There has been much debate over whether there should be a universal format for an essay, what that would be and how it would be taught. The goal of this project is not to dive into this debate, but rather to simply provide students and teachers with activities to support the argument writing process in general. However, Toulmin's argument format lends itself to at least a general format for a paragraph, if not an essay.
In order to fully support a claim, Toulmin argues that writing needs evidence, warrants, backing and a counterargument. Telling students that they need all of these things in every paragraph might be inorganic and even unrealistic, but all these things are still needed to create a complete claim. For teachers who prefer the five paragraph essay method, students' essays would include three fully developed claims, one in each paragraph. This structure can be adapted for whichever method that teachers prefer for their essays, as long as each claim has the necessary parts. Students can take two paragraphs for each claim, or perhaps a whole essay if the thesis is the only main claim. Regardless of essay or paragraph length, students should be able to find and produce each part to their arguments in order to support their claims.