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An analysis of your individual strengths and weaknesses in writing
How to argumentative short essay
How to argumentative short essay
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Change is interwoven in the learning process and therefore is inevitable. It is beyond amazing to reflect on ourselves and see how much we change in just six months. I do not know what is more remarkable—the change itself or knowing that that change represents an expansion in our knowledge, a growth in our abilities, and an improvement in our writing. However, one thing I am sure of is that it feels good to see that, excuse the cliché, hard work does pay off.
Before the start of this school year, I was not clueless as to how to craft an argument, but, to say the least, I was unexperienced. I thought that “argumentative” was simply a fancy name for “persuasive”—needless to say, I was mistaken. Blinded by this fallacy, I avoided acknowledging any opposing views in my essays (such as in my TV argumentative impromptu), which only made it seem as if I did not have sufficient information to defend my arguments. I thought I had to induce my audience to agree with me and that if I mentioned any alternatives, I would lose them.
However, the purpose of an argumentative essay is not to make others agree with a point of view, but to convince them to acknowledge the validity of an argument and to consider it. Luckily, I realized this in time to write my argumentative essay about the value of public opinions, in which I pointed out that although “some may argue that public statements of opinion are unnecessary because they peer pressure others into thinking a certain way,” the sharing of these opinions “[creates] a society where no opinion is exactly like the next” because people adapt what they hear to “better fit their character (Argumentative Impromptu p. 3&4). This change strengthens my arguments because it convinces my audience that I w...
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...nearly impossible to track all the ways it changes, partly because it is always changing, because there is always room for improvement.
Regardless of all of these improvements, I know my writing is still far from perfect. My arguments still lack the emotional appeal that, if present, would make my audience consider my arguments a lot faster. My analysis still lack development because often times I just state what happens instead of explaining why. In general, I need to work on controlling my voice and tone throughout an entire essay, which can be fixed if I choose my words more carefully to make sure my diction is uniform. Despite all of this, I am satisfied with myself, I am satisfied with the ways my writing has changed, with the way my writing skills have grown. Why? Because I am learning, and I know that I will continue improving as long as I take chances.
Through the accompaniment of rhetorical devices and pathos, one can strengthen an argument to the point where others see no other option. When spoken at the right occasions and with enough of supporting evidence, an argument will intrigue the audience and make people find the argument logical and appealing. Patrick Henry made his speech less than a month before the Revolutionary War came to pass. Thomas Paine commenced a series of articles when the call for men to fight was urgent. When someone makes an argument, even the smallest detail counts.
Effectively communicating an idea or opinion requires several language techniques. In his study of rhetoric, Aristotle found that persuasion was established through three fundamental tools. One is logos, which is used to support an argument through hard data and statistics. Another is ethos, which is the credibility of an author or speaker that allows an audience to conclude from background information and language selection a sense of knowledge and expertise of the person presenting the argument. The impact of pathos, however, is the most effective tool in persuasion due to the link between emotions and decisions. Although each of these tools can be effective individually, a combination of rhetorical devices when used appropriately has the ability to sway an audience toward the writer’s point of view.
There are many examples of strong argumentative writing in the second half of the book Everyday Arguments. Topics of writing examples include today’s college student, the internet, sports, earning your living, diet, and reading popular culture. Of the writings, two stood out as notable works to be critiqued; Who is a Teacher, and Thoughts on Facebook.
Americans have embraced debate since before we were a country. The idea that we would provide reasoned support for any position that we took is what made us different from the English king. Our love of debate came from the old country, and embedded itself in our culture as a defining value. Thus, it should not come as a surprise that the affinity for debate is still strong, and finds itself as a regular feature of the mainstream media. However, if Deborah Tannen of the New York Times is correct, our understanding of what it means to argue may be very different from what it once was; a “culture of critique” has developed within our media, and it relies on the exclusive opposition of two conflicting positions (Tannen). In her 1994 editorial, titled “The Triumph of the Yell”, Tannen claims that journalists, politicians and academics treat public discourse as an argument. Furthermore, she attempts to persuade her readers that this posturing of argument as a conflict leads to a battle, not a debate, and that we would be able to communicate the truth if this culture were not interfering. This paper will discuss the rhetorical strategies that Tannen utilizes, outline the support given in her editorial, and why her argument is less convincing than it should be.
