Understand argumentative writing

Three elements of argumentative writing: argument, argument and argumentation

Argument: refers to the author's point of view. Arguments are generally concise, and the whole article is to prove that this view (argument) is correct.

Definition: the author's views and opinions on the issues discussed (events, phenomena, people, ideas, etc.). )

Form: a complete sentence with a clear statement of the subject.

1. Format of argumentative essay: The format of argumentative essay should consist of three parts: argument part; Demonstration part; The conclusion part.

Generally speaking, argumentative writing can be divided into three basic paragraphs: the first paragraph leads to the topic; The second paragraph demonstrates; The third paragraph gives a clear conclusion. The second section is the central section. Candidates should put the main content in the second paragraph, at the same time pay attention to the integrity of the opening and closing paragraphs, and try to echo from beginning to end so as not to be inconsistent.

2. Unification of paragraphs and coherence of texts

1) Unity of paragraphs One of the great characteristics of English paragraphs is that a paragraph only involves a theme (even just a certain aspect of a theme). One sentence in the paragraph points out the theme and expounds the author's views on the theme, while all other sentences are facts, examples and reasoning given for the purpose of expanding the theme, which are closely related to the theme. There should be no irrelevant sentences in the paragraph. This correlation between each sentence and the theme of an English paragraph is called the integrity of the paragraph.

2) Coherence of Discourse The paragraphs of English argumentative essays are mostly straight lines, that is, the paragraphs begin to directly cut into the theme, giving facts, examples, reasoning, etc. This unfolding mode of English argumentative paragraphs is the basis for the formation of discourse coherence. Coherence of a text means that the meanings of sentences in a paragraph are related to each other through some orderly arrangement (such as chronological order, causal order, logical order, etc.). When discussing the theme of this paragraph, every last sentence is based on the previous one. If a sentence in a paragraph is removed, this coherence will be affected, causing difficulties for readers to understand.

3. The topic sentences and their arguments in the central paragraph of the argumentative paper, and the commonly used words and phrases in the argumentative paper.

Topic sentences in the central paragraphs of argumentative essays and their arguments. Whether an argumentative essay can get a high score is not unrelated to the quality of the topic sentence in the central paragraph, and the quality of the topic sentence depends on the quality of the topic and the choice of the argument (that is, whether the selected argument can stand scrutiny in terms of logic, rationality, accuracy and relevance to the topic content).

What needs to be clear is that the central paragraph should have only two components: the topic sentence of the paragraph and the arguments supporting the topic sentence. The topic sentence of a paragraph should also be composed of two parts, namely: topic sentence = the author's view or attitude towards the topic, both of which are indispensable.

Suppose candidates are asked to write an argumentative essay about smoking, then smoking is the theme of the central paragraph. Generally speaking, argumentative essays require candidates to clarify their views or attitudes on a certain issue. Therefore, when we get the topic of an argumentative paper, we should carefully examine the topic, weigh the pros and cons of something, and then determine our position.