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The formal argument essay takes an arguable position on a topic and supports that position with a methodical use of evidence and analysis. Arguable positions are positions on which reasonable people disagree. (If reasonable people tend to agree on a topic, there's no need to argue, and you should pivot your focus onto something fresh and impactful!)
For this assignment, you will write a formal argument essay on a topic of your own choosing.
● Keep your audience – your fellow members of our WR 333 class – at the forefront of your mind as you write. Write a formal argument essay that they will be interested in reading.
● Where there's a problem, there's a topic for an argumentative essay. Choose something you care passionately about: policy, environment, local issues, access to food/health care/transit, etc. There are virtually an unlimited supply of topics because problems are everywhere. Choose a topic on which you believe you can have an impact; these tend to be more successful and satisfying than topics about which you feel hopeless. If you can suggest solutions, do so!
● Ideally, do not choose something that gets you so worked up you're prone to start yelling about it. A bit of emotional distance will help you to connect with your audience enough to make an effective argument.
● Arguments are opinions. Do not try to write an argument without your opinion; the result may be an interesting informative essay, but it will not be a formal argument essay.
● As with the personal narrative essay, feel free to use first-person pronouns (I, me). Avoid second-person pronouns (you) in your essay writing, except in personal correspondence, when the "you" is a specific, defined audience member. Be careful with "we," which is first-person plural but similarly presumptive to second-person POV.
● Take care to focus your topic closely, carefully, and methodically to avoid slipping into a reflective essay mode. Each part of your essay should be tightly focused on your argument/thesis/controlling idea.
● Draw inspiration from LNR essays that we’re reading in this unit. Feel free to skip ahead if there’s an essay you think might help you approach your writing.
● Some of the argument essays we are studying this term incorporate considerable academic research. However, academic research papers are outside the scope of this class, as we are focusing our study on form, and well-researched arguments take an entire term to construct. To that end, we'll
focus on the elements of argumentation without a great deal of external research (though, for example, referring to a reliable fact or statistic is fine and should be documented in a Works Cited page if you choose to incorporate that). Think of your audience and pull from shared knowledge and experiences to support your position.
● If you have a formal argument essay written on your own or for a previous class on essays that meets the requirements above, and you would like to submit and revise/work on it here, you may do so! This class was created to give advanced essay-writing students a place to work on their personal projects, so it's a great way to give some focused time and attention to work you feel could be made stronger with it. However, take note that most papers, including research papers, from non-writing class may not meet the formal argument essay requirements above. Choose carefully, and don't hesitate to reach out if you'd like help with this!
In formal essay writing, structure is more important, and different, than it is in narrative writing. Whether you outline as part of your first draft process, or do it during one of your revisions, you will want to make sure you consciously point every part of your essay toward your argument/thesis/controlling idea.
Your final essay should be around 1,000-1,250 words (or approximately 4-5 double-spaced pages); this is a bit flexible depending upon your own goals and intentions with it. Last fall, I had a student publish his formal essay in a local publication in support of a public policy initiative, and that dictated the length and formatting of his submission. As before, plan to write many more words than this as part of the drafting, re-visioning, and outlining process.
