Important Elements of an Effective Argumentative Essay



Important Elements of an Effective Argumentative Essay

First Paragraph or Introduction

• Clear

• Specific

• Arguable

• Includes thesis or main idea of essay

• 2-3 sentences

Focus & Organization

• Every paragraph supports the thesis

• Each paragraph contains only one key point (everything in the paragraph should support the one key point)

• Conclusion relates to the thesis [no new ideas] and drives it home.

Evidence & Documentation

• Provide examples and direct quotes.

• Provide context for quotes

• Quotation marks around all exact words and phrases

• Clearly indicate an author whose words you are quoting, analyzing or citing as evidence. [the sole legitimate exception would be the use of lecture notes from this class.]

• Present the author's ideas accurately, as he/she would have presented them

• You are responsible for citing an author if you refer to or use his/her ideas, even if you don't quote, i.e., repeating what the author says, word for word. [In the "Student's Preface" Howard Pospesel describes the three goals he has for his book: giving students a chance to learn about a current branch of logic; making students more aware of arguments; and making students better able to tell the difference between good and bad arguments.[1]]

• Titles of complete, stand-alone works are italicized; articles, essays, chapters of books, other works included within larger works are in quotation marks. For example, Pospesel's Propositional Logic is a complete text that can stand alone. "Introduction," from Propositional Logic, is a chapter from a book.

• Proper documentation (e.g., with a citation within the text of your essay: open quote; citation; end quote; open parenthesis; author's last name; page number[s]; close parenthesis; punctuation[2])

• Proper Works Cited listing (alphabetize, all required details in correct order)[3]

Citing Electronic Sources

Electronic sources would include information that is stored in some kind of computer. The MLA’s guidelines can be found at If you have to break up an internet address in the middle, divide after a slash – not with a hyphen.[4]

On Line Book

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. An Online Library of Literature. Ed. Peter Galbavy. 14 Feb.

1999. 23 June 1999 .

Article in an online periodical

Coontz, Stephanie. “Family Myths. Family Realities.” Salon 12 Dec. 1997. 3 Feb. 2000

.

Web Site

Blue Note Records. 9 June 1999. Blue Note Records. 9 June 1999

.

Reference Database

“Gog and Magog.” The Encyclopedia Mythica. Ed. Micha F. Lindemans. 24 May 1999. 10

June 1999 .

Grading Criteria

A (90-100):

• Thesis is clearly presented in the first paragraph

• Thesis shows that the essay is the student's way of working out the assignment

• Every subsequent paragraph contributes significantly to the development of the thesis

• Conclusion pulls together the body of the essay and demonstrates how the essay as a whole has supported the thesis

• The essay is interesting and enjoyable to read

• Information is correct

• Interpretations are interesting

• Paragraphs are well-organized

• Ideas are clearly articulated

• Paper reflects student’s own ideas

• Paper includes proper citations of sources

• Sentences and paragraphs follow one another logically

• Essay is virtually free of errors, i.e., misspellings, sentence fragments; run-on sentences; comma splices, other errors in punctuation and word choice

B (80-89):

• Thesis is clearly presented in the first paragraph

• Thesis makes clear the relationship between the essay and the assignment

• The student has read the text carefully

• Every subsequent paragraph contributes significantly to the development of the thesis.

• Final paragraph pulls together the body of the essay and demonstrates how the essay as a whole has supported the thesis

• The essay is easy to read

• Information is correct

• Interpretations are solidly founded on fact

• There are patterns of organization, logical sequences of sentences and paragraphs in this essay

• Paper reflects student’s own ideas and includes citations of sources

• Essay may have a small number of the errors mentioned above, i.e., misspellings, fragments, etc.

C (70-79)

• Thesis is hard to find

• The essay shows that the student has read the text and is responding to the assignment

• Paragraphs do contribute to the thesis, but the organization of these paragraphs is not clear

• Final paragraph simply summarizes essay without integrating the ideas presented into a successful support of the thesis

• The essay is not easy to read.

• However, the essay demonstrates some important points

• Some passages are unclear and hard to follow

• There is support for the thesis in the paragraphs of the argument, but it is not easy to locate. There is no evident logical structure to the argument.

• There are many errors mentioned in the criteria for the A paper, i.e., misspellings, fragments, run-on sentences, comma splices, etc.

D (60-69)

• Thesis is not clear

• Essay is not easy to read

• No direct and clear connection between the thesis and the essay, or between the essay and the assignment

• There may be some insights in the essay, but individual paragraphs do not support the thesis

• Little indication that the student has actually done any reading for this assignment

• Many misspellings, fragments, run-on sentences, comma splices, other errors in punctuation, syntax and paragraph organization

F (0-59)

• Essay does not respond to the assignment

• Paper is plagiarized

• The paper is poorly written, with no attempt at a thesis and no paragraph organization

• Student's work demonstrates no understanding of reading assignment supposed to read

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[1] Pospesel, ix

[2] "The remainder of this book is a study of these five connectives…." (Pospesel, 10).

[3] Pospesel, Howard, Introduction to Logic: Propositional Logic, Revised 3rd edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2000

Meyer, Jeanine, Carol Wolf, Catherine Dwyer & John Molluzzo, Pace University: Software Exercises. 6th edition.

Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2001.

[4] Hacker, Diane. A Pocket Style Manual. 3rd Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000

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