University students need to know how to write an effective academic essay. At its core, any academic essay is essentially an argument. This does not mean you are penning a series of aggressive verbal attacks; rather, you are using language to persuade someone to adopt a certain perspective.
For example, you may be asked to write an essay on how the revolution changed the culture in your country. Your response is an argument, in which you try to persuade your audience that the war changed cultural norms in three or four specific ways. As you create your argument, think about your writing as a conversation between yourself and an audience.
The way you choose to build and support your argument has a great deal to do with how you see yourself as part of the conversation. If you envision your work as a response to an existing prompt, the reader with whom you are "speaking" should shape the way you write.
For example, imagine someone asks you why a politician acted in a certain way. You will probably respond in one way if the questioner is your five-year-old cousin, another way if they are a friend who is your same age, and yet another if they are your boss. You should approach every writing project with this same awareness of audience. Keep these ideas about argument and conversation in mind as we explore how to develop an academic essay.
The rhetorical situation we discussed in Unit 1 should influence the argument you choose, the type of essay you write, and the way you organize your ideas. In Unit 2 we review these issues in detail and discuss a highly-structured approach to writing an argument. By the end of this unit, you should be ready to write an academic essay.
Throughout Unit 2 we ask you to complete a number of activities which will culminate in writing an argumentative essay. Choose one point you promoted in your Unit 1 essay topic and develop it further. The assigned topic for the Unit 2 activities and the essay is how your selected activity or characteristic affects success in an Internet-based college course.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 11 hours.
How will you inform or persuade your audience? For example, is your purpose of your research paper to offer background information or to frame an argument so your audience will render a judgment regarding an historical event or current practice? Perhaps you are writing to persuade your audience to change its previous beliefs or to act in a certain way to improve their lives or help them avoid a certain danger.
What information does your audience need to know to make a decision or render a point of view? What opinions do they already have about your topic? How will you persuade them – do you want them to simply agree with your argument, or are you trying to provoke them to act in a certain way?
These study materials review how you can present your argument to your readers. You may also wish to review Research Writing and Argument from Unit 1.
Read this article and review the list of academic genres you could be expected to write in.
Read this article about how to craft an argument.
Read this article and complete the exercises to learn about crafting a guiding idea or a thesis statement, depending on the genre of writing. Every essay needs a main point, regardless of the genre. How are the guiding idea and the thesis statement different?
Read article on the parts of an argument, especially warrants. How do warrants differ from reasons and evidence?
In this practice exercise, create a warrant you might use to help make your case in the argumentative essay you will write for this unit:
"How does my selected activity or characteristic affect success in an Internet-based college course?"
Read this article to review the Toulmin method and qualifiers. Do you need to qualify your claim to avoid overgeneralization (assertions that are too broad)?
In this practice exercise, write an introductory paragraph in which you develop a claim that will later be the basis for your Unit 2 essay:
"How does my selected activity or characteristic affect success in an Internet-based college course?"
Remember to include a strong thesis statement, which is a one-sentence claim or argument of the position you will take in your essay. Try to go beyond simply announcing your topic and listing the discussion points you plan to make in the body of your paper; keep in mind that you will work to prove your thesis in the body of your essay.
Read this article, which looks at an example of a personal narrative. How does this type of writing differ from literary analysis or a research paper? When is this type of writing appropriate?
Read this article to learn about compare and contrast essays. How is this form of writing important beyond the classroom? Attempt the exercises to test your understanding.
In this practice exercise, sketch a comparison outline for your essay topic from the perspective of a comparison essay. The topic is:
"How does my selected activity or characteristic affect success in an Internet-based college course?"
What topics would you be comparing, and why? Think also about how you would adapt your claim according to these comparisons.
Read this article to learn about cause and effect and how it compares to correlation. How can type of writing help you beyond the classroom? What professions rely on cause and effect reasoning?
Read this article to learn how cause and effect can influence your writing.
