{61} VIII
Argumentative Essays
Suppose now that you have explored your issue, outlined a basic argument, and defended its premises. You are ready to go public—maybe by writing an argumentative essay.
Remember that writing an extended argument is the last stage! If you have just picked up this book and opened it to this chapter, reflect: there is a reason that this is the eighth chapter and not the first. As the proverbial country Irishman said when a tourist asked him how to get to Dublin, “If you want to get to Dublin, don’t start here.”
Remember too that the rules in Chapters I–VI apply to writing an essay as well as to writing short arguments. Review the rules in Chapter I in particular. Be concrete and concise, build on substance and not overtone, and so forth. What follow are some additional rules specific to writing argumentative essays.
Launch straight into the real work. No windy windups or rhetorical padding.
NO:
For centuries, philosophers have debated the best way to be happy….
We knew that already. Get to your point.
{62} YES:
In this essay I will try to show that the best things in life really are free.
If you are making a proposal, be specific. “Something should be done” is not a real proposal. You need not be elaborate. “Cell phones should be banned while driving” is a specific proposal but also a very simple one. If you want to argue that the United States should expand study-abroad programs, though, the idea is more complex and therefore needs some elaboration.
Similarly, if you are making a philosophical claim or defending your interpretation of a text or event, begin by stating your claim or interpretation simply.
Very probably there is life on other planets.
That’s forthright and clear!
Academic essays may aim simply to assess some of the arguments for or against a claim or proposal. You may not be making a claim or proposal of your own or even arriving at a specific decision. For example, you may be able to examine only one line of argument in a controversy. If so, make it clear immediately that this is what you are doing. Sometimes your conclusion may be simply that the arguments for or against some position or proposal are inconclusive. Fine—but make that conclusion clear immediately. You don’t want your own essay to seem inconclusive!
{63}
You now move to the main body of your essay: your argument. First, just summarize it. Take the basic argument you’ve outlined and put it into a concise paragraph.
Many solar systems are now being discovered beyond our own. I will argue that many of them are likely to include planets like Earth. Many of these planets in turn are likely to have life. Very probably, then, there is life on other planets.
Here your aim is just to give the reader the big picture: a clear overview of where you are going and how you propose to get there.
An argumentative essay should now advance each of the premises of this basic argument in turn, each with a paragraph that begins with a restatement of the premise and continues by developing and defending it.
Consider first the remarkable fact that many other solar systems are being discovered beyond our own. As of 17 February 2017, the Paris Observatory’s “Extrasolar Planet Encyclopaedia” lists 3,577 known planets of other stars, including many in multi-planet systems (http://exoplanet.eu/)….
You might go on to discuss a few examples—say, the most recent and intriguing discoveries. In a longer essay, you might cite other lists too, and/or explain the methods being used to discover these planets—it depends on how much room you have and the level of detail and support your readers need or expect. Then go on to explain and defend your other basic premises in the same way.
Some premises in your basic argument may need fairly involved defenses. Treat them exactly the same way. First state the premise you are defending and remind your readers of its role in your main argument. Next summarize your argument for that premise in turn (that is, treating it now as the conclusion of a further argument). Then spell out that argument, giving a paragraph or so, in order, to each of its premises.
{64} For instance, in the last chapter (Rule 31) we developed a defense of the second premise of the basic argument for life on other planets. You could insert it now in paragraph form and with a little more style.
Why might we think that other solar systems include planets like Earth? Astronomers propose an intriguing argument by analogy. They point out that our own solar system has a variety of kinds of planets—some huge gas giants, some others rocky and well suited for liquid water and life. As far as we know, they continue, other solar systems will be like ours. Therefore, they conclude, other solar systems very probably contain a variety of planets, including some that are rocky and well suited for liquid water and life.
Now you may need to explain and defend these points in turn, maybe even giving some of them their own paragraph or two each. You could try to awaken your readers’ appreciation for the diversity of planets right here in our solar system, for example, or describe some of the variety of extra-solar planets already known.
Depending on how long and involved all of this gets, you may need to reorient your reader to the basic argument when you return to it. Pull out the road map, as it were, and remind your readers—and yourself—where you are in your journey toward the main conclusion.
We have seen, then, that solar systems are already being discovered beyond our own, and that it seems very probable that there are other planets like Earth. The last main premise of the argument is this: if there are other planets like Earth, then very probably some of them have life.
