英语写作学习笔记 Types of Writing

A.  Narration
1. Guidelines for effective narration

When planning ad writing a narrative, keep in mind the following five guidelines for effective narration.

◆    Present the events of your narration in a logical and coherent order.

◆    Select details carefully. You need to select details to suit the purpose of the narration and to create a dominant imssion.

◆    Show as well as tell. Your narrative will always be more interesting if you use events and dialogue to illustrate themes in addition to telling about the nature of an event.

◆    Choose a point of view and perspective for your topic and audience. Narrative point of view may either be first or third person. A first-person narrative is suitable for stories about yourself but the scope is limited. A third-person narrative may seem more objective but a good order is hard to maintain. The narrative perspective you  use depends uplon your audience and purpose. Obviously, you would use a different perspective and tone in narrating an experiment than you would in narrating a soccer match.

◆    Focus your narration on your main climax and limit the scope of the event narrated. Don’t try to narrate too broad an event. An unfocused account of events will not serve as an effective illustration of your thesis.

B. Description

Different from the method of narration, description does not have to follow any chronological sequence. It emphasizes our sensory imssion instead. That is to say, our senses play a very important role here. What we see, hear, touch, smell, and taste are all that we can put down in an essay of descriptive writing. Sometimes, we also put down what our mind sees, hears and feels. In a word, description aims at senting pictures in words of people, places, objects, scenes, or events.

Description sometimes stands alone; sometimes it enriches other writings. It makes narration and exposition more lively and interesting. In fact, each of the three types is frequently dependent upon the others to ensure the reader’s understanding and enjoyment. Most expository writing includes some narration or description; straight narration relies heavily on description and often employs exposition; description is regularly enhanced by narration and exposition. Therefore, don’t feel that you have to separate completely the three forms of writing in your own essays.

The following are some particular devices that can be employed in description:

1. Careful word choice:

The right words bring a description to life. Try to include specific nouns and verbs that convey exact meanings, and choose modifiers for maximum impact.

2. Sensory details:

Use immediate details of description and relate them to a sensory response – sight, sound, taste, touch, or smell.

3. Figures of speech:

Figurative comparisons force our minds to create images in order to evaluate similarities, either by stating directly or by merely suggesting the imaginary “picture”. Because the human imagination is very active, it needs only a little help to develop a simple idea into one that is much more complex, just as an artist transform a rough sketch into a finished painting. The most popular figures of speech are simile, metaphor, and personification.

a)     Simile is a direct or obvious comparison beginning with like or as:

He was as poor as a church mouse.

She danced and sang happily like a lark.

b)   Metaphor is a more indirect or subtle comparison that uses a word or phrase with one meaning in place of another to suggest a strong likeness between them:

She is the eyeball of her parents.

Our eyes are the windows of our soul.

He often faces his remarks by “Well, ah…”

They live near the mouth of the river.

c)     Personification is to treat a thing or an idea as if it were human or had human qualities:

The tall tree on top of the hill seemed to be fondling the white clouds with its fingers of long boughs.

Fate will not smile to you unless you smile to fate.

The flowers breathed out their sweet perfume.

The wind whistled in the yard, and the rain pounded on the window.

 

1.      Description of a person

Besides the devices mentioned above, you should pay particular attention, when describing a person, to the following question:

◇    What are the person’s characteristic features that make him different from all other people?

◇    How can you reveal the person’s personalities, thoughts, and feelings in what he or she says and does instead of showing them in your own abstract account and description?

◇    Does the person have any peculiarities and idiosyncrasies that may imss the reader deeply?

 Please keep those questions in the back of your mind when you read the following samples.

 Sample 1

 Kittredge of Harvard

  The sight of him as he came to the ten-o’clock class was in itself something that has to be recognized as dramatic. In the pleasant autumn or spring, men stood high on the steps or out on the turf in front and watched in the direction of Christ Church to see who could catch the first glimpse of him.

  “There he comes!” somebody called, and then everybody who was in a position to see watched him as he hurried breezily along – a graceful, tallish man in very light gray suit and gray fedora hat, with a full square beard at least as white as his suit, who moved with energy, and smoked passionately at a bigger cigar. Students used to say that he smoked an entire cigar while he walked the short distance along the iron fence of the old-burying ground and across the street to Johnson Gate. But as he came through the gate he tossed the remnant of his cigar into the shrubbery with a bit of a flourish, and the students still outside hurried in and scrambled up the long stairway in order to be in their places – as he liked – before he himself entered. If any of them were still on the stairway when he came in at the outer door like a gust, they gave way and they pushed up past them, and into the good-sized room and down the aisle to the front, threw his hat on the table in the corner, mounted the two steps to the platform, looked about with a commanding eye, and there was a sudden silence and unrestrained expectancy.

Comment:

The above passage is very successful as it leaves us a deeper imssion of the person described. How does the author achieve this success? First, the passage is well centered on this special teacher. Every sentence leads up to him: his neat appearance, peculiar habit, striking character and his influence on his students. Though we do not hear a word he says, we have known quite a bit about him from what he does and what the students do. He sents himself to us, and we also see him in a big mirror – his students. This is a clever choice of the angle of description for the author. Second, the details are well chosen. His peculiarities of smoking while walking, and his gray fedora hat and gray suit that match with his gray beard show his particular character immediately. Third, the author makes a good use of the sense of sight here with the help of well-chosen words, and consequently prints in the reader’s mind a clear vivid picture of the teacher’s character of moving with energy “like a gust”. He “hurried breezily along,” “smoked passionately,” “tossed the remnant of his cigar,” and “pushed up” past his students who “scrambled up the long stairway.”

   The above passage is a combination of description and narration, where description plays a leading role.

 

2.      Description of a place

Sometimes we read a description of a place alone where the author aims at informing and imssing the reader, but more often we read it in description of people and events where it creates a dominant feeling or mood that help reveal the personality of the people involved and the particular situation the people are facing. Whichever situation it is, remember to select the most imssive and effective details for your purpose and concentrate on the particular effect you want to achieve. In describing a place, you are supposed to follow a clear spatial order, either from distance to vicinity or vice versa, or from left to right, from top to bottom or vice versa. Don’t forget to employ the language devices listed at the beginning of this chapter.

 

3. Description of an object

 We sometimes find it necessary to describe an object to inform and imss our readers. In most cases, description of an object forms only part of a paragraph and helps to fulfill other purposes.

