The (Angry) ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY Page:

 

An argumentative essay begins with an inflammation of the intestine--a gut reaction. 

Some topic causes some sort of visceral reaction, an awesome explosion of shear passion!!! Maybe.

 

You have an opinion on ...., something, a politician, the baseball strike, a movie, the Oscars...moral behavior of "them"...  Whatever. 

An opinion at this point is just a word for the gut reaction described above.

By putting words to the opinion you can begin  to refine it, to support it, to think/write it through.

If a topic has not been assigned, jot down a topic or two  that get your juices flowing.

 

 

When under pressure, writing for a deadline, say, and I don't have a topic, I get all spacey inside and feel that I am unable to come up with a topic because it's such a nice day and I wanna go fishing and I hate this assignment and all of the topics I can think of are really stupid...whatever.

If this happens to you, you may find the Topic Generator some help. 

Check it out: Topic Generator

OK, you've got a topic.

No? Still can't think of one? 

No problem, use "essay writing" as your topic.

Changed your mind?

You've suddenly thought of a neat topic?

Cool.  Use it.

Otherwise go with "essay writing."

The Thesis:

The "thesis" is a statement about the topic, a statement that gives your opinion about the topic.

It's a good idea to have your thesis in mind before you write your essay, but don't be afraid to change your thesis as you get into your essay more.

(Hey! It is also OK with me if you just freewrite until you get an idea. You have no thesis in mind, you just use the writing itself to tell you what your thesis will be. But, in case you need a thesis first, I wrote the below stuff.)

I might begin with "Essay writing can best be taught using the "Wonderful Writing Skills Unhandbook."

Then, after writing about that opinion, I decide that "Essay writing can best be taught using Medieval torture devices."

Wouldn't it be wonderful if you could have a clear, easy to use worksheet to develop a thesis?

By a strange and wonderful coincidence, this program has just such a worksheet. You may go there now: Thesis Worksheet.

 

After you present your thesis, usually near the beginning of your essay, you need to collect reasons to support your position, they form the body of your essay.  

The more the merrier. 

A good approach here is to present arguments against your position and then respond to these arguments. "It is true that....however, ...".

 If you'd care to, you can write your whole essay this way; this is called a "pro-con" essay.  

A good way to prepare for an essay, pro-con etc, is to write an imaginary dialogue between you and somebody who disagrees with you. 

You can then translate the conversation into a series of pro-con arguments.

Using your MOP, or some other person--real or imaginary-- who disagrees with you, write a dialogue here:

 

 

 It may be that you've just outlined the major parts of your essay.

Maybe not.

Maybe you need to try some other prewriting techniques.  Check out more suggestions on the Pre-Writing Page.

 

Finally you need to include some sort of conclusion. Therefore, for all these reasons, it seems clear that a combination of Medieval torture and the Wonderful Writing Skills Unhandbook will be the most useful approach to the teaching of essay writing.

Then add a sentence or two in which you sum up why your thesis should be considered.

Something like:  Future generations of essay writers will astound their teachers and peers with the wonderfulness of their work. And, the essay writers themselves will discover that they are suddenly much more popular and rich.

Here some space for you to try a concluding paragraph. Don't forget to revise it as your position/thesis become modified.

 This is one of the oldest traditional kinds of essays done in school. 

The old five paragraph essay was usually an argumentative essay. 

From which we get the magic formula: "Say what you're going to say (introduce your thesis), say it (explain and defend your thesis), say what you just said (write a conclusion)."

A little to formulaic for me, but if a magic formula helps you, run with it.

 

Revision works the usual way, and is discussed on the Revision Page.

Good luck, and you're allowed to have some fun with it.