Monday, April 3, 2017
Free Write: Argument Essay
This current project of the summary and analysis has gotten me to reflect a lot about how I used to write argument essays. Coming into any English course in college, every student has had an extensive history of teachers beating into them what structure essays should have. This has conditioned us to pull out that format every time we have to start a new essay. I was guilty of this when starting this assignment. I immediately thought back to my teachers in high school and could almost hear their voices saying: "It should be a five paragraph essay format where you present a new idea and argue that till the end of the paragraph. The conclusion should be a summary of all arguments put together." This, I have realized being a student in Dr. Kyburz's class, is not how it should be at all. I need to have a more open mind when writing and not limit myself to a template I learned a couple years ago. I need to write and just see where the argument takes the paper instead of where the paper can take the argument.
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Of course, this warms my <3!
ReplyDeleteAND ... of course, when you've really researched exhaustively, you *may* get to the point where you are making claims and supporting them without much thought for other points of view. BUT you will have done that open-minded work in your invention process, and you will be ready and confident to write from conviction, not simply to "plug in" to a formula.
Your other teachers weren't *wrong* so much as kind of short-circuiting to an endpoint that novice writers aren't ready to dwell within. I like to think of our College Writing courses as getting back into our brains and our bodies, to realistically think -- often and expansively -- about problems and ways of addressing then through writing.
First, we have to open up to complexity and ambiguity, and sometimes it's messy, but and even in this, we can write (maybe not at first, but maybe eventually) with clarity and grace. Later, when we are more sure of our passionate convictions, *maybe* then, we work with laser focus on a paritcular perspective. But even then, we'll balance our appeals, support our claims, and consider other perspectives even as we support the argument we're trying to make.
I'm so proud to hear that this sunk in for you!