Sample 1

  The little crowd of mourners – all men and boys, no women – threaded their way across the market place between the s\piles of pomegranates and the taxis and the camels, wailing a short chant over and over again. What really appeals to the flies is that the corpses here are never put into coffins. They are merely wrapped in a piece of rag and carried on a rough wooden bier on the shoulders of four friends. When the friends get to the burying-ground, they hack an oblong hole a foot or two deep, dump the body in it and fling over it a little of the dried-up, lumpy earth, which is like broken brick. No gravestone, no name, no identifying mark of any kind. The burying-ground is merely a huge waste of hummocky earth, like a derelict building-lot. After a month or two no one can even be certain where his own relatives are buried.

 

Comment:

Here the author describes the corpse, the hole that is supposed to be the tomb, and the burying-ground. But he doesn’t concentrate on any of them as his purpose is to show, through the simple handling of the dead people, the miserable life of the people living in the colonial expires. With the emphasis on the poor conditions of everything concerned, he reaches his goal.

However, we do sometimes write complete essays on objects. Though description of an object is quite different from that of a place where a dominant imssion is intended, we are supposed to work on the reader’s senses, too. We should mention the object’s size, color, shape, and, above all, its uses and function. Though we are expected to describe every aspect of it to give an accurate and detailed picture, we should project its most important feature, particularly the aspect that we are closely linked to so as to lay more emphasis on one of its aspects instead of giving every aspect the same importance.

 

4. Description of a scene

 As the following sample illustrates, description of a scene usually includes three essential parts: the setting, the people, and the actions. Like description of a place, it should focus on the creation of a dominant imssion and a particular effect. So the details chosen must all lead up to that purpose.

A scene can make up the main part of an essay, and sometimes it is only an episode in a long narrative.

 Sample 1

Moonrise Over Monument Valley

  We were camped here in early spring, by one of these open-faced shelters that the Navajos have provided for tourists in this part of their vast tribal park on the Arizona-Utah border, 25 miles north of Kayenta. It was cool but pleasant, and we were alone, three men in a truck.

  We were here for a purpose: to see the full moon rise over this most mysterious and lonely of scenic wonders where fantastically eroded red and yellow sandstone shapes soar to the sky like a giant’s chess pieces and where people – especially white strangers – come quickly to feel like tty small change indeed.

  Because all Navajo dwellings face east, our camp faced east – toward the rising sun and the rising moon and across a limitless expanse of tawny desert, that ancient sea, framed by the towering near by twin pinnacles called The Mittens. We began to feel the magic even before the sun was fully down. It occurred when a diminutive wraith of a Navajo girl wearing a long, dark, velvet dress gleaming with silver ornaments drifted silently by, herding a flock of ghostly sheep to a waterholes somewhere. A bell on one of the rams tinkled faintly, and then its music was lost in the soft rustle of the night wind, leaving us with an imssion that perhaps we had really seen nothing at all.

  Just then, a large woolly dog appeared out of the gloom, seeming to materialize on the spot. It sat quietly on the edge of the glow from our campfire, its eyes shining like mirrors. It made no sound but when we offered food, it accepted the gift gravely and with much dignity. The dog then vanished again, probably to join the girl ad her flock. We were not certain it was not part of the illusion.

  As the sun disappeared entirely, the evening afterglow brush tipped all the spires and cliffs with magenta, deepening to purple, and the sand ripples stood out like miniature ocean waves in darkening shades of orange. Off to the east on the edge of the desert, a pale saffron glow told us the moon was about to rise behind a thin layer of clouds, slashed by the white contrail of inspanidual jet airplane miles away.

  We had our cameras on tripods and were fussing with light meters, making casual bets as to the exact place where the moon would first appear, when it happened – instant enchantment. Precisely between the twin spires of the Mittens, the enormous golden globe loomed suddenly, seeming as big as the sun itself, behind a coppery curtain on the rim of creation.

  We were as totally unpared for the great size of the moon as we were for its flaming color, nor could we have pared ourselves for the improbable setting. We felt like the wizards of the Stonehenge, commanding the planets to send their light through the magic orifices in line at the equinox. Had the Navajo medicine men contrived this for our benefit?

   The massive disk of the moon seemed to rise very fast at first, and optical effect magnified by the crystalline air and the flatness of the landscape between us and the distant, ragged skyline. Then it seems to pause for a moment, as if it were pinioned on one of the pinnacles or impaled in a sharply up thrusting rocky point. Its blazing light made inky shadows all around us, split by the brilliant wedge of the moon’s path between the spires. The wind had stopped. There was not s sound anywhere, not even a whisper. If a drum had sounded just then, it would not have been out of place, I suppose, but it would have frightened us half to death.

  Before the moon had cleared the tops of The Mittens, the show was over and the magic was gone. A thin veil of clouds sad over the sky, ending the spell as suddenly as it had come upon us. It was as if the gods had decided that we had seen enough for mere mortals on one spring night, and I must confess it was something of a relief to find ourselves back on mundane earth again, with sand in our shoes and a chill in the air.

 

Questions for study:

1)      What is the dominant imssion the author creates in this descriptive essay? What words and phrases does the author use to help create the imssion?

2)      What language devices does the author employ to make the essay imssive?

3)      Does the author only describe the scene? What else does he describe, and why?

4)      Can you identify the paragraphs about the setting and actions?

5)      How does the last sentence in paragraph 7 relate to the purpose of the essay?

6)      This description takes the form of a narrative. Where does the climax occur and how does it affect the viewers?

 

Comment:

 The essay is well organized with the first two paragraphs depicting the setting, and the last three depicting the actions of the rising moon. In between we find three more paragraphs, the first of which describes the sudden appearance of the Navajo girl and her sheep, the second the dog, and the third the place before the moonrise.

  The author aims at creating a dominant imssion of mysteriousness on the reader. The girl “drifted silently by, herding a flock of ghostly sheep,” but “perhaps we had really seen nothing.” The “large woolly dog appeared out of the gloom, seeming to materialize on the spot,” and “We were not certain it was not part of the illusion.” The moon “loomed suddenly” and surprised the author, so we find him asking himself: Had the Navajo medicine men contrived this for our benefit? It disappeared “as quickly as it had come upon us …as if the gods had decided that we had seen enough for mere mortals on one spring night.”

  Here the author works forcefully on our senses, so we hear “A bell on one of the rams tinkled faintly, and then its music was lost in the soft rustle of the night wind,” see “the great size of the moon” “as big as the sun itself” and “its flaming color,” and feel the “sand in our shoes and a chill in the air.”

  Besides similes like “the sand ripples stood out like miniature ocean waves” and metaphors like “fantastically eroded red and yellow sandstone shapes soar to the sky like a giant’s chess pieces,” the author also uses a rhetorical question: “Had the Navajo medicine men contrived this for our benefit?” This question suggests that the whole episode is a piece of magic deliberately created by the medicine men.

