ABSTRACT
A common narrative among many English language arts teachers prescribes that all "good" argumentative writing should have a thesis clearly stated in the introduction. This chapter presents a point that supports this thesis, and the essay ends with a logical conclusion. Such narratives about "good" argumentative writing are accompanied by the tendency to teach argumentative writing by providing students "clear guidelines" and simple routines. The chapter problematizes the narration about argumentative writing and what is needed for the teaching of such writing by exploring teacher's argumentative epistemologies and the beliefs that they hold about argumentative writing. It defines an argumentative epistemology as a constellation of beliefs about argumentative writing and learning argumentative writing realized in ways of talking about argumentation and ways of orchestrating teaching. Argumentative epistemologies are the epistemological stances that teachers and students use to define what counts as an argument and argumentative writing.
