- Search for a topic which interests you (perhaps in your major field). Try
to come up with something fairly controversial, but avoid subjects that have
been overdone (abortion, capital punishment).
- Try a heuristic strategy (free writing, brainstorming, clustering, journal
writing, journalistic formula, etc.).
- After doing the appropriate pre-writing and organizing activities, write
a draft which supports a thesis or conclusion of your own. Be sure it is an
arguable one so that you can clearly choose one side. At this point some research
may be necessary (library, interviews of experts, polls, surveys, experiments,
etc.) to find data to support your conclusion more strongly than you can from
your own background knowledge.
Structure your argument similarly to the following:
- Introduction - Give background or perhaps an illustrative
example to show the significance of the subject or the nature of the
controversy. Consider stating the conclusion of your argument here as
the thesis of your essay.
- Refutation - Give a brief statement of a refutation
of the opposing view(s) to make your reader aware that you have considered
but rejected it (them) for good reasons. This refutation may be more
appropriately placed last, just before your conclusion, or even interspersed
at effective locations throughout the essay. You must choose the best
location.
- Presentation of your argument - Throughout the body
of your essay you should build your case one point at a time, perhaps
devoting one paragraph to the defense of each of your premises, or setting
forth your evidence in separate, meaningful categories.
- Conclusion - After all your evidence has been presented
and/or your premises defended, pull your whole argument together in
the last paragraph by showing how the evidence you have presented provides
sufficient grounds for accepting your conclusion. You may also add here
some conventional device to finish your essay, such as a prediction,
a new example, a reference to the example with which you began (now
seen in a new light) etc.
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- Revise and edit, and be sure to apply the critical process to your argument
to be certain you have not committed any errors in reasoning or included any
fallacies for which you would criticize some other writer (see the handout
"Guidelines for Writing Critical Essays").
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