  The climax of the essay occurs in the last sentence of paragraph 6, when the moon suddenly looms between the twin spires of the mountain called “the Mittens.” The men are awe-struck, and they liken their reactions to those of the ancient wizards at Stonehenge, “commanding the planets to send their light through the magic orifices in line at the equinox.”

 

C. Exposition

 Exposition is writing that explains or gives information. It deal with processes and relationships. It answers questions of how something works, how something happens, what the outcome of a certain event may be, or why a certain situation exists.

  Don’t be intimidated by the term exposition. It is the most common kind of writing and appears in any place where you look for explanations. Books that you read on philosophy, economics, history, politics as well as newspaper articles are largely expository. This writing course is expository, as it shows you how to develop your ideas. Even much of your college work, such as book reports for extensive reading, term paper for American literature and British literature, or essay exams, may be expository.

  There are a variety of ways to develop an expository essay. You can explain things by example, process analysis, comparison and contrast, classification, and causal analysis. It is true that these strategies are often combined in writing; but writers usually depend on a primary strategy to develop their ideas. You will learn to identify the strategies and learn to use them one by one in this section.

 

Generally speaking, expository essays have the following characteristics:

Significant:  Even though you are not expected to sent something that will astound the reader or shock the world, you must offer the reader something worth reading and worth knowing. After all the purpose of exposition is to provide useful information. But a good expository paper is more than a collection of facts, figures, and details. It must intert the facts and contain personal insights.

 

Clear: If you understand your own idea and want to convey it to others, you are obliged to render it in clear, orderly, readable and understandable prose. It is true that certain ideas are inherently complicated and difficult, but your job is to lessen the difficulty and complication for the reader. How do you achieve clarity? First, follow a strict organizational pattern – an introduction with the thesis, body paragraphs that support the thesis, and a brief conclusion. Second, develop the points with adequate support and organize them logically and emphatically. Last, try to use exact words and avoid ornamental or ambiguous words.

 

Objective: Often you have to write from your personal experiences; almost inevitably you have to analyze a problem or a situation. If treated properly, they add interest to your paper. But you should try to sent things as truthfully as you can. Do not distort the facts. Otherwise, the information and analysis will be biased and unreliable. Such writing turns the reader away.

 

Economical: Your writing should contain no unnecessary words or sentences. Make sure that every word tells. You should not demand the energy and test the patience of the reader.

 

Interesting: However complex the subject may be, your writing should not bore the reader. While informing him, try to promote pleasure at the same time. Give your reader something fresh, something that will delight him. Often the examples that come convenient to you may be the ones that too often used or already overused by others. Essays containing such examples won’t be very attractive. Fresh points and examples can better engage the reader’s interest and reinforce your statement.

 

1. Introduction: You may open your discussion directly with a thesis statement followed by the body paragraphs. However, this kind of opening sometimes sounds too abrupt and the reader may not be ready to accept what you say in the paper. So more often, especially in academic writing, you want to invite people to read your essay by writing a few sentences before you state you thesis. Unless your essay is 8-10 pages long (3-5 pages long are usually considered short ones), the introduction can be just a single paragraph containing the thesis statement. The thesis is usually place at the end of the introduction after related or background information has been given.

  Specially, the introduction pare the reader by performing the following tasks:

◇    Announcing and limiting the subject

◇    Providing necessary information related to the topic

◇    Leading to and setting up the thesis statement

◇    Arresting the reader’s attention

 

There are many possibilities for starting your expository essay. You can use an anecdote, a personal experience, a description, a question, a quotation, an analogy, a definition, or a shocking statement as the introduction. For example:

 

A Quotation: About one of man’s frailties Thomas Wolfe wrote, “he talks of the future and he wastes it as it comes.” This observation is related to a principle by which I try to (without always succeeding) to live. (Thesis statement) I believe living in the sent because it is futile to dwell on the past, to worry about the future, or to miss anything in the only reality I know.

 

A description: She does not go out of her way for most people, she almost never gives a party, she rarely invites people to dinner, she seldom calls anyone on the phone. Most people tent to bore her. Is she an unhappy, maladjusted recluse? Quite to the contrary; people are attracted to her because she is well adjusted. (Thesis statement) I admire my friend Anne Lee because she is self-assured and discriminating.

 

An anecdote: While sitting by the concrete fountain in the mall, I noticed a pudgy man in a red-and-yellow T-shirt. It wasn’t his protruding belly that caught my attention; I was drawn to the message on the front of his shirt. Above his sagging waistline was a map of Japan with two stars on it and above the map, the line “Two Bombs Were Not enough.” Who knows what reasons he had for wearing such ad display of tastelessness, but it is typical of all those offensive little bumper stickers and T-shirt messages that assault us every day. Each one makes us a little less inventive to the  assault. (Thesis statement) Our culture is reveling in an orgy of bad taste, and no one seems to mind.

 

One common way of introducing your essay is to provide background information. In this case, you start with the broadcast general statements. Each of the subsequent sentences ought to be more specific than the vious one, leading the reader into the thesis statement.

 

2. The thesis statement: The thesis statement declares the main purpose or controlling ideas of your entire essay. Ideally it is a one-sentence summary of the whole essay. In some ways, it is similar to the topic sentence discussed in Basic English Comhension. But the topic sentence covers only one paragraph while the thesis controls the whole essay.

  With professional writing, the thesis can be distributed across several sentences, particularly if it is complex and highly qualified. And sometimes, the thesis may be implied, not directly stated. This is because the professional writer is able to maintain tight control over the essay development without an explicit statement. For you, student writers, the thesis statement is a matte of serious consideration always in exposition.

 

Here are the features of an effective thesis statement:

◇    It is the most important statement – the writer’s attitude or opinion on the subject – in the introduction.

◇    It is exssed in clear and specific terms.

◇    It may indicate the pattern of organization.

◇    It often contains controlling ideas or subspanisions that will be used in the topic sentences of the essay.

 

In addition to the points stressed above concerning the writing of introduction and thesis, here is a list of don’ts that you should keep in mind:

◇    Don’t make your introduction too long or too broad. Your introduction is to pare the reader, not to confuse him or waster his time.

◇    Don’t treat the reader as someone who is sitting  to you as you write. Don’t use phrases like “Now I will tell you…” or “Now I’m going to show you…”

◇    Don’t simply make your thesis a description of your intentions. Avoid statements like “I’m going to discuss student cheating in the essay.”

◇    Don’t clutter your thesis with exssions such as “in my opinion”, and “from my point of view.” Your essay obviously exsses your own opinion.

