Essay in Progress: Building the Argumentative Essay
Recently, the Language and Composition class here has been working on a series of assignments to help them prepare for the argumentative essay portion of the AP Language and Composition exam. The Essay in Progress series breaks down the monumental task of writing an argumentative essay into manageable, progressive steps. Each stage focuses on a specific aspect of the process so that students not only write but also learn how an argument is built from scratch. Here’s how it works:
1. Topic Selection
First comes the selection of a topic. However, it’s not just a matter of choosing something of interest; rather, students choose controversial issues with which they are deeply concerned. They brainstorm multiple perspectives, considering arguments on all sides. This step doesn’t just inspire curiosity; it also sets the tone for writing with a balanced and civil approach to disagreement. Students must choose multiple topics and briefly describe how they would approach each topic from opposing perspectives.
2. Staking a Claim
Once they have their topic, students proceed to the heart of argumentation: the claim. In class, the students learn about claims of fact, value, and policy. They then practice writing three different kinds of claims to see how the argument changes based on the focus. This helps them critically think about the kind of argument they want to make and the best approach for the purpose. Students must create three different claims for their chosen topic and identify whether they were claims of fact, value, or policy.
3. Crafting a Thesis
A claim becomes a thesis at this stage. Students make an attempt at different types of thesis statements: closed (specific), open (general), and counterargument-based. This will help them see how the thesis dictates the direction of the essay, its scope, and tone. Students had to create at least two separate thesis statements that would outline the argument they were going to make in their essay. We then discussed several of these thesis statements in class to explore how arguable they were, how we could refine each of the statements, and also iron out any confusion about the difference between thesis statements and claims.
4. Supporting with Evidence
Finally, it comes to crafting the essay itself utilizing its key component: evidence. Students learn to back up their claims with relevant, accurate, and sufficient evidence. We learn about the different types of evidence that you can come across during research, the characteristics of each, and the strengths of using each in your essay. It is an important step to ensure students are aware of the many different types of evidence as on the exam, they will need to come up with their own. They then had to create supporting paragraphs with many kinds of evidence—personal anecdotes, historical facts, statistical data—and find out how the variety of sources strengthens their credibility.
5. Structuring the Argument
At last, students are taught how to structure an argument to maximum effect. It is through lessons on classical oration, induction, deduction, and the Toulmin model that they come to realize how a logical structure makes the essay convincing and, even better, compelling.
Why It Works
More than an assignment, this series of steps has been deliberately designed into a learning process. In such scaffolding, students do not feel intimidated by the big task of writing an argumentative essay. Rather, they can comfortably focus on achieving one skill before proceeding to master the next one.
Building Confidence: Each step is a win; students learn to develop a topic, craft a claim, and present evidence with increasing proficiency that builds confidence.
Encouraging Critical Thinking: The emphasis on multiple perspectives is critical. Students must think deeply about their arguments and how they might be challenged.
Fostering Writing Mastery: Broken down, students learn the nuts and bolts of argumentative writing that will serve them well in virtually any academic or professional opportunity.
Read more about preparing for the AP Language and Composition Argumentative Essay here.
