REPUBLIQUE ALGERIENNE DEMOCRATIQUE ET POPULAIRE

Ministère de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherche scientifique

Université Abderrahmane MIRA -Béjaïa-

Département d’Anglais

COURSE:

WRITTEN EXPRESSION AND READING

COMPREHENSION

Lesson: Argumentative Essay

LEVEL: L2

GROUPS:

1&2

TEACHER

Mrs. IDRES O.
 Course : Essay Writing

Arguing a point

1. When you argue in writing, you do not necessarily fight with anyone. Before
developing an argument on paper, you must first develop it in your mind. Therefore,
you can say that argument is a thinking process, a reasoning process. You must have
a point of view, a position, a premise to start from, a logic proposition from which
inference is drawn. If your basic premise is unsound, illogical, wrong, your argument
will be faulty.
Example a: Major Premise: All Africans have a black complexion.
Minor premise: All Algerians are Africans.
Conclusion: All Algerians have a black complexion.
This is an argument based on a false premise (all Africans are not black); therefore,
the conclusion is false.
Example b: Major Premise: Any threat to public safety should be removed.
Minor premise: Guns threaten public safety.
Conclusion: Therefore, guns should be removed.
Most people would agree with the major premise. The disagreement could be over
the minor premise. Therefore, not everyone agrees with the conclusion.
2. In argumentation, more than in almost any other type of writing, the writer is
strongly involved with the reader. The writer wants to affect the audience in three
possible ways:
 Change their attitude by getting them to understand a problem.
 Change their behaviour by getting them to act.
 Both
3. There are different ways to construct a logical argument:
 Setting a problem
 Discussing and arguing
 Proposing a solution and arguing
 Conclusion to the argument. This conclusion is very important as it is the
controlling idea of your essay.

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 When the controlling idea is at the end, the argument is said to be inductive;
turned around, with the conclusion stated at the beginning, the argument
would be deductive. Good arguments can be organized in one way or
another.
4. Arguments often end with a call for action, if the writer’s aim is to affect behaviour.
5. Argumentative texts defend implicitly or explicitly ideas or points of view. They have
two functions:
 Polemical function: dismissing someone else’s point of view.
 Persuasive function: changing someone else’s opinion.
6. Argumentative texts resort to three categories of reasoning:
 Deductive Reasoning: drawing conclusions each time you say something.
 Concessive Reasoning: making concessions to other people’s arguments, the
better to criticise them.
 Reasoning by Analogy: making your arguments more concrete by comparing
situations.

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 Course : Essay Writing

Argumentative essay sample:

As online learning becomes more common and more and more

resources are converted to digital form, some people have suggested
that public libraries should be shut down and, in their place; everyone
should be given an iPad with an e-reader subscription.

Proponents of this idea state that it will save local cities and towns
money because libraries are expensive to maintain. They also believe it
will encourage more people to read because they won’t have to travel
to a library to get a book; they can simply click on what they want to
read and read it from wherever they are. They could also access more
materials because libraries won’t have to buy physical copies of books;
they can simply rent out as many digital copies as they need.

However, it would be a serious mistake to replace libraries with

tablets. First, digital books and resources are associated with less
learning and more problems than print resources. A study done on
tablet vs. book reading found that people read 20-30% slower on
tablets, retain 20% less information, and understand 10% less of what
they read compared to people who read the same information in print.
Additionally, staring too long at a screen has been shown to cause
numerous health problems, including blurred vision, dizziness, dry
eyes, headaches, and eye strain, at much higher instances than
reading print does. People who use tablets and mobile devices
excessively also have a higher incidence of more serious health issues
such as fibromyalgia, shoulder and back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome,
and muscle strain. I know that whenever I read from my e-reader for too
long, my eyes begin to feel tired and my neck hurts. We should not add
to these problems by giving people, especially young people, more
reasons to look at screens.

Second, it is incredibly narrow-minded to assume that the only service

libraries offer is book lending. Libraries have a multitude of benefits,
and many are only available if the library has a physical location. Some
of these benefits include acting as a quiet study space, giving people a
way to converse with their neighbours, holding classes on a variety of
topics, providing jobs, answering patron questions, and keeping the
community connected. One neighbourhood found that, after a local
library instituted community events such as play times for toddlers and
parents, job fairs for teenagers, and meeting spaces for senior citizens,
over a third of residents reported feeling more connected to their
community. Similarly, a survey conducted in 2015 found that nearly
two-thirds of American adults feel that closing their local library would
have a major impact on their community. People see libraries as a way

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to connect with others and get their questions answered, benefits

tablets can’t offer nearly as well or as easily.

While replacing libraries with tablets may seem like a simple solution, it
would encourage people to spend even more time looking at digital
screens, despite the myriad issues surrounding them. It would also end
access to many of the benefits of libraries that people have come to rely
on. In many areas, libraries are such an important part of the
community network that they could never be replaced by a simple
object.

 Analysis

The author begins by giving an overview of the counter-argument, and

then the thesis appears as the first sentence in the third paragraph. The
essay then spends the rest of the paper dismantling the counter
argument and showing why readers should believe the other side.

 Text outline:

§1. Introduction:

 Print converted into digital

 Suggestion to close libraries

§2. Counter-argument:

 Saving money
 Easier reading
 No need to go to a library
 Access to more material

§3. Thesis statement: Replacing libraries with tablets, a mistake

 Digital documents provide less learning

 (statistics as illustration)
 Screen can cause health problems
 (examples of troubles)
 Use of tablets and mobiles endangers the body
 (examples of diseases)

§4. More arguments: libraries, not merely book lenders

 Quiet study spaces

 Opportunity for conversation
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 Providing jobs
 (illustrations)

§5. Conclusion: tablets may kill libraries

 Libraries, part of the community

 Cannot be replaced

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