Building an argument: reflection
time to complete: 20-30 minutes
Now have a look at an essay you’ve written recently. Read your essay and think about the following questions:
- Which sentences in your essay contain your argument?
- Have you got a clear thesis statement?
- Have you got clear topic sentences?
- Does every paragraph link to your argument?
- Have you included enough critical comments?
- What kind of critical comments do you have?
- What changes would you make to your structure to enable you to build your argument better?
- What would you do differently when planning your next essay?
Note: It is also a good idea to examine each paragraph in great detail and notice the vocabulary you used to build your argument and show the overall organisation of the paragraph as well as relationships between your sentences.
To sum up...
In this lesson, you learnt that building an argument includes the following elements:
- analysing your essay title/question
- having a thesis statement that addresses your essay title/question
- outlining your ideas so you can have a clear idea of how your paragraphs link to your thesis statement/essay question and to each other
- building your argument/outline by using your sources
- making sure you add critical comments on your sources
- making sure that the structure of your paragraphs reinforces your argument