general guidelines for writing a good essay first, make sure you have an argument or thesis that directs the essay. By an argument, i mean a clearly stated position in response to an assertion, question, or statement that i issued, backed by reasons supported by evidence. For example, do you agree or disagree with one of the topic statements? second, do not accept everything in lectures and the readings at face value. I may disagree on key points with parts of the readings, and you may disagree with one or all of them. You should analyze the readings and arguments that we have considered in class and form reasoned conclusions, by which i mean a conclusion for which you have a reason based on available evidence. The following statement lacks evidence based reasons: representative democracy doesn’t work because people are stupid.

While it is possible that this true, the statement fails to explain how stupidity impair democracy and offers no evidence that this is the case. By contrast the following statement, while debatable, is based on evidence based reasons: democracy cannot work effectively if people are easily misled by advertising, as the video the persuaders argued, because people will not evaluate candidates’ positions on issues accurately. Consider the top two or three reasons in favor of your position, and the leading objections to them. Do not focus on trivial items consider the elements that the authors emphasized and that we discussed in lecture. Be wary of back tracking – discussing items from a previous weeks more than the readings and lecture for the week before the essay is due.

To me, the essay will read as if you didn’t bother to do the reading for the week. do not ignore counter arguments always address obvious counter arguments to your thesis. For example, if you think that the penumbras of rights do not exist, you should discuss why this approach to liberty is flawed. There is no need to do new research to get a good grade on them indeed, you may get a poor grade by failing to discuss the class readings sufficiently.

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Extra class sources may supplement but newer substitute class readings and discussions. They can be drawn from the readings, lecture, periodicals, or from work in other courses. Detailed stories are unnecessary, but you should write a sentence or two showing how the example relates to your claim. The clear and present danger test was replaced by a grave and probable danger rule and then an incitement test. Do not try to toss around jargon that you do not understand or use a three syllable word when a one syllable word will do.

For example, the statement an epistemological pessimism characterizes mill’s justification for the emancipation of elocutions is better replaced by the sentence, free speech is necessary because we cannot know which views are really true or false, according to mill. When it is clear from the context of the sentence, cite the page number parenthetically, as i have done above. You may use footnotes or in text citations i prefer that you not use endnotes since i hate flipping back and forth. When citing outside sources, use either the modern language association or note style.

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This dartmouth website provides examples: the spell checker may deceive you i do not want to read about the pubic interest in the untied states. use quotations and block quotes sparingly the purpose of this paper is to show that you have understood the readings. Any dolt can copy out of the book, so do not use block quotes like this extensively. guide your argument with headers you might consider using headers the text above this sentence is a header to guide your argument. You should be writing coherent essays, but you may use headers as a way of outlining your arguments.

abjure diatribes, polemics, and rants discuss one of the topics that i assigned. Do not pen a screed against injustice or idiocy in american politics that you have been wanting to write. If you want to make a political statement, submit an op ed to a campus paper or journal, start a blog. But raging against the machine to me will neither gain you a good grade nor advance your cause because even if you persuade me to accept your views, i have no power to alter the course of history.

Profanity – the seven words and many others you can’t say on the radio – does not sound as clever in written work as it does in a comedian’s monologue or my lectures. Unless you are rowan atkinson and you are not , be wary of using sarcasm in essays. A dry paper that has good evidence and arguments will do better than a colorful paper that places style over substance. You should simply be summarizing the argument of your paper in the last paragraph. This resource outlines the generally accepted structure for introductions, body paragraphs, and conclusions in an academic argument paper. Keep in mind that this resource contains guidelines and not strict rules about organization.

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Your structure needs to be flexible enough to meet the requirements of your purpose and audience. The following sections outline the generally accepted structure for an academic argument paper. Keep in mind that these are guidelines and that your structure needs to be flexible enough to meet the requirements of your purpose and audience.

Your goal is to create a compelling, clear, and convincing essay people will want to read and act upon state your thesis/ claim ndash compose a sentence or two stating the position you will support with logos sound reasoning: induction, deduction , pathos balanced emotional appeal , and ethos author credibility. for exploratory essays, your primary research question would replace your thesis statement so that the audience understands why you began your inquiry. An overview of the types of sources you explored might follow your research question. If your argument paper is long, you may want to forecast how you will support your thesis by outlining the structure of your paper, the sources you will consider, and the opposition to your position.

You can forecast your paper in many different ways depending on the type of paper you are writing. Your forecast could read something like this: first, i will define key terms for my argument, and then i will provide some background of the situation. Next i will outline the important positions of the argument and explain why i support one of these positions.