How to Write Warrants in Research Arguments?

An example of argument based on reason: We are facing significantly higher health care costs in Europe and North America _claim, because global warming is moving the line of extended hard freezes steadily northward. _reason

An example of a general principle that justifies relating your particular reason to your particular claim: When an area has fewer hard freezes, it must pay more to combat new diseases carried by subtropical insects no longer killed by those freezes.

Like all warrants, this one says that if a general circumstance exists (an area has fewer hard freezes), then we can infer a general consequence (that area will have higher costs to combat new diseases).

For the logic of warrants to work, readers must agree with four things:

1. The warrant is true: fewer hard freezes in fact mean higher medical costs.
   
2. The reason is true: hard freezes in fact are moving north.
   
3. The specific circumstance in the reason qualifies as a plausible instance of the general circumstance in the warrant.
   
4. The specific consequence in the claim qualifies as a plausible instance of the general consequence in the warrant.