Brainstorming

If you want to build a house you first need a blueprint and all the essential resources needed for its construction. It would be much harder to build one if you tried to so do without a plan, and without having the needed materials at hand. Gathering materials for an essay is done through brainstorming. In the case of an argumentative or persuasive essay, you’ll need to decide what position to take on the topic, what points you will use to support your position, and what counterclaims you should address. One simple means of organizing these thoughts is with T charts to divide arguments by their pros and cons. Here you see a T-chart of a student’s ideas for the pros, or positive points of having a dress code and not having a dress code. Feel free to pause the video if you want to examine the examples more carefully. Now you see a T-chart for the cons, or negative consequences of both sides of the same issue. The student can now consider the quality and quality of both T-charts to decide which argument can be argued with the highest quality points in an essay. Uniforms pros: Less expensive for parents, less bullying over clothing, less social pressure to fit in, more fair standards of dress code enforcement, fewer classroom distractions No uniforms pros: More student expression, more student comfort, easier to enforce, requires less of students, logistically easier for the school Uniform cons: Financial burden to supply uniforms, more time spent inspecting uniforms, less student expression, less student comfort No uniform cons: Less consistent dress code enforcement, increased bullying and social pressure, more classroom distractions. You could also organize T-charts in traditional pro/con comparisons if you find them more helpful as seen here. When picking your position on an issue, it’s important to understand that it’s not a matter of life and death. It’s okay to change your mind about a position, or even write from a position that you didn’t think you held prior to your planning. You should write about the position that you have the most points to chose from and can elaborate on accordingly. Once you’ve chosen your position you should pick the 2-3 best arguments in favor of the position you take, and the best argument from the other position for a counterargument. These points will be worked into your thesis, which we’ll talk about later.