today: arguments. Ali asked the writers what the last thing they argued about was, what made them snap, and when they last realised they were wrong.

After sharing their experiences, Ali paired them to debate a statement. These were:

- Girls and boys should all wear the same thing

- Wasps are pointless

- If you find £100 in the street, you should keep it

- Under 16s shouldn’t have mobile phones

- School detention is always wrong

- McDonald’s and KFC should be banned

- Sending humans back to the moon is pointless

- Cats are better than dogs

The children and young people considered the arguments for and against it and raised interesting points, such as whether wasps pollinate and McDonald's food is not freshly made. We had a vote to see who agreed and disagreed with the topics and couldn’t help but continue the debates.

Then, Ali introduced the Thornton’s Chocolate Cake competition! Each person had to write reasons why they should be allowed to take the cake home. The writers gave incredible arguments ranging from high emotion (‘I have had a hard time recently’ or ‘My aunt saves people’s lives’) to downright grovelling (‘Ali, I love your books!’).

Ali and Sue then debated over who should win the cake. Junior Writer Ellie used heartfelt and wide-ranging points that moved Ali and Sue. She later announced, ‘Some of it was true!’ This must deserve the quote of the week! The Young Writers winner was Rowan for his highly amusing and thoroughly made-up arguments, plus a little bribery about ‘Sue’s secret’!

There was also our regular Writer of the Week competition, too. Willow and Freya jointly won the Junior Writers award for their brilliant debate about wasps being pointless / not pointless. They had never worked together and showed what a good team they were. Freya shared some of her confidence with Willow read out for the first time. The Young Writers ‘Writer of the Week’ winners were Rosie and Harry for whether a person should keep or hand in money they found in the street. They provided clear debates, with Rosie sharing maturity as she imagined the emotional impact versus a capitalistic response by Harry. Excellent work, Rosie and Harry!

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Arguments