The Most Important Essay Your Child Will Ever Write
Mary Sellers
PHAA Conference, Marriott Hotel, Harrisburg, PA
July 18, 2003
Hello, my name is Mary Sellers. I teach the AP Language and Composition class for the Richmans. The oldest of my five children, whom I homeschool, will turn 12 next week. So, it is not too many years before I can speak of homeschooling a high schooler from personal experience.
Before we get too far into the talk, I want to clarify some terms for you. When I refer to a paper, an essay, or a writing assignment, I mean the same thing by all three terms. These are my generic terms. If I want to get more specific, I will refer to a timed essay (what is written for an AP exam), a 3 to 5 page paper, or some other more specific phrasing. Another ambiguous term in my talk will probably be the use of “you.” I will often say, “When you choose a topic” or “As you write your essay.” I will try to remember to say, “When your child chooses a topic” and so on, but I may slip up. I’m used to directly addressing the writers, so I slip into teacher mode. Also, if there is something you don’t understand or something you would like for me to repeat, please feel free to stop me and to let me know. I am here to help you, so if there is something that isn’t clear or that I am not addressing, please let me know.
The title of this talk is “The Most Important Essay your Child Will Ever Write.” I believe that this essay is the argument essay. The first question that may come to your mind is “What is an argument essay?” That’s a valid question and a good place to begin. An argument essay is a paper with an arguable thesis which defends that thesis. Sometimes you will hear this essay called a persuasive essay. They are basically the same thing.
What is it about the argument essay that makes it so much more important than other essays? In an argument essay, the writer must take a specific stand on an issue or topic, clearly state her position, and then logically and methodically defend her stance. This skill is invaluable throughout life. If a Christian wants to defend creation or the validity of the Bible, if he can do it in a clear, logical fashion, his argument will be better received. If your child wants to petition his future boss for a raise or promotion, the skill of concisely stating what she wants and then being able to back up her desires with convincing proof will pay off. There are many, many more examples of the usefulness of the argument essay—debates, letters to the editor, and just plain wheedling Mom and Dad—but I think you get the point. How many times have you men wished that your wives could just simply say what she wanted or needed or could logically explain her reasoning? Women, how many times have you wished that you had a way for your husband to be able to better understand your point of view? Believe it or not, a mastery of the argument essay and a good understanding of logical fallacies will help!
Since you are all thrilled and excited about the usefulness of the argument essay, I am guessing you are wondering how to best go about teaching it to your child (and to yourself—isn’t that the real fun of homeschooling?) The best place to start is at the beginning—with the topic and thesis statement. As Euripides once said, “A bad beginning makes a bad ending.” This is especially true in the case of the argument essay. If you do not choose a good topic and do not have an arguable thesis, the whole essay will fall apart and will be difficult to write.
How should I choose a topic? I suggest that you have your child pick something in which he is interested, be it guitars, Nintendo, horses, rabbits, or Civil War re-enacting. If he cannot think of a topic, have him write down 5 things that make him mad and 5 things that he would like to see changed. These could be as simple as removing a stop sign on a seldom-used back road or the color of the box of his favorite cereal to more serious issues such as deployment of the military as peacekeepers or the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Once he has a general idea of what interests him, the next step is writing an arguable thesis.
Now, what is an arguable thesis? By now, most of you have probably drilled it into your children’s heads that the thesis is the main point of the paper. It is the sentence that alerts readers as to the topic of the entire essay. It is also a statement, not a question. Some people like to call the thesis statement a topic sentence, which is fine. For example, if you were writing an essay about your trip to Europe, your thesis statement might be “My trip to Europe was educational and exciting.” (Let’s hope your trip to Europe was more exciting than that thesis!) An arguable thesis is a statement that can be argued or debated. This is where you may find some gray area. Look at the sample thesis on your handout. Which ones make good, arguable thesis statements? Let’s look at them in turn and discuss them.
A simple way to write an argument thesis statement is to think of your topic and then write “I believe…” Fill in the … with what you believe about the topic. Some students struggle with concisely and clearly stating their thoughts. Others have absolutely no problem expressing their opinions. They have been doing it since the day they were born! It is for the former group of students that I offer this formula. It is not a magic key, but instead, it is a place to start. Let’s say that our topic is homeschooling. What are some arguable thesis statements we could come up with about homeschooling? Use the “I believe” format.
(Write statements on overhead. Leave room for extensions!)
As you can see, there are many different approaches to a single topic. Help your child to see the various ways she could think about her topic. If she is fixated on one angle, make her look at the opposite point of view. That sometimes gives a broader picture of the topic.
A way to extend the thesis statement and to make it even clearer is to add an explanation to the “I believe” statement. “I believe X because Y.”
Let’s go back to our tax examples again.
(Pick one or two of the topics and have the class extend them. Then write them.)
The next step in writing the argument essay is refining the thesis statement. You may be thinking, “Gee, this is a lot of time to spend on a thesis. When do we get to the writing part?” I have found that time spent refining the thesis will only save you time in the long run. If you can’t come up with a workable thesis, how would you expect to write a solid argument? If you write a clear thesis, the paper practically writes itself.