◇    Don’t substitute the thesis statement with a question. A thesis can never be in the form of a question. It must be a complete sentence.

 

3. Concluding paragraph: Most essays conclude with an ending paragraph that leaves the reader with some final thoughts on the topic. It is no less important than the introductory paragraph. It follows logically from the body paragraph, reminds the reader of the discussion, and leaves the reader with a sense of completion. While giving your essay a final shape, the concluding provides you a single last chance to show your thesis is valid.

  In Basic English Composition, you learned to write the concluding sentence for a paragraph. Basically, you may apply similar strategies in writing the concluding paragraph for an essay.

  Restating the thesis in fresh terms or summarizing the key points are the most common forms of reminding the reader of what you have said as illustrated with the sample below:

 

Thesis:

Friendship is both a source of pleasure and a component of good health.

Restatement:

Circumstances and people are constantly changing. Some friendships last forever; others do not. Nevertheless, friendship is an essential ingredient in the making of a healthy and rewarding life.

 

More often, adding a final comment can greatly strengthen your stand on the subject and extends the controlling idea of the essay. The final comment based on the information provided may take various forms. Like writing the introductory paragraph, you may put a rhetorical question to provide thinking or propose a solution to the problem you raised in the vious part. Observe other forms of writing the final comment:

1.      A final evaluation of the subject

2.      A diction of the future

3.      A warning that alerts the reader

4.      A witty remark that imssed the reader

5.      A statement of the essay’s broader implication

 

A few more tips on writing the concluding paragraph

◇    Start with a narrow statement to connect the concluding paragraph with the vious one.

◇    Avoid bringing in any new topic.

◇    Maintain the same tone as in the rest of the essay.

◇    Don’t apologize that you can not offer profound analysis. No one expects you to be an expert.

◇    End the essay briefly and naturally.

 

Last, if you arrange your points in climatic order, the most imssive point may well end the essay. In that case, there is no need to write an extra concluding paragraph.

 

1. Exemplification

 

Exemplification is to prove a point by example. It is the most common pattern of exposition.

In writing stage, your brainstorming may yield many examples. You must carefully examine them and choose the ones that best serve your purpose. Keep the following in mind when weighing the examples:

◇    Select resentative, relative, self-illustrative examples. The kinds of examples you provide for your reader are crucial in conveying your ideas. They should flesh out the thesis statement and topic sentences and clarify the point that you are making. If you want to show that students can reduce the financial burden on their parents by taking part-time jobs, you might want to include the example that many students can earn 15 yuan an hour by tutoring pupils. With the money earned they can buy books, tapes, and other daily necessities they need. Some don’t need their parents to send them monthly allowance.

◇    Select sufficient examples. The number of examples needed to develop a paper depends on the difficulty of your subject. There is no fixed rule as to how many examples you should provide.

◇    To illustrate that pursuing the self-study program requires persistence, your personal experience is enough. To show that great changed have taken place in your hometown recently, it is insufficient to cite one example that the road near where you leave has been widened. You need to offer several other examples.

◇    Select fresh ad interesting examples. Try to catch your reader’s interest by senting unusual examples.

◇    Arrange examples in climatic and logical order. Once you have decided the examples to use, you need to consider the best way of senting them. The order you choose should ensure the flow of ideas and logic. You can order examples according to familiarity (obvious to less obvious), according to interest (less interesting to more interesting), and according to importance, starting with the least important and saving the most significant or most important one for last.

 

2. Process analysis

 
Whenever we investigate how we do things – what steps to follow – we are analyzing a process. As in narration, process analysis usually arranges a series of events in time order and relates them to one another. But it has a different emphasis. It examines or analyzes the various stages leading to the final result of final product. Whereas narration tells mainly what happens, process analysis tries to explain or analyze – in detail – how it happens.
 

There are two kinds of process analysis essays: directional and informative.

  The directional type provides instructions on how to do something. You expect the reader to understand as well as follow the instructions. Through reading your essay, the reader will be able to so something or how something should be done. This type of essay is often referred to as “How-to-essay.”

  The informative type of process analysis, on the other hand, tells how something works, or how something is done or made.

  Compared with the directional type, the informative is less detailed. Since the reader does not perform the action, it is unnecessary to go through every little detail of the process.

 

Organizing a process paper:

Your introduction should define the process or name the thing to be made or done. You should tell the reader what materials, equipment, tools and skills are needed for the task. You may also include the liminary parations for the process. Your thesis may (1) state the purpose of the writing, (2) give the reader an overview of the whole process by listing the main steps, sometimes named clearly, in the order they are performed.

  The whole process must be spanided into several major steps. Your task of writing each body paragraph is to examine each major step. The topic sentence of each paragraph defined that particular step or states its purpose.

  In the concluding paragraph, restate the importance or the value of going through the process. If the process deals with making or producing something, show the end product to the reader; that is, describe how it looks and how it functions or operates.

 

Practice:

Write 2 process essays – one directional, one informative – on the topics given. Underline your thesis statement in the introduction.

1) Making a kite

2) Making dumplings

3) Writing Chinese characters with a brush

4) Celebrating the Mid-autumn Festival

5) Learning typing

 

3. spanision and Classification

 

Guidelines for using this strategy:
1. Choose a meaningful principle

  It is possible to spanide a subject or classify objects, facts, and opinions in many ways. They serve as principles or basis of spanision and classification. Different basis renders different spanisions. An artist’s work may be spanided according to time, style, theme, or techniques employed. Choosing the best style of his paintings as the basis will yield these categories: realistic, imssionistic, and experimental. If theme serves as the basis, his paintings fall into plants, animals, landscape, and portrairts.

  But it is pointless, for example, to spanide people who own books according to their age, or according to their income. It is more useful and interesting to spanide book owners according to how they treat their books: those who pack them in boxes, those who lock their books in bookcases for show, those who place their books almost anywhere. This spanision is more revealing and meaningful. You should decide on the one principle that suits your purpose of writing and the interest of the reader.

 

2. Be consistent and avoid overlapping

  Once you have determined your spaniding principle, stick to it throughout your essay. Under this principle, one item only belongs to one group. Just imagine if a gamar book classified sentences as simple, compound, complex, and interrogative, it would have obviously used two different principles. The one for the first three groups was the number of the verbs in a sentence, whereas the one for the last group was based on the function of a sentence. Trouble will arise with this particular sentence: “Shall I put the thesis in the introduction?” It belongs to both the first group and the last group at the same time.

  You should avoid overlapping of this kind. If an item fits anywhere, your classification creates confusion for your reader. Hence, your categories become pointless.

