Argumentative Essay Narrative Essay
When writing an argumentative essay, a student must first choose a topic. The topic must be one that has two sides to it, and ideally, will have supporters for both sides of the topic. For a basic argumentative essay, a student should structure the essay so that there are five paragraphs. The first paragraph will be the introduction, the second and third paragraphs will be the support paragraphs, the fourth paragraph will be the counter argument with rebuttal, and the final paragraph will be the conclusion. In terms of style, a writer would be wise to avoid the use of the personal pronouns “I” and “you” in the essay.
When a writer uses “I” in the essay, there is a tendency to follow that pronoun with “think” or “believe” in the statement. The only thing that will result from this pronoun usage will be a loss of credibility and a weakening of the essay. The essay will appear to be more opinion-based and less factual. In an argumentative essay, the writer wants the essay to appear clearly factual. If a writer utilizes the pronoun “you” too often, the audience will feel as though the essay is directed solely at them. This may not be catastrophic for the writer, unless the reader begins as a supporter.
With an overuse of “you”, the reader may feel under attack. The introduction will start out with an attention-getter; this must be an interesting fact about the topic or a quote from an authoritative source about the topic. This will be followed by a general overview of the topic, generally pning three to four sentences. The final sentence of the introduction will be the thesis statement. It is imperative that the writer must provide a stance in this statement along with reasons that support this stance. The next two paragraphs will follow the same structure; these are the support body paragraphs.
Each of these paragraphs will start with a topic sentence; the topic is taken from the thesis statement. Within the paragraph, the student must have two specific examples that will follow the reason of support for each paragraph. The specific examples must be accompanied by elaboration. Students must display the connection to the thesis and explain the importance of including the examples. The next body paragraph, the fourth overall, is the most important for an argumentative essay. The writer will state the opposing side of the argument in this particular paragraph, followed by an explanation of this opposing side.
However, the writer should not stop there. The counter argument must be followed by a rebuttal, or a reason why the counter argument is ineffective or wrong. This will further strengthen the initial position of the writer and give more credibility to the stance that the writer has chosen. Finally, the writer must provide a conclusion in the final paragraph. The conclusion will start with a restatement of the thesis statement. This will be followed by an explanation of the significance of the topic and how it affects, or can affect, the reader and/or society. The conclusion will end with a call to action.
This call to action will hopefully inspire people to do something that shows support of the original stance of the writer. These tips will ensure efficiency when writing an argumentative essay. SAMPLE ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY: HEALTH AND HEALING AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Throw out the bottles and boxes of drugs in your house. A new theory suggests that medicine could be bad for your health, which should at least come as good news to people who cannot afford to buy expensive medicine. However, it is a blow to the medicine industry, and an even bigger blow to our confidence in the progress of science.
This new theory argues that healing is at our fingertips: we can be healthy by doing Reiki on a regular basis. Supporters of medical treatment argue that medicine should be trusted since it is effective and scientifically proven. They say that there is no need for spiritual methods such as Reiki, Yoga, Tai Chi. These waste our time, something which is quite precious in our material world. There is medicine that can kill our pain, x-rays that show us our fractured bones or MRI that scans our brain for tumours. We must admit that these methods are very effective in the examples that they provide.
However, there are some “every day complaints” such as back pains, headaches, insomnia, which are treated currently with medicine. When you have a headache, you take an Aspirin, or Vermidon, when you cannot sleep, you take Xanax without thinking of the side effects of these. When you use these pills for a long period, you become addicted to them; you cannot sleep without them. We pay huge amounts of money and become addicted instead of getting better. How about a safer and more economical way of healing? When doing Reiki to yourself, you do not need anything except your energy so it is very economical.
As for its history, it was discovered in Japan in the early 1900s and its popularity has spread particularly throughout America and Western Europe. In quantum physics, energy is recognized as the fundamental substance of which the universe is composed. Reiki depends on the energy within our bodies. It is a simple and effective way of restoring the energy flow. There are no side effects and it is scientifically explained. Opponents of alternative healing methods also claim that serious illnesses such as HIV/AIDS and cancer cannot be treated without drugs.
They think so because these patients spend the rest of their lives in the hospital taking medicine. How can Reiki make these people healthy again? It is very unfortunate that these patients have to live in the hospital losing their hair because of chemotherapy, losing weight because of the side effects of the medicine they take. Actually, it is common knowledge that except for when the cancer is diagnosed at an early stage, drugs also cannot treat AIDS or cancer. Most of the medicine these patients use are to ease their pain and their sufferings because of the medical treatment they undergo.
Instead of drugs which are expensive and have many side effects, you can use your energy to overcome the hardships of life, find an emotional balance, leave the stress of everyday life and let go of the everyday worries. Most of the chronic conditions such as eczema or migraine are known to have causes such as poor diet and stress. Deep-rooted anger or other strong emotions can contribute to viral infections as well. Since balancing our emotions and controlling our thoughts are very important for our well-being, we should definitely start learning Reiki and avoid illnesses before it is too late.
Some people may still maintain that in our material world, everything depends on time. It is even “lacking time” that causes much of the stress that leads to the illnesses we mentioned. How would it be possible to find time to do Reiki to ourselves and the people around us when we cannot even find time to go to the theatre? This is one good thing about Reiki; it does not require more than 15 minutes of our time. There is no need for changing clothes or special equipment. It is a wonderfully simple healing art, an effective method of relaxation and stress-relief.
Most important of all, it is less time consuming than medicine if we think of all the time we spend taking medicine for some complaints and taking some more for the side effects as well. Having said these, resistance to Reiki would be quite illogical. Reiki is natural and drug-free. What is more, it is easy to learn by anyone, regardless of age and experience. It can be used anywhere, anytime. It also enhances physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being and the benefits last a lifetime. It is definitely high time to get away from the drug boxes we store in our drug cabinet!
