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English Advanced Placement*
Writing Instruction SeriesWriting an Argument
How to Answer the Defend, Challenge, or Qualify QuestionOverview: One of the three essay questions asked on the English Language and Composition Essay Examination will always be some form of AGREE OR DISAGREEóDEFEND, CHALLENGE, OR QUALIFY question. With this type of question the student needs to persuasively agree or disagree OR defend, challenge, or qualify a stated aphorism through a well-reasoned presentation of evidence developed from observation, experience, or reading. These papers should display carefully nuanced thought and detailed development of evidence. This type of question needs to display the student's ability to write sound argument with persuasive force.
Practicing this type of writing will also be beneficial for the English Literature and Composition student since the required literary writing also needs to demonstrate sound argument and persuasive force.
Use the following strategy suggestions for writing successful argumentation:
Interpreting the Meaning of the Assertion: The first step in an agree or disagree question is to concisely and accurately define the assertion. Just as with the analytical essays, you should brainstorm for fifteen minutes (or long enough to make sure your interpretation of the assertion is complete and accurate) before you write anything in the pink essay answer booklet. Read the assertion three times, making personal observations about the different levels of meaning that are implied and the types of specific evidence you could use to develop your stance. (Note: In many cases, the essay can be divided into differing paragraphs based on your interpretation about the different levels of meaning that are implied.)
State the meaning of the assertion in your own words. What is your initial position on the issue? Be aware of any prejudicial attitudes, sentiments, or stereotypes you may have. Be aware that most of the time this meaning will be complex and can not be explained in one simple statement. (Note: Each topic sentence of your eventual essay should take a stand concerning each of the different levels of meaning that are implied on the subject.)
A misinterpretation or omission in the beginning will doom you to failure. For instance, the following assertion made by Nathaniel Hawthorne does not mean that you shouldn't make up so quickly when you have a fight. What does he mean?
"It is perilous to make a chasm in human affections; not that they gape so long and wide, but so quickly close again."
Determining the meaning of the assertion is only step one. Step two is discovering evidence.
Specific and Accurate Evidence: Before any writing can take place, the writer must gather evidence to explore the validity of the assertion. Evidence used to support the "Agree or Disagree Question" must be specific and accurate--named and factually correct. For instance, donít write:
Someone once wrote, "Donít Worry, Be Happy."
Instead name the writer:
Bob Marley, as part of the music he created for "The Wizard of Oz on Ice," wrote the song "Donít Worry, Be Happy."The success of this personal essay depends upon the amount and type of evidence used. Avoid using movies and other more informal aspects of society as evidence. The evidence you use should reflect a well-educated, widely-read, mature individual's thoughtful reaction to an assertion.
Also, make the evidence pass what I call the USA ARR's test. That is, is the evidence "unified, specific, accurate, adequate, relevant, and representative?" If the evidence considered fails any part of this test, it should be rejected.
Lastly, reject all first impulses. Readers always complain about common evidence. Evidence that everybody will cite becomes boring to read over and over. To avoid this, reject first thoughts and keep digging until you find things that are not so easy to grasp at first.
In the following excerpt from Blue Highways, William Least Heat Moon makes good use of evidence to prove the assertion that errors open up new worlds. This excellent book, a journal of Moon's "roundabout 13,000 mile trip down back roads and through small, forgotten towns, is unexpected, sometimes mysterious, and full of the wonder of ordinary life." Here is the excerpt:
"Yesterday, I had been mistaken and in error, taking one wrong road
after another. As a result, I had come to a place of clear beauty . . . .The annuls of scientific discovery are full of errors that opened new
worlds: Bell was working on an apparatus to aid the deaf when he
invented the telephone; Edison was tinkering with the telephone
when he invented the phonograph. If a man can keep alert and
imaginative, an error is a possibility, a chance at something new;
to him, wandering and wondering are part of the same process, and
he is most mistaken, most in error, whenever he quits exploring . . . .Biochemists hold that evolution proceeds by random genetic changes--
errors--and that each living thing is an experiment within the continuum
of trial and error and temporary success. In nature, correct means
harmony. Hesse writes:I am an experiment on the part of nature, a gamble within the unknown,
perhaps for a new purpose, perhaps for nothing, and my only task is to
allow this game on the part of the primeval depths to take its course, to
feel its will within me and make it wholly mine.Whitman said it too: "A man is a summons and a challenge."
Notice the depth and breadth of Moon's evidence. This is good evidence.
Once you've understood the assertion and have examined enough good evidence to develop a personal stance on the same issue, you are ready to begin writing the final draft.
Organizing the Essay:
1. Begin by writing a meaningful opening sentence or two which makes a personal observation about the focus of the question that reveals your thinking. Don't write flowery, general beginnings. Get right to the point. Use the first sentence or two to begin to define the meaning of the assertion. Allude to something here that will be finished in the conclusion. End with the thesis you wrote while brainstorming. (Note: Weak openings are forgiven if the paper ends strongly. If running out of time, skip part of the body to make your conclusion.)
2. Agree or disagree with an assertion naturally by explaining your stance. Avoid saying things like ìI feel this statement is correct. Instead state your belief: "Change can be big or small, personal or public, but if a person is not confident enough or is worried about what others think, changes will never happen."
3. Rather than force the same five paragraph model into every passage, simply write naturally, developing your stance on the topic in question. Organization can take the following paths:
If the question requires an agree or disagree stance, be sure to demonstrate an understanding of argumentation by acknowledging both sides of the argument. This is usually done by writing a con-pro paragraph immediately after the introduction and the remainder of the essay becomes different paragraphs which confirm or amplify your agreement or disagreement with the assertion.
If the question requires a "defend, challenge, or qualify" stance on a political or philosophical assertion, be sure to address all the issues raised by the assertion. A highly scored method of organizing this essay is to write a separate paragraph devoted to each level of meaning discovered about the assertion while brainstorming. Your topic sentence in this type of organization would be a generalized statement of one level of meaning discovered. Your evidence would be specifically named examples that support the claim you make in your topic sentence. If you can find examples in two unrelated areas or more (from your personal experience, observations, and reading) that make the same conclusion, your claim will be more valid. Each paragraph then would end with an interpretation of the similar conclusion that can be reached after examining differing types of evidence.
4. State your thesis in the form of a conclusion resulting from the evidence previously examined. Tie up the loose ends established in the introduction by making a conclusion about how the assertion just explored applies to the overall human experience.
Follow-up:
1. The well-written argument must transcend supporting narrative or emotional focus by making the experience pertain to the argument. Avoid centering the essay on a typical teenage trauma or writing a simple agree or disagree dichotomy without sustaining support, argument, or persuasion. Sustain support, argument, or persuasion by combining logos, pathos and ethos. See Argument, Rhetoric, and Persuasion
2. Practice Writing Argument/Persuasion by selecting from 28 Agree or Disagree Tests.
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