Important Elements of an Effective Argumentative Essay
First Paragraph or Introduction
 Clear
 Specific
 Arguable
 Includes thesis or main idea of essay
 2-3 sentences
Focus & Organization
 Every paragraph supports the thesis
 Each paragraph contains only one key point (everything in the paragraph
should support the one key point)
 Conclusion relates to the thesis [no new ideas] and drives it home.
Evidence & Documentation
 Provide examples and direct quotes.
 Provide context for quotes
 Quotation marks around all exact words and phrases
 Clearly indicate an author whose words you are quoting, analyzing or citing
as evidence. [the sole legitimate exception would be the use of lecture notes
from this class.]
 Present the author's ideas accurately, as he/she would have presented them
 You are responsible for citing an author if you refer to or use his/her ideas,
even if you don't quote, i.e., repeating what the author says, word for word. [In
the "Student's Preface" Howard Pospesel describes the three goals he has
for his book: giving students a chance to learn about a current branch of logic;
making students more aware of arguments; and making students better able
to tell the difference between good and bad arguments.1]
 Titles of complete, stand-alone works are italicized; articles, essays, chapters
of books, other works included within larger works are in quotation marks. For
example, Pospesel's Propositional Logic is a complete text that can stand
alone. "Introduction," from Propositional Logic, is a chapter from a book.
 Proper documentation (e.g., with a citation within the text of your essay: open
quote; citation; end quote; open parenthesis; author's last name; page
number[s]; close parenthesis; punctuation2)
 Proper Works Cited listing (alphabetize, all required details in correct order)3
1
Pospesel, ix
"The remainder of this book is a study of these five connectives…." (Pospesel, 10).
3
Pospesel, Howard, Introduction to Logic: Propositional Logic, Revised 3rd edition. Upper Saddle River,
N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2000
Meyer, Jeanine, Carol Wolf, Catherine Dwyer & John Molluzzo, Pace University: Software Exercises. 6th
edition.
Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2001.
2
1
Citing Electronic Sources
Electronic sources would include information that is stored in some kind of
computer. The MLA’s guidelines can be found at http://www.mla.org/set_stl.htm If
you have to break up an internet address in the middle, divide after a slash – not
with a hyphen.4
On Line Book
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. An Online Library of Literature. Ed. Peter Galbavy.
14 Feb.
1999. 23 June 1999 http://www.literature.org/Works/MaryShelley/frankenstein.
Article in an online periodical
Coontz, Stephanie. “Family Myths. Family Realities.” Salon 12 Dec. 1997. 3 Feb.
2000
http://www.salonmagazine.com/mwt/feature/1997/12/23coontz.html.
Web Site
Blue Note Records. 9 June 1999. Blue Note Records. 9 June 1999
http://www.bluenote.com.
Reference Database
“Gog and Magog.” The Encyclopedia Mythica. Ed. Micha F. Lindemans. 24 May
1999. 10
June 1999 http://www.pantheon.org/mythica/articles/g/gog_and_magog.html.
4
Hacker, Diane. A Pocket Style Manual. 3rd Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000
2
Grading Criteria
A (90-