In your outline you will have worked out an argument for this premise too, and you can now bring it smoothly up to bat.
Notice, in all of these arguments, the importance of using consistent terms (Rule 6). Clearly connected premises such as these become the parallel sentences or phrases that hold the whole essay together.
{65}
Rule 32 asks you to think about and rework your argument in light of possible objections. Detailing and responding to them in your essay helps to make your views more persuasive to your readers, and attests that you have thought carefully about the issue.
NO:
Someone might object that expanded student exchange programs will create too many risks for students. But I think that …
Well, what kinds of risks? Why would such risks arise? Spell out the reasons behind the objection. Take the time to sketch the whole counter-argument, not just to mention its conclusion as you rush by to defend your argument.
YES:
Someone might object that expanded student exchange programs will create too many risks for students. The concern is partly, I think, that students abroad, who are mostly young people, after all, and not so worldly, may be more easily taken advantage of or hurt, especially in places where life is more desperate and there are fewer safeguards and protections.
In this time of rising fear and mistrust of foreigners, coupled with fears of terrorism, the concern may also take on more of an edge: students’ lives may be at stake. We would certainly not want exchange students to become hostages in desperate local power games. Western tourists abroad are already sometimes targeted by terrorists; we could justifiably fear that the same might happen to exchange students.
These are serious concerns. Still, equally serious responses are also possible….
{66} Now it is clear exactly what the objections are, and you can try to respond to them effectively. You might point out, for instance, that risks don’t just start at the border. Many foreign countries are safer than many American cities. A more complex response might be that it is also risky, at least to our society as a whole, not to send more cultural ambassadors abroad, since international misunderstandings and the hatreds they fuel are making the world more risky for all of us.
And surely there are creative ways to design exchange programs to reduce some of the risks? You might not even have thought of these possibilities, though, if you had not detailed the arguments behind the objection, and your readers would probably not have seen the point even if you had mentioned them. Detailing the objections enriches your argument in the end.
Maybe you know exactly what you mean. Everything seems clear to you. However, it may be far from clear to anyone else! Points that seem connected to you may seem completely unrelated to someone reading your essay. I have seen students hand in an essay that they think is sharp and clear only to find, when they get it back, that they themselves can barely understand what they were thinking when they wrote it. Their grades won’t be very encouraging either.
Writers—at all levels—need feedback. It is through others’ eyes that you can see best where you are unclear or hasty or just plain implausible. Feedback improves your logic too. Objections may come up that you hadn’t expected. Premises you thought were secure may turn out to need defending, while other premises may turn out to be more secure than they seemed. You may even pick up a few new facts or examples. Feedback is a “reality check” all the way around. Welcome it.
Some teachers build student feedback on paper drafts right into the timetable of their classes. If your teacher does not, arrange it yourself. Find willing fellow students and exchange drafts. Go to {67} your campus Writing Center (yes, you have one). Encourage your readers to be critical, and commit yourself to being a critical reader for them in turn. If need be, you might even assign your readers a quota of specific criticisms and suggestions to make, so they don’t fear hurting your feelings by suggesting some. It may be polite, but it really does not do you a favor if your would-be critics just glance over your writing and reassure you that it is lovely, whatever it says. Your teacher and eventual audience will not give you such a free pass.
We may underrate feedback partly because we typically don’t see it at work. When we only read finished pieces of writing—essays, books, magazines—it can be easy to miss the fact that writing is essentially a process. The truth is that every single piece of writing you read is put together by someone who starts from scratch and makes hundreds of choices and multiple revisions along the way. This very book you hold in your hands has gone through at least twenty drafts throughout its five editions, with formal and informal feedback from dozens and dozens of people. Development, criticism, clarification, and change are the keys. Feedback is what makes them go.
Summarize at the end—fairly. Don’t claim more than you’ve shown.
NO:
In sum, every reason favors sending more students abroad, and none of the objections stands up at all. What are we waiting for?
YES:
In sum, there is an appealing case for sending more students abroad. Although uncertainties may remain, on the whole it seems to be a promising step. It’s worth a try.
{68} Maybe the second version overdoes it in the other direction, but you see the point. Very seldom will you put all the objections to rest, and anyway the world is an uncertain place. We’re not experts, most of us, and even the experts can be wrong. “It’s worth a try” is the best attitude.