In this practice exercise, sketch an outline for your essay topic from the perspective of a causation essay. The topic is:
"How does my selected activity or characteristic affect success in an Internet-based college course?"
What would be the causes of your claim? What would be the effects of the claim? Adapt your claim accordingly.
Read this article on using an academic tone in your writing. Why is it important to use appropriate academic language in college-level writing?
In this practice exercise, read an article, either online or in print, that discusses a current event. Identify the author's claim, audience, purpose, and tone.
In three to five paragraphs, explain your reaction to the article. For example, you might consider the following questions:
After you complete this activity, identify the audience of your own argumentative essay. The topic is:
"How does my selected activity or characteristic impact success in an Internet-based college course?"
Read this article to learn how conversations develop over time and how writers enter into a conversation when making claims in their writing. As you begin to write, keep the questions in this article in mind to help you consider how you might add new insights to the conversation through your writing. How can considering the conversation about your topic help during the research process of your writing?
Read this article to learn more about the role of introductions and effective strategies for developing your opening paragraph. The introduction is the most important part of an essay because it provides first impressions for your audience. In general, your introduction should provide an overview of your topic and should lead into your thesis statement. Try using one of the "attention grabber" suggestions in the reading for the exercise below.
In this practice exercise, use the prewriting and writing techniques you know from Unit 1 to write an introductory paragraph for your essay for this unit. The topic is:
"How does my selected activity or characteristic affect success in an Internet-based college course?"
Read this article, which will help you understand how to organize paragraphs in the body of your essay to help make your paragraphs cohesive and to smoothly transition between one discussion point to the next. Keep in mind that the paragraphs in the body of your essay should work to prove or address your main purpose or argument set out by your thesis statement.
Read this article about the PIE method of structuring and organizing body paragraphs. This method breaks a paragraph into three parts: the point, the illustration, and the explanation. By using this method, you can keep your paragraphs focused and connected to your thesis.
Read this article on how to write a conclusion. Conclusions can be just as important as introductions. A conclusion provides the last opportunity to make your point to your audience. Which of the strategies provided in the reading do you feel would make the strongest conclusion? Which strategy would be best for an argumentative essay and why?
In this practice exercise, use the prewriting and writing techniques you know from Unit 1 to write a concluding paragraph for your essay for this unit. The topic is:
"How does my selected activity or characteristic affect success in an Internet-based college course?"
Read this article to learn about the components that make a complete sentence. Every sentence needs a subject (noun or pronoun) and a predicate (verb). What is the subject of an imperative sentence? Pick a literary work, article, or one of your own essays, and try to identify the subject and predicate in 5–10 different sentences.
Read this article. Varying sentence structure in your writing helps your writing flow for your audience and can help keep your readers' interest.
If you feel you need additional help with fragments and run-ons, read this guide.
Subject-verb disagreement, where the conjugation of the verb does not match the point of view (first, second, or third) and number (singular or plural) of the subject, is a common error in writing.
Review this page on subject-verb agreement.
Read this article about when to use the present simple, past simple, and present perfect verb tenses. A common mistake in writing is to shift verb tenses, such as by writing in the present tense and then shifting to the past tense. To avoid this, try to choose the appropriate verb tense and use it consistently throughout your writing.
Write an essay (500 to 1,000 words) in which you assert and defend your opinion on the topic for this unit:
"How does my selected activity or characteristic affect success in an Internet-based college course?"
Use the prewriting techniques we reviewed in Unit 1 to develop a thesis for your paper and identify supporting reasons and evidence for your argument. Try to develop a rough outline that you can flesh out to create a first draft. When you have completed your first draft, use the questions in the Toulmin method to evaluate your argument. Then, revise your essay as needed to reflect the results of your analysis.
Reading aloud to yourself can help you finalize your work when you do not have someone else to edit or grade it for you. As you read, jot notes about anything that does not seem to fit logically or that sounds incorrect to you.
Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.