 

3. Name and define each group

  Give descriptive names to each category so that your categories leave a deep imssion on the reader. These labels help the reader to recall the information you provide in the paper. Be sure to explain what you mean by that name and show the characteristics of each category. Because subjects are not always clear-cut, it is possible to find that certain category shares some points with another category. While developing your essay, remember to differentiate the categories by senting both similarities and differences, with the latter as your chief concern. Each category should contain enough details to make it clearly recognizable and interesting.

 

4. Avoid either\or and too-many categories

  It is easier to sort things into two piles: things that possess a feature, things that do not possess any feature. Resist the idea of using this either\or method unless there are only two spanisions, such as credit courses or noncredit courses, literate or illiterate people. But often this either\or method sents only extremes and ignore fine gradation between extremes. In most cases, sensible spanisions should yield more than two groups. A student body is made up of more than just good or bad students; teachers of a school surely won’t be just qualified or unqualified, leading the reader to think that you have a very limited view on the subject.

  In writing an essay of limited length, too many spanisions are equally undesirable. They give the essay the appearance of a list rather than a careful discussion. If you have more than six spanisions, you need to reexamine them carefully to see if all the categories are parallel. Some categories probably should be treated as subspanisions under a larger category.

 

Thesis and structure:

The simplest form of the thesis is the enumeration of the categories into which your subject is spanided or classified. You signify the pattern by words like “types,” “kinks,” “categories,” etc. You can directly say “Sports fans fall into four type,” or “There are three ways to improve one’s spoken English.” The categories are sometimes named in thesis sentences as these: “Consumer goods may be spanided into stable goods, convenience goods, and emergency goods.” “People in the United States look forward to a number of holidays each year. These days usually celebrate a patriotic, political, or religious event of the past.”

  A more desirable form of thesis is to combine the types with the purpose of spanision or classification. Observe this thesis statement. Although the travel books are the best known of Mark Twain’s nonfiction works, his essays, his letters, and particularly his autobiography deserve equal attention.

  A classification essay is generally easy to organize and develop. Each part or category is identified and described in a major part of the body. Frequently one body paragraph is devoted to each category.

 

Practice:

Brainstorm and develop a detailed outline on 2 of the given topics.

1) My friends or relatives

2) Television comedies

3) Consumers/Sales people

4) Television addicts

5) Special students on campus

6) Stress for self-study students

7) Kinds of discipline

 

4. Cause and Effect

Causal analysis explains the cause-effect relationship between two or more subjects. When we discuss the condition producing something, we are analyzing the cause; when we discuss the result produced by something, we are analyzing the effect.

Every day we try to figure out the causes for something. When a problem arises, we start to examine the cause for it. For example, a fire broke in a dorm room. School authority would immediately investigate to establish the caused of the fire. When a significant change in our lives occurs, such as the success of someone or something, we try to look at the factors that contributed to that change. Understanding caused is not an idle pastime. We need to know why the fire broke out in order to vent the reoccurrence. We would like to know what it takes to be successful, so that we can try to be successful.

Writing a clear and meaningful causal analysis paper requires examining the topic carefully in order to be complete and logical. Since student essays are ordinarily between 300 and 500 words in length, these essays, generally speaking, can only deal effectively and thoroughly with an analysis emphasizing one or the other – causes or effects.

 

Organizing the Causal Analysis Essay

You could begin a cause paper with an introduction which briefly describes the effect, and analyze the cause in the body. When planning an effect paper, start by describing the cause in the introduction and discuss the effects in the supporting paragraphs. Your thesis statement can simply state the causes or effects to be discussed, or it may exss the most significant cause or effect.

When discussing causes or effects that are not related, arrange the paragraphs according to your own ference. However, the most common principles are order of familiarity and order of interest. These two principles are especially useful when the causes or effects are of equal significance. When one cause is more significant, order of importance is more effective. Remember to identify the most important cause as the most significant.

When you are analyzing caused or effects that are of not equal importance or that are immediate or remote, it is generally a good idea to organize the paragraphs beginning with the immediate and continue to the remote.

Sometimes it is impossible to isolate the causes or the effects of something. Often one event causes a second event, which in turn causes a third event. Each effect becomes the cause of the  effect. Let us look at what is happening with the rail. The railway raised the price of train tickets. The raised fare reduced the number of passengers. Because the carriages are less crowded, it is easier for the conductors to clean the interior and provide passengers what they need, promoting the harmony between passengers and service people. In the meanwhile, it is also easier to spot and vent crime. A result of better and safer traveling condition, the image of the railway improves. Eventually, the image of the rail industry is improved and the rail regains its privileged position as the number one choice for long distance traveling.

Causation papers often discuss problems. You can conclude the discussion by offering solutions to the problem. Remember the solution must be related to the vious discussion and that they must be specific and not high-sounding. If your discussion dwells on the positive side of an issue, evaluate its significance or the ultimate effect as your concluding remarks.

 

Sample 1

Why Students Drop Out of College

 

  Each fall a new crop of first-year college students, wavering between high hopes for the future and intense anxiety about their new status, scan college maps searching for their classrooms. They have been told repeatedly that college is the key to a well-paying job, and they certainly do not want to support themselves by flipping hamburgers or working at some other dead-end job. So, notebooks at the ready, they await what college has in store. Unfortunately, many of them – indeed over thirty percent – will not return after the first year. Why do so many students leave? There are several reasons. Some find the academic program too hard, some lack the proper study habits or motivation, others fall victim to the temptations of the college environment, and a large group leave for personal reasons.
  Not surprisingly, the academic shortcomings of college students have strong links to high school. In the past, a high-school student who lacked the ability or desire to take a college-paratory course could settle for a diploma in general studies and afterward find a job with decent pay. Now that possibility scarcely exists, so many poorly pared students feel compelled to try college. Getting accepted by some schools isn’t difficult. Once in, though, the students who has taken nothing beyond general mathematics, English, and science faces serious trouble when confronted with college algebra, freshman composition, and biological or physical science. Most colleges do offer remedial courses and other assistance that may help some weaker students to survive. In spite of everything, however, many others find themselves facing ever-worsening grade-point averages and either fail or just give up.