My development as a writer has flourished throughout this semester. The first week of this fall semester started out with writing responses from our readings in the textbook. Looking back through and analyzing my reading responses at the semester to now; I noticed a substantial improvement in not only my grammar skills, but also my summarizing, and in-depth studying of writing adeptness. Another way I have progressed this semester is the vocabulary of my writing has significantly improved and become more scholarly. Another advancement I noticed was that the content of my work has matured, along with my organizational adeptness.
Crusius, Timothy W., and Carolyn E. Channell. The Aims of Argument: A Text and Reader. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. Print.
A mere question is how Tannen pulls the reader into her article titled “The Argument Culture.” Deborah Tannen uses multiple rhetorical devices such as language, logos, and imagery to explain in depth the “adversarial mindset” plaguing America and shows us her solution in the article “The Argument Culture”. Tannen wanted to inform Americans how argument based we truly are and persuade us to make change. Like I stated earlier Tannen begins this process by placing a question in our minds, “Balance. Debate. Listening to both sides. Who could question these Noble American traditions” (Tannen 403)? Tannen then structures her article to develop understanding of the concept among the uninformed. Ethos, Pathos, and Logos also play a key role in the description of the culture, but Tannen adds in real life examples and imagery to create mental
In her article “The Argument Culture,” professor of linguistics and author Deborah Tannen believes that we have collapsed into a society where arguing, criticizing, and debating is the solution to every problem. Tannen introduces this idea of society as the “argument culture”. The argument culture is a way of life that settles on the belief that the best way to get things done is to oppose everything. The way we freely and blatantly express problems is one of our society’s greatest strengths. People tend to express their beliefs and automatically expect someone to reply with their own view, therefore turning into an argument as to why each side is right and the other is wrong. We tend to look at both sides of an argument to side with the one
Imagine two people are arguing; one person is clearly right, but the other person is obviously winning. Why is this? People that make convincing arguments are usually the ones who can vouch for their character and make the audience think that they should believe them. Along with making people think they are trustworthy they must also appeal to human emotion. Change the way they feel and it will change the way they think. Finally, the argument must be reasonable and logical to the people who need convincing. The person who wins the argument isn’t always right, but they were able to convince an audience that they were by vouching for their character, appealing to human emotion, and by creating a reasonable and logical justification. In the essay,
...t I have improved this area over the course of the semester. I am at the milestone in my writing, however, with hard work and determination I will improve as a writer throughout my college years.
* The Aims of Argument. 4th ed Ed.Timothy W. Crusius and Carolyn E. Channell. New York:McGraw Hill,2003, 352-355.
Throughout this semester I have learned many ways of writing through two main essays literacy narrative and comparison and contrast. These two essays have taught me how to correctly fix my comma splices, thesis statements, and capitalization. I have engaged in numerous learning material during this summer class. Many times when I thought it would be hard to work on those three developments I never gave up. I gain more positive feedback from my teacher because he pointed out most of my mistakes I made on both literacy narrative and comparison and contrast essays to help me understand what is it that I need to work on. My development as a writer became stronger.
In this paper, I am to write about my strengths and weaknesses in writing. This is not an easy task for me because I have never considered myself a writer. Reading other peoples thoughts are activities that are more my speed. I simply have trouble putting my thoughts into writing. Since, I do not feel that I have many strengths, let's move on to my weaknesses.
A persuasive essay takes a position on a topic and attempts to prove that position.
Research and Argument are probably two of the most interesting forms of writing and literature to learn about, to me, because I am a person who is critical and a perfectionist. I first realized this when I was peer reviewing and editing a friend’s paper during my freshman year of high school. During this process, I wrote some many notes on their paper that at the end, you could have almost mistaken the paper as a piece of modern art. Arguments, on the other hand, are completely different. Arguments all I need to believe in something are facts and that the argument sounds logical. So, it was interesting to learn about the three main modes of persuasion in this class.