English Question

Following up from where you left off last time with your thesis statement, begin writing out the body paragraphs of your argumentative essay (if you are pressed for time, you may instead outline your body paragraphs and then expand them into full paragraphs in a later draft of the essay). Here are a few tips for each of the different body paragraph types:

For body paragraphs that are intended to relay background information, you should share information with your audience that you believe would not only be important to their understanding of your topic but also that they are not already likely to know. You might cite information from your sources for these paragraphs. While you can quote a source for this purpose, it might be more ideal to paraphrase or summarize the information instead. Whether you quote, paraphrase, or summarize, though, if you refer to any ideas or information that are not your own, even if they’re in your own words, you must cite the source.

For body paragraphs that contain reasons and supporting evidence to support your thesis, consider following a variation of the SIEL Method (see the Course Documents folder to review the reading). In other words, start each paragraph by stating your reason for why your audience should accept your thesis statement as true. Follow up with evidence either from personal knowledge or from one of your sources. If you cite from a source, this could be a good time to use a quotation, though a paraphrase is also effective here (and as stated before, always cite the source whether you quote it directly or not). Finally, draw a connection between the argument (the topic sentence) of the paragraph and the supporting evidence–how does the evidence prove your argument to be right?

Finally, some of your body paragraphs might be responses to ideas and arguments from your sources or interviews. These paragraphs should also begin with topic sentences introducing the ideas and arguments of your source authors or interviewees. Afterward, you may quote, paraphrase, or summarize from the source, or you may paraphrase or summarize the contents of the interview (as you are unlikely to remember exact quotations unless you recorded the interviews, and if that is the case, you are permitted to use quotations here as well). You should represent all arguments, including those you disagree with, fairly and completely. Afterward, you should respond to their arguments. What aspects do you agree with and why? What aspects do you disagree with and why?