1. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education1 Critical Thinking Chapter 13 Writing Argumentative Essays

2. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education2 Writing a Successful Argument There are three stages: 1.Before you write your first draft 2.Writing the first draft 3.After the first daft

3. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education3 1 Before you write your first draft It is important to think before you write. The more you do, the less frustrating writing will be. Know yourself. Know your audience. Choose and narrow your topic. Write a sentence that expresses your claim. Gather ideas (Brainstorm and Research). Organize your ideas.

4. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education4 1.1 Know Yourself Are you prepared to be precise and accurate, offer only premises you believe, be fair to the other side, and credit your sources? Are you ready to revise your beliefs should your research convince you that you are wrong? Do you know enough about the topic? If not, do research.

5. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education5 1.2 Know your Audience Quite simply, your intended audience should greatly affect your writing style and what evidence you include. Know who your audience is and use appropriate language and evidence. However, you should never change your position on a topic simply because your audience will be more receptive as a result. Anticipating your readers reactions (e.g., objections) will help you write a more persuasive argument. Try to appeal to common values instead of just telling them that they are wrong.

6. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education6 1.3 Choose and Narrow your Topic Be specific. Instead of writing about modern work relations in Shanghai write about whether employers have the right to read their employees’ emails in Shanghai. You may want to limit your topic even more. Maybe only talk about the rights of MNCs.

7. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education7 1.4 Write a sentence that expresses your claim. An argument paper defends a conclusion: a thesis. A thesis must be a statement that is true or false. So write down the statement you plan to defend. Can’t be “I will address whether large corporations have a right to monitor employee emails.” Should be something like “I will argue that large corporations do have the right to monitor employee emails.” It can be either true or false.

8. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education8 1.5 Gather Ideas: Brainstorm You can… …list supporting premises. …list opposing premises. …think critically about your claim (test for known fallacies). …develop ideas through narration (reporting), description, cause, effect, classification & division, contrast, comparison, illustration and definition.

9. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education9 1.6 Gathering Ideas: Research Gather facts: Can be verified. Stats, reports, and examples of actual events are good places to go. Use reliable sources. Unless it is obvious, cite it! Opinions: Try to use informed opinions by informed people.

10. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education10 1.7 Organize Your Ideas Try to find the most logical order Organizing by Premises: list the claim first, and then each premise. Organizing by method of development: Discover if certain methods—illustration, contrast/comparison, definition, etc.—will work best to defend each claim. State the problem, some alternate solutions, and then your own. Use the Evaluative Pattern: compare reality to certain criteria. Respond to your Opponent’s Argument, either: Start with opposing viewpoints. Mention them within each of your premise paragraphs. Save them for the end. Or combining patterns. By the end you should have a topic sentence for every major portion of your paper’s body.

11. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education11 2 Writing the first draft Be open to revision even if it is your conclusion! There are four steps: 1.Provide an interesting opening. 2.Include a thesis statement. 3.Develop your body paragraphs. 4.Provide a satisfying conclusion.

12. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education12 2.1 Provide an Interesting Opening Introduce the topic and show why it is important. If your conclusion is widely accepted, you may need to show why you are bothering defending it.

13. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education13 2.2 Include a Thesis Statement clearly, precisely, and up front The more clearly, precisely, and up front you state your thesis the better. It is also good to include some detail on how your will defend your thesis. Tells your reader “where” you are going.

14. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education14 2.3 Develop Your Body Paragraphs Start each body paragraph with a topic sentence and develop each paragraph with details that support the topic sentence. Try to make sure the arguments flow as well as possible.

15. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education15 2.4 Provide a Satisfying Conclusion In a shorter paper, there is no reason to repeat your whole argument; maybe close with a restatement of your thesis statement. In a longer paper, however, it helps to restate your main ideas: your thesis, and your main lines of support. It also helps to do one of the following: Return to an example from the introduction. Make a prediction about your topic. Call for action.

16. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education16 3 After the first daft It is usually best to set it aside for a while, and then return to it. There are four steps: 1.Read what you have written and revise. 2.Show your work to colleagues/editors. 3.Edit your work. 4.Hand it in.

17. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education17 3.1 Read what you have written and revise Look for grammar, spelling and awkward language. Read it from the vantage point of someone who disagrees.

18. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education18 3.2 Last Steps As you read, object to your argument. Let someone else see it and get their honest opinion. If they offer no criticism, prod them for some. Check each sentence for grammatical mistakes and so forth. (You can even get the computer to read it for you! www.readplease.com).www.readplease.com Hand it in!

19. Lecture Notes © 2008 McGraw Hill Higher Education19 Tutorial Read sample on 414.