Writing in Social Studies At one point, the great minds of Western Europe firmly believed the Earth was flat. They assumed this was simply an uncontroversial fact. You are able to disagree now because people who saw that argument as faulty set out to make a better argument and proved it. Differences of opinion are how human knowledge develops

Writing in Social Studies Making an argument-expressing a point of view on a subject and supporting it with evidence is the the aim of academic writing. You will need to do more than just present information that you have gathered or regurgitate facts that were discussed in class. You will need to select a point of view and provide evidence (in other words, use "argument") to shape the material and offer your interpretation of the material.

Writing in Social Studies We all use argumentation on a daily basis, and you probably already have some skill at crafting an argument. The more you improve your skills in this area, the better you will be at... Thinking critically... Making choices... Weighing evidence... Reasoning

Academic Writing is Different – to suck less, DON’T use  Unnecessarily flowery language or jargon (use concise language and get to the point)  Strong and highly opinionated statements without adequate factual support.  First or second person, ever! I, we, us, our, ours, you, your, yours (pssst, nobody cares what you think :-/)

Academic Writing is Different – to suck less, DON’T  Digress into areas not requested in the prompt just because you know something about that other subject.  Use irrelevant facts. They should all directly relate to the points you make.  Use always, all, only, never, nothing, or none unless you prove that in your essay. (Not easy.)  Use the present tense.

OK, so what am I supposed to do? Read the prompt several times. Translate the verbs. Determine exactly what you are being asked to do. Plan your essay first. Sounds obvious, but many students suck because they don’t pre-write

Are you done yet? No! Just because you say something in your essay does not make it true. Defend your statements with evidence. Make sure your facts are relevant rather than just related. An example: You are trying to explain how to write an essay and start using facts on the manufacture of paper. Now paper is related to an essay (you use it to write on) but it is not relevant to how to write an essay. Get it?

Decoding the verbs  Discuss. Talk over; write about; consider or examine by argument or from various points of view; debate; present different sides of.  Explain. Make clear or plain; make clear the causes or reasons for; make known in detail; tell the meaning of.  Compare. Examine for the purpose of noting similarities and differences.  Contrast. Examine in order to show dissimilarities or points of difference.

Decoding the verbs  Analyze. Determine their component parts; examine their nature and relationship.  Assess/Evaluate. Judge the value or character of something; appraise; evaluate the positive points and the negative ones; give an opinion regarding the value of; discuss the advantages and disadvantages of.  To what extent. The range over which something extends; scope; the point, degree or limit to which something extends; magnitude.

Thesis Statement 1.Is an argument, a position that you are taking. It must be explicit, obvious and in your reader’s face. 2.Must answer the question (prompt), all parts of the question. 3.Must be focused on the evidence 4.Persuasive and positive.

Essay Structure