  Like academic shortcomings, poor study habits have their roots in high school, where even average students can often breeze through with a minimum of effort. In many schools, outside assignments are rare and so easy that they require little time or thought to complete. To accommodate slower students, teachers frequently repeat the material so many times that slightly better students can grasp it without opening their books. And when papers are late, teachers often don’t mark them down. This laxity produces students who can’t or don’t want to study, students totally unpared for the rigorous demand of college. There, courses may requires several hours of study each week in order to be passed with even a “C.” In many programs, outside assignments are commonplace and demanding. Instructors expect students to grasp the material after one explanation, and many won’t accept late papers at all. Students who don’t quickly develop disciplined study habits face a flood of low grades and failure.
  Poor student motivation aggravates faulty study habits. Students who thought high school was boring find even less allure in the more challenging college offerings. Lacking any commitment to do well, they shrug off assigned papers, skip classes, and avoid doing required reading. Over time, classed gradually shrink as more and more students stay away. With final exams upon them, some return in a last-ditch effort to salvage a passing grade, but by then it is too late. Eventually, repetition of this scenario forces the students out.
  The wide range of freedom offered by the college environment can overwhelm even well pared newcomers. While students are in high school, parents are on hand to make them study, push them off to class, and send them to bed at a reasonable hour. Once away from home and parents, however, far too many students become caught up in a constant round of parties, dates, bull sessions, and other distractions that seem more fascinating than schoolwork. Again, if such behavior persists, poor grades and failure result.
  Personal reasons also take a heavy toll of students who might otherwise complete their programs successfully. Often, money problems are at fault. For example, a student may lose a scholarship or grant, fail to obtain needed work, or find that the family can no longer afford to help out. Some students succumb to homesickness; some are forced out by illness, injury, or death in the family; and yet others become ill or injure themselves and leave to recuperate. Finally, a considerable number become disillusioned with their programs or the size, location, or atmosphere of their schools and decide not to return.
  What happens to the students who drop out? Some reenroll in college later, often in less demanding two-and four-year schools that offer a better chance of academic success. Of the remainder, the great bulk find civilian jobs or enlist in the armed forces. Most, whatever their choice, go on to lead productive, useful lives. In the meantime, campus new comers need to know about the dangers that tripped up so many of their decessors and make every effort to avoid them.
 
Comment:
This essay focuses on causes. The introduction identifies the situation clearly: Though many students come to college every year, 30 percent will discontinue their studies after a year. The thesis statement is a lengthy one as it points out five specific reasons why students drop out of college. The thesis dicts the supporting paragraphs of the essay.
  The points are examined in the order they are set forth in the opening paragraph and they are arranged in order of familiarity (from the most obvious to the least obvious). Since the first two causes are related with students’ behavior in high school, they are put close together, with the transitional phrase “Like academic shortcomings” at the beginning of paragraph 3 linking the two paragraphs. Next, the discussion moves to poor study habits and poor student motivation. These two factors interconnect with each other. Therefore, it is natural and logical to study them side by side. The first three causes are concerned with the students who are not well-pared, while the fourths shift the examination to the well-pared ones who fail to handle the freedom on campus. The word “well-pared” suggests the contrast to the discussion in the vious paragraph, ensuring coherence. The point about personal reasons does not seem to be related with vious causes, it is put towards the end of the paper, and the transitional word “also” connects this paragraph with the rest of the essay.
  The conclusion satisfies the curiosity of the reader by describing what the dropouts may do. In addition, it establishes the purpose of writing the cause paper in the last sentence. It warns the newcomers of the dangers they may force so that they can be better pared for an academic life.
 
Practice
Study the two paragraphs that follow. Each one attempts to explain a reason. Which paragraph does not adequately explain the reason given in the topic sentence?
 
  One reason I came to the United States was to learn English. English is the most important language in the world. It is the language spoken at the United Nations; it is also the official language of diplomacy. In addition, English is useful in many occupations. For example, air-traffic controllers all over the world must be able to speak English. Since English is so important, I decided to come to the United States.
  Another reason I came to the United States was to go to college. In my country only a very small percentage of the applicants to the universities get accepted. Since I was unable to get accepted at a university at home, I had to go to a college outside of my country. I chose this university not only because I was able to get accepted at it, but also because it offers a program that I want to pursue.
 
Practice
Write an essay on one of the topics:
1.      The popularity of a singer
2.      Job discrimination against women in China
3.      Effects of Child’s single-child policy
4.      The state ending job assignment for college graduates
 

5. Comparison and Contrast
 
Take any two people, objects, events, ideas; take any two periods of time, places of interest, works of art, and ask yourself these questions: How does one compare with the other? How are they similar? How different? In this way you are engaged in a comparative analysis. When you compare and contrast, you put side by side a pair of things alike in nature such as: two textbooks, or two professors, and examines their similarities and differences. When you compare, you point out the ways that two persons, places, or things are similar; when you contrast, you discuss how they differ. Sometimes you need to treat both, but with different emphasis. Comparison and contrast is also a natural, instinctive process that goes on in everyone’s mind. In daily life, often you have to choose between two things, as when you decide on your major, English or Japanese, which dictionary to buy, Oxford or Webster’s. Through comparison and contrast, you make your final choice.
  Although the main function of comparison and contrast is to clarify and explain, you should have a specific purpose in mind. The particular purpose determines the approach you take to writing. You may want to inform the reader of certain interesting or significant similarities or differences you have observed. For example, in discussing two competent teachers in the same field, you may want to examine the different teaching methods they use. Your aim is not to prove whether A is better than B. Note however, this kind of paper may lack heart and appear boring to the reader. The reader may feel a little unsatisfied and ask, “So what?” “What is the point then?” For this reason, you should give your own evaluation and judgment. For the above example, you may state clearly the particular benefit that students have because of a particular teaching strategy, or even though they employ different teaching strategies, both perform their duties well.
  Sometimes, you aim at demonstrating the superiority of one thing by contrasting it with another – for example, showing that one product is better than the other. You try to convince the reader of the point by examining both products through comparison and contrast. You sent the attractions as well as the weakness of each. Your judgment is revealed through this process.
 