There is a lot of debate over the use of the first person in essays. Some higher-level (high school and college) teachers feel that the first person is just fine. Many feel that it is inappropriate. Why say, “I think” when it is obvious that the views expressed are what you, the author, think? With this raging debate and with other thoughts in mind, it is a good idea to further refine the thesis.
How does one further refine a thesis? Let’s say your thesis is the following: (Choose one of the homeschooling examples!!) I believe that a flat tax rate would benefit our country immensely because there would be no complicated tax laws to follow and there would be equity between everyone’s incomes. The first thing to do is to get rid of the “I believe.” Why write it in the first place? It is helpful to clarify your thoughts if you can phrase statements in this way. Once you determine what it is that you believe, there is no need to keep the phrase.
Your thesis would now read: (Read from the overhead!!)
A flat tax rate would benefit our country immensely because there would be no complicated tax laws to follow and there would be equity between everyone’s incomes. How to further refine the thesis? Remove any ambiguous wording, make the thoughts clear, and remove dull verbs and nouns, on and on.
Now, we get to move on to the actual writing of the essay. Even though I said that with a strong thesis the paper practically writes itself, it, of course does not. Your child will have to actually write the essay now! The goal of an argument essay is to convince your audience of the truth and reasonableness of your position. In order to do that, the first thing that must be established is who is the audience?
Many people choose to write their essays to the public at large. That would be a general audience. However, even that audience must be taken into consideration. In my experience, writers will often bring religious and Biblical support into an essay designed for a general audience. This is not a good idea. If your audience doesn’t believe that your support is valid, then they will not believe your overall argument. For example, if you wanted to write an essay explaining your belief that God created the world in seven literal days and your audience is a group of atheists, quoting Genesis as support in the essay would be a bad idea. However, if the audience were a group of people who said they believed the Bible, but believed in the Gap Theory or the Day-Age theory of creation, using the Bible as support would be acceptable, as your audience believes that the Bible, the source you were quoting, is a valid authority.
Audience does not have to be a wide, general group. Audience can be as specific as one person. We have a one-person audience when we write a letter, and we can have a one-person audience when we write an essay as well. When I was in college, I wrote an argument essay with an audience of one. It was a letter to the school superintendent stating why I thought one of the teachers at the school should be removed from her position. Although I never sent the letter, the essay received an A!
Once your audience has been established, you should have your child think about the common ground that his audience and he share about the subject. If the topic is convincing your neighbor to homeschool, a common ground might be the general love that all parents have for their children or the desire that all parents have to see their children succeed. Once this common ground is established, a sense of credibility and community is also established between the writer and his audience. It is then easier for the writer to introduce his ideas and convince his audience of them than if the writer had begun in a hostile or challenging way.
A good way to catch the reader’s attention and provide common ground is by beginning the essay with a scenario or anecdote. A scenario is a made-up story that illustrates a point. The Smiths and the Browns were neighbors. Each family had children of a similar age. Both sets of parents deeply cared about their children and made sure to be involved in their lives, yet the Smith children were not as close to their parents as the Brown’s children were to theirs. What could have caused this rift? Many factors could have been at play, but one notable difference was that the Smith children boarded a yellow school bus every morning while the Brown children were homeschooled.
An anecdote is a true story from your life or someone else’s life. Many times you will introduce a scenario with “Imagine two families” or some other way to alert the reader to the made-up nature of the tale. It is not necessary, however, to do this.
As the writer progresses through writing the essay, she needs to think about her views on the subject and why others might not believe them. This is called refuting the opposition. As she thinks through this, she may come to find out that there isn’t much logical support for her position or that she isn’t able to overcome some serious counterarguments. In our homeschool example, the idea of single mothers who work two jobs just to pay the rent being told that homeschooling is the best option for them is not wise. Sometimes the opposing argument turns out to make much better sense than the argument being proposed in the essay. That might be a call to abandon the effort or to change the thesis. Sometimes there are just irreconcilable differences. In that instance, the writer acknowledges the opposing argument, but doesn’t refute it.
Sometimes the writer, in his attempt to refute all arguments contrary to his point will slip into Logical Fallacy Land without even realizing it. What is Logical Fallacy Land? It is the place where you will hear arguments such as, “Those who send their children to public school don’t’ care about their children’s education.” and, “As more and more modern conveniences like microwaves and vacuum cleaners have been invented, the rate of crime has also increased. Therefore, household appliances can be linked to the crime rate.”
Logical fallacies are often subtle and hard to spot, so it is wonderful idea to actually look into studying some basic logic. You classical homeschoolers in the room could run rings around me in logic instruction and logic resources, but I’ve come across one book and a few websites that might be helpful. The first is The Fallacy Detective by Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn. It is appropriate for ages 13 and up, and it provides a thorough explanation and examples of different types of fallacious arguments. If you already blew the homeschool budget for the year, try the websites which are listed on your handout.
Logical fallacies are something to avoid, but something to include are the three basic rhetorical appeals: logos, ethos, and pathos. Although including a mix of all three is a wonderful idea, understanding your audience will allow you to know which of the appeals would most influence them.
