Revising to Elaborate Ideas

When ideas feel thin, you can elaborate by imagining what questions a reader would ask. Then you can answer the reader’s main questions using a variety of details at a variety of levels. The writer of “Equity Matters” imagined the following interview, answering the reader’s questions in a number of different ways.

Combining Argument and Narrative

Follow these steps to blend your two separate essays into a narrative argument. As you work through the steps, remember that you can add, cut, rewrite, and rearrange parts of both original pieces as needed.

1. Make your original argument essay the base of your paper.
2. Read over both pieces one more time.
3. Decide what portions of your narrative support your argument.
4. Experiment with different combinations of narration and argumentation. Here are three common ways to organize a narrative argument:
   • One-After-Another: Start with your full narrative and transition to your full argument or vice versa.
   • Start-and-End: Start with a portion of your narrative, transition to your argument, and then return to your narrative.
   • Back-and-Forth: Start with your narrative or argument and transition back and forth multiple times between both pieces.

5. Evaluate the results. Which pattern most effectively strengthens the argument? Which pattern is easiest to follow? Which pattern will most likely get readers to empathize with your position?
6. Choose a pattern.
7. Add parts (or all) of your narrative to your argument essay. If you are working in a word-processing program, you can simply copy and paste the parts. Reword sections as needed to improve the flow.

Writing the Narrative Beginning

The beginning of your narrative has a number of jobs:

• Catch the reader's attention.
• Introduce the main character (person of focus).
• Describe the setting (time and place).
• Create conflict.

1. Start in the middle of the action.

   Flush with determination, I stepped up to the podium. I had a strong speech. I had a strong message. I was ready to fight for equal rights. So how did I know it was all doomed?

2. Use interesting dialogue.

   "There goes Drama Jess again. Making something out of nothing." Girls with an opinion get that a lot in high school.

3. Pose a fascinating question.

   What does justice mean to you?

4. Set up the conflict.

   I’m a sports fanatic. I’m also a girl. I thought by now my gender wouldn't be an issue, but last school year showed it still is.

Prewriting to Select a Narrative Topic

You have several options for a narrative topic. You can choose an event that you yourself have exprienced, one involving someone you know personally, or the experience of someone you have never met but have learned about through your research. Consider people you encountered in the books, articles, videos, podcasts, and other sources you explored to create your argument essay.

Writing the Argument Beginning

The beginning first needs to grab the reader's attention. Then it should introduce your topic and provide background leading up to your position statement. To get started with your beginning paragraph, you can experiment with different lead-writing strategies.

1. Ask a provocative question.

   Why is gender such a taboo subject in high school?

2. Provide a fascinating quotation.

   "True equality means holding everyone accountable in the same way, regardless of race, gender, faith, ethnicity, or political ideology."
   ― Monica Crowley

3. Provide a surprising fact.

   Did you know more than half of female students in grades 7-12 report experiencing some form of sexual harassment?

4. Directly address the issue.

   Recently a wave of women's empowerment has swept across the country, but it hasn't seemed to reach high schools.

Writing the Middle Paragraphs

Develop a middle paragraph for each reason that supports your position statement. Organize these paragraphs using your outline (for a receptive audience) or follow a pattern for a resistant audience.

The prewriting activities in this lesson will help you plan your argument essay—identifying a controversial topic, researching the issue, developing a position about it, and gathering reasons, evidence, and responses to objections.

Prewriting to Consider Controversies

Effective argument essays focus on controversial issues. A controversy is a subject about which people disagree. Facts don't leave much room for disagreement because they can be directly proven. Controversial topics involve the following:

• Opinions are personal preferences such as the best U.S. president or the most important qualities of a video game. One person states an opinion and provides reasons to support it, but someone else can have an opposing opinion.
• Proposals are suggestions about what should be done in the future. Since no one knows for certain the future outcome of any action taken now, proposals cannot be directly proven until after they have consequences.
• Hypotheses are explanations for how something might be working. They are "educated guesses" about what is going on. Arguments and experiments can provide reasonable support for them, but hypotheses only become scientific theories or laws after extensive experimentation.

You can think about controversies locally, at your school and in your community, or more broadly, in your country and around the world. What do people feel about the controversies? What opinions, proposals, or hypotheses are most commonly linked to them? One student jotted down the following controversial positions that he encountered at school, read about in local and national newspapers, and discovered on Google News.

Reading a Narrative Argument

Before you write your own narrative argument, you should read and respond to an example from another student. The student begins the sample piece with a compelling narrative about a youth activist before arguing logically for a position about today's youngest generation.

Reading a Student Model

Read the following narrative argument and respond to the reading afterward. Click on the side notes to see key features in the text.

Sample Narrative Argument

Warm-Up for Narrative Arguments

In 2014, actress Emma Watson spoke to the United Nations in support of gender equality. Her speech touched on a number of contentious issues—patriarchy, feminism, gender roles—but to illustrate her points, she also got personal, weaving in stories about her own experiences. Here's a portion of her speech:

Editing Comparatives and Superlatives

Modifiers have special forms that help you compare topics. A comparative adjective can show which of two topics is bigger, faster, less messy, or more cost-effective. A superlative adjective can show which of three or more topics is biggest, fastest, least messy, or most cost-effective. Add er to most one-syllable words to make the comparative form, and add est to make the superlative form.

Most One-Syllable Adjectives

For most adjectives of two syllables or more, add more or less for comparative forms and most or least for superlative forms. (Note that some two-syllable adjectives can still take er and est.)