Structuring a comparison and contrast essay:
There are several forms into which comparison and contrast essays may be conveniently organized. There are also many variations within each form, for the forms are flexible, giving you ample freedom to shape your essay as you wish. What is important is that the essay always has a shape – a definite plan of development – so that it does not shift back and forth random from A to B; back to part of A; then more about B; back to another part of A; and so on. Whatever shifting take place, it must follow an orderly procedure.
  There are two basic patterns of organization: subject-by-subject and point-by-point. In the subject-by-subject pattern, you discuss all of the characteristics or subspanisions of the first subject in the first half of your essay and then sent all of the characteristics of the other. In both parts of the essay, you should treat the items for comparison and contrast in the same order. For example, when comparing two tape recorders, you may first consider these points of Recorder A: functions, quality, price. Then in the second half of your paper, you discuss the corresponding points of Recorder B.
  If you main intention is not to compare two total subjects one against the other, but rather to demonstrate how parts of one “play off” against parts of the other, then you will structure your essay according to those specific points of concern. In the point-by-point pattern, you structure your paper around points of comparison instead of subjects. You move back and forth between the subjects and place the specifies of both subjects close together for direct and immediate comparison and contrast.
  Each pattern has its advantages and disadvantages. The subject-by-subject pattern is useful in short essays dealing with broad but not complex topics when there are few points to discuss. The reader can easily remember all the points in the first half while reading the second half. But when you use this pattern with longer papers containing many points, the reader will find it difficult to recall what you have discussed in the vious paragraph or section of the paper. In addition, if the transition between the two halves is not well made, your paper might sound like two separate ones.
  The point-by-point pattern works well especially with subjects that contain numerous points. It can bring into sharp focus the similarities and differences for the reader to see as he goes along the paper. But you should provide proper transitions when necessary so as to avoid abrupt switching between the two subjects.
  You may also combine the two patterns in developing comparison and contrast in a large framework as many professional writers do.
  Whatever pattern you choose to develop your essay, you need to ensure a smooth flow from one from one subject to another and from one point to the . Without adequate transition, your discussion might sound choppy and have seesaw effect. For your convenience, here are listed again transitional words commonly used in comparison and contrast papers:
 
Comparison                       Contrast
also                                     however
similarly                           on the contrary
too                                 on the other hand
both                                    in contrast
like                                  although (though)
likewise                                   unlike
not only … but also                instead of
have in common                      but (yet)
share the same                          while
in the same way (manner)         whereas
 
A special kind of comparison: analogy
This type of comparison does not examine subjects that belong to the same category. It often calls attention to the similarities of two apparently unlike subjects. The subjects are different in nature, and writers point out the identical aspects between the two. Analogy papers often explain and clarify something unfamiliar, something abstract, by likening it to something familiar, concrete and physical. In the following paragraph the writer explains the functions of Earth’s atmosphere by comparing it to the window.
The atmosphere of the earth acts like any window in serving two very important functions. It lets light in, and it permits us to look out. It also serves as a shield to keep out dangerous and uncomfortable things. A normal glazed window lets us keep our house warm by keeping out cold air, and it vents rain, dirt, and unwelcome insects and animals from coming in … Earth’s atmospheric window also helps to keep our planet at a comfortable temperature by holding back radiated heat and protect us from dangerous levels of ultraviolet light.
 
D. Argumentation

 

Argumentation is an important form of human communications. Its ultimate goal is to persuade the listener or reader to embrace a viewpoint. It seeks to influence the opinion or action of others through logic and evidence, not merely emotions and power. How to achieve this goal most effectively varies with audience and subject. However, during the course of a specific argument, you need to describe a point, draw a contrast, explain a process, or define a term. All the rhetorical modes you have studied in the vious chapters server as a basis for writing argumentation. So argumentation is not entirely new to you. The main difference between argumentative essays and other essays is purpose. The purpose of many essays is to inform or entertain an audience or to exss the writer’s feelings and experience. However, the primary purpose of the argumentative essay is to convince the audience or reader of the thesis. Because the purpose in argumentation is to convince the audience to believe or to do something that they are not now believing or doing, the writer must pay more attention to the needs, concerns, and values of the audience than in essays to exss, entertain, or inform.

 

1.      Form Your Argumentative Thesis

 

A strong argument has a single, clear thesis, although sometimes it is implied. If your audience is not sure what position you are taking on a issue, you can’t influence them to your point of view. The words such as should, must, and ought to often indicate an opinion or belief. When you write an argumentative essay, the main point you want to make is an opinion or claim.

  Although most of us have opinions about everything – about books, movies, music, which highway to take, what doctor to see – most of these opinions will not work as thesis statement for argumentation because they are generalities, statements of facts, or they are personal ference. Here are some tests your thesis for an argumentative essay should pass:

1.       The thesis is worth taking a stand about. It’s not trivial or obvious.

 

There are many movies about friendship.      No

 

2.      It requires evidence and support because some people disagree with it.

 

Friendship is important.                 No

 

3.      It is not just personal ference.

     

You will love the movie Thelma and Louise, which is about the friendship of two women.                        No

4.      It is not a fact, not something that can be verified in a record book.

 

Movie about men’s friendship earn more money than movies about women’s friendships.              No

 

5.      It is specific enough that you can make a good case for it. Statements with words such as always and never are too broad to support.

 

   Women always have close friendships, but men seldom do.            No

 

 

Finally, here is an argumentative thesis that passes all the tests:

 

Movies about friendships reflect a shift of the definition of friendship from buddies to intimates.                Yes

 

The placement of the thesis is particularly important in argument. Usually the thesis is near the beginning of the essay because readers become impatient if the main point is not clear early in the essay. If they quit reading in irritation or for lack of interest, you can’t convince them of your thesis. Sometimes, whoever, the thesis is in the conclusion of the argument for dramatic impact. The writer may create tensions in the essay and lead up to the thesis. Like attorneys arguing a courtroom case, most writers of complex arguments state their thesis in the introduction and again in the conclusion for emphasis. In short arguments this repetition is not necessary. The most important issue about the thesis is that it is clearly stated so the audience knows what it is that you want them to agree with or do.

 

2.     Focus on the Concerns and Knowledge of an Appropriate Audience

The audience of an argumentative essay is readers who disagree with you or who haven’t formed an opinion about the subject yet. There is no point arguing a position with those who already agree with you, although you may be more comfortable talking about controversial subjects with like-minded people. Since your purpose is to sway the opinion of others, you must know your audience well.

  For example, as a manager of a store, you try to convince your employees that they can and should help cut down on shoplifting. If you can tie reduce losses to increased wages, you’ll get some changes. They will be more likely to follow store policies. If you tell how you confronted a suspected shoplifter and what you said, your example will give weight to your argument. It is important to tailor your argument to a specific audience.

  If you know your audience well, you should be able to anticipate their objections to your claim (thesis) and evidence. In the example about shoplifting, the employees might say to the manager, “I can’t say anything to that shopper. She is as old as my grandma.” Or, “I know those guys from school.” Or, “They’re just little kids.” You have to anticipate such objections and solve problems they resent. If your evidence and logic do not address your audience’s concerns, they may say, “Yes, I agree, but I can’t…” and nothing will change. The argumentative essay is not a debate in which you sent your opposing sides of an issue and let the audience decide what they believe. You have decided what you believe and are seeking to convince the audience of that viewpoint.

   To focus on your audience, make an audience profile before you write an argument. Answer the following questions in writing. The profile of the store manager’s audience is given as an example.

 

Thesis: Employees should help reduce shoplifting.

What common ground do we have in relation to this issue?

◇    Shoplifting reduces store profits. Increased profits are tied to increased wages.

◇    Shoplifting is wrong. This is a good store with good products.

What beliefs or concerns does the audience have about this issue?

◇    Shoplifting is not a big deal. It does not concern me. It is not my store. Preventing shoplifting and confronting shoplifters aren’t my job. I’m in sales.

What objections or disagreements with the thesis or my beliefs and concerns about this issue will the audience have?

◇    I’m not responsible for customer actions. I can’t confront friends or adults like my grandparents. I don’t know what to say.

 

As you develop your argument, you decide what kind of evidence and support will have weight with the specific audience. Remember that you are not manipulating them by making them feel guilty, fearful, obliged, or angry. You are appealing to their reason with logic and the weight of evidence. As a writer, you must decide what evidence supports your thesis, what evidence will be effective with your intended audience, and how much evidence is needed to convince the audience.

 

 

3.     Tailor Evidence to the Argumentative Thesis

Although argumentation provides support for an opinion or belief, that support is evidence, not proof. For instance, two renters claim a landlord owes them their deposit. The landlord denies it. The renters and the landlord offer evidence (logical statements and reasons) and supporting information, witness, and records to support their evidence. Both sides are convinced of the truth of their positions, and there is probably truth on both sides. However, the jury must decide which side has the most convincing evidence and support for their position.

  In an argumentative essay your reader is both the opposing side and the jury. You must give enough evidence and support to convince a reader of your argumentative thesis. For example, in the essay concerning movies about friendship, the writer develops the argument with this evidence:

◇    Recent movies about friendship have been about female friendships.

◇    Earlier movies about friendship were about male friendships.

◇    Men are buddies; they do things together.

◇    Women are friends; they love each other.

◇    Therefore, recent movies about friendship show a change in the definition of friendship.

 

This evidence is clearly connected to and supports the thesis: Movies about friendships reflect a shift of the definition of friendship from buddies to intimates. However, each statement sented as evidence needs development.

 

4.     Develop Evidence with Adequate and Appropriate Support

You can develop your argument through examples, definition or personal experience. Here are some examples of ways to develop the reasons or supporting statements of your argument.

 

1) Definition of important terms:

“When you take a position about an issue and try to convince an audience to agree with you or, at least, to understand your position and your reasoning, you are making an argument.”

 

2) Verifiable facts:

“Thirty-six years ago, on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a while man, defying a Southern tradition of decades.”

 

3) Examples, including personal experience:

“Recently I was invited to lecture on anxiety to several hundred mental-health professionals in Boston. My talk was scheduled to follow those of a number of prominent psychiatrists. When my turn came, I was especially nervous because the speaker before me had been particular imssive and charming.”

 

4) Recognized authority on the subject:

“While affiliated with Pennsylvania State University, psychologist Michael J. Mahoney and gymnastics coach Marshall Avener investigated the impact of anxiety on gymnasts at the 1976 US Olympics Team trials.”

 

5) Quotations, especially from an authority:

“Frank Smith, author of fifteen books on language and learning, describes learning as ‘continuous, spontaneous, and effortless, requiring no particular attention, conscious motivations, or specific reinforcement’.”

 

6) Statistics:

“A 1984 National Institute of Mental Health survey estimated that two to four million Americans are handicapped by social phobias in their personal and professional lives.”

 

The examples above are only models of the kinds of support you might use to support evidence. However, they are not support as sented here because there is nothing support for them to support. In argument isolated, free-floating facts and information are not support. These things may be support if they are logically and clearly connected to a piece of evidence. In addition to these kinds of support for the evidence in an argument, you may use anyone or several of the methods for developing an essay that you have studied in this book.

 

5.     Provide Clear and Obvious Connections

Since an effective argument must communicate sound reasoning, both organization and connections are particularly important. Some writers can outline a clear and complete argument before they begin writing, but others actually think by writing. No matter which kind of writer you are, you should make sure your argument is logically organized.

  To check the organization of an argument, make an outline of your draft. Concentrate on how each paragraph relates to the thesis. Is there a clear stated relationship? Is the order logical and does it meet the needs of the audience? At this point, you may uncover a problem. The evidence may not fit the thesis, or an important piece of evidence needed to build a logical case may be missing, or the connections between sentences or the elements of the argument may be weak or missing.

  The connections of the evidence to the argumentative thesis and the relationship of each piece of evidence to others should be logical and obvious. Also the connection of the supporting information to the evidence must be logical and obvious. As in other clear writing, sentences and parts of the essay should be coherent. Here are some of the transitions and strategies for coherence you have studied:

◇    Transitional words that show organization by time, space, or importance:

first, , after, before, meanwhile, immediately, finally

◇    Clear signals for examples:

for instance, one time, for example

◇    Repetitions of key words and phrases.

◇    Careful pronouns use so that pronouns refer clearly to the nouns or pronouns they are substitutes for.

◇    Parallelism to show ideas or information of similar importance.

 

Students often take it for granted that the audience can grasp the importance and connection of the evidence to the thesis or of support to evidence in an argumentative essay. If you discover missing connections in your draft, revise to include connections, and transitions that will make your argument clear and coherent.

 

Practice

Suggested topics for writing argumentation

1.      Using either gentle or bitter satire, write an argument exposing the cruelty of killing rare animals in order to make expensive fur coats.

2.      Write an argument, satirical or straightforward, in which you propose how to alleviate poverty in the remote areas in China.

3.      Write an essay either for or against purchasing foreign commodities. Word your proposition clearly and support it with strong evidence, including facts, experience, and quotation from experts.

4.      Write an essay arguing for free trade. Make sure that your proposition is clearly stated and that you support your connection with appropriate evidence.

5.      Write an essay in which you argue for or against some moral, social, or political issue currently debated in our society.

6.      In your opinion, how serious is sexual discrimination at your school or at your job? How is it manifested? Who suffers most from this discrimination? In a coherent essay, persuade your friends that discrimination is or is not a serious social evil at your school or your workplace.

7.      Your local newspaper is soliciting community opinion on fireworks control. The editors of the paper want to know your stand on the issue and the reasons behind your position. In a well-organized essay, explain your thoughts on this controversial issue.

8.      In your opinion, how serious is the problem of unemployment in your hometown? What types of people are unemployed? In a coherent essay, persuade your friends that unemployment is or is not a serious problem that should be solved in your hometown.

9.      Write an essay in which you extol Confucianism or Socialism explaining its historical or sent role in the fight against “evil”.

10. Write an essay arguing for the necessity and importance of environmental protection or water conservation.