Logos is simply the logic of the argument. “Statistics show that children who have one-on-one tutoring score 200 to 400 points higher on the SAT than children in a traditional large classroom setting.”
Ethos is the ethical appeal. “I have been homeschooling for 20 years. I have four children who have graduated from our homeschool, and I have been mentoring new homeschoolers for the past 13 years.”
Pathos is the emotional appeal. “Children’s minds are living organisms. If we don’t feed their minds with healthy, appealing food, they will wither and die.”
Once the initial draft of the essay is written, it is time to revise. This is the time when the argument should be examined for logical fallacy and for basic order. It is not unusual to find that your child has one basic argument and keeps restating it in every paragraph. This is a good time to make an outline. Usually, an outline is written before a paper is written, but sometimes it is good to go back and write and outline after the fact. This allows the writer to really see in a condensed form the structure of her essay and her argument. This outline should not be a formal Roman numeral thing. Simply have her write the thesis at the top of the paper, and then go paragraph by paragraph through the essay, writing the main idea of each paragraph as she goes along. Once that is done, have her read carefully to see if only the main idea is represented in the paragraph or if many ideas are being presented in the paragraph. This will allow for an easier revision.
There are about 8 main approaches to non-fiction writing, most of which I teach in my class. They are the Narrative/Descriptive, Comparison/Contrast, Process Analysis, Causal Analysis, Rhetorical Analysis, Definition, Division/Classification, and Argument. Many essays that you read in the newspaper or in a magazine employ one or more of these writing strategies. You will notice that the phrase that strikes terror into the heart of homeschooler and parent is missing from this list. That phrase is, of course, RESEARCH PAPER! I deliberately did not mention it because it is not a type of essay on its own. Rather, a research paper is one of the other types of essays into which documented research has been introduced.
The first essay that I usually introduce is the Narrative/Descriptive. Some people teach these two things separately, but it is difficult to truly divide these two. A narrative, or retelling of something that happened, isn’t as appealing without some vivid description. A description gets very dull after a while unless there is a story to keep it interesting. The ND is useful, as we love to hear stories of what happened or descriptions of things and places we have not seen.
A Comparison/Contrast is another fairly self-explanatory essay. In a CC, you compare and/or contrast two things for a purpose. It is not much good if you point out the differences between a roll of paper towels and a sewing needle, but there may be very compelling reasons to write an essay about two unlike things. Comparing means pointing out the similarities, and contrasting is pointing out the differences. Most times, an essay will combine the two techniques. If the things you chose are similar, let’s say Ohio and Pennsylvania, you would contrast them by pointing out the differences. If the two things are different, like a spoon and a rest stop on the highway, you would need to point out the similarities by comparing them.
A Process Analysis essay is a fancy name for a how-to essay. This is the essay that explains the steps in a process. The paper can be very specific—if someone were to pick up the finished essay, he or she could complete the process by only following the instructions given in the essay. This would be appropriate for topics with which the writer has much familiarity, like cooking a can of soup or making a pot holder. Sometimes PA essays are more general. They go over all the steps in a process, but they are not specific due to the technical nature or the time constraints. Topics such as open heart surgery and building a space shuttle would be good, general PA topics. The reader would understand the process, but would be unable to perform the process by simply following the steps in the essay.
A Causal Analysis is a cause and effect paper. The essay examines the relationship between a result and what caused it. Or, the essay examines the results of an event. This could be a big issue like examining the causes for the War in Iraq, or it could be a funny essay explaining the effects that spending all of your month’s earnings on CDs and video games had on your life.
A Definition essay defines the subject of the essay. There are a number of ways to go about defining something, including Analysis, Classification, Comparison, giving Details, Examples, explaining what the term is not (Negation), giving the origins or causes, or giving the uses, results, or effects of the topic.
A Division/Classification essay is somewhat like a definition essay in that it seeks to define something. However, it differs in its technique. The DC essay takes the subject and breaks it down into categories, or it takes categories and uses them to classify the subject. For example, if you wished to classify homeschooling mothers, you might begin listing categories such as homemade jumper and head covering, denim jumper and sneakers, nice slacks and a shirt, jeans and a t-shirt, and sweatpants and a stain-covered shirt. That would lend itself to a humorous essay.
A Rhetorical Analysis essay does just as its name implies. The writer takes something—a speech, essay, or book—and analyzes the rhetorical approaches. We discussed the three main rhetorical appeals: ethos, pathos, and logos. However, there are subcategories to notice in each of the appeals. Rhetorical devices such as simile, metaphor, rhetorical questions, repletion of phrases, and even word choice and sentence length and structure contribute to the rhetorical style of a piece. The RA essay discusses all of these things.
You may have noticed that one of the biggies that come to most people’s minds when they think of writing papers is missing from my list. That is the research paper. That is because the research paper is not in a category by itself. A research paper is just one of these essay styles that contains documented research. So, if your child wants to write a Narrative/Descriptive essay, it can be turned into a research paper by simply adding relevant, documented research.
Any questions?
If you would like a copy of this talk to be emailed to you, you may contact me at the email address at the top of your handout.