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Reflection for Argumentative Essay

This argumentative essay was on the benefits of having a college education free. I argued

that college should be free so more students can pursue higher education, and students could

accumulate less student debt. This paper does a good job appealing to ethos and has a strong

conclusion, but needs improvement in the transitions and claims.

For a paper to be strong, there needs to be powerful language and a strong conclusion. I

did a good job summarizing all the key points made in the body paragraphs, and I also made a

call to action in the conclusion. “College free tuition would decrease student debt, increase

college enrollment, and increase graduation rates. By being educated on the positive effects of

free college, people can push this legislation with their lawmakers.” The call to action helps

enhance my argument by giving methods people can achieve by having free college tuition. I

also did a good job creating credibility as an author. “In 2020, there has been a 4% drop in

enrollment with undergraduate colleges compared to the previous year (Nietzel, 2020).” The

quote helped establish credibility as the author because I cited a reliable paper. This also helped

establish logic in my paper because I showed statistics and used comparative data to enhance my

argument.

With my paper having some strong parts, it also had points that could’ve been fixed. My

thesis statement was not as strong as it could’ve been. “However, current studies show that free

college will lower student loan debt, increase enrollment, and increase graduation.” I could have

revised this thesis more to establish a better central claim. I also should have used better
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transitions throughout my paper. “Student loan debt right now is 1.5 trillion dollars, which is the

highest it has ever been and will increase.” This sentence was in my first body paragraph, and

there was no transition from my intro paragraph to my body paragraph. There needed to be at

least a topic sentence for a better flow in the paragraph.

In conclusion, this paper had a lot of strengths, but it also had a few weaknesses. It is

essential as a writer to evaluate the mistakes made to improve in the future. In the past, I have

always assessed my writings to see the mistakes I made to fix them in other papers. I will

continue to improve my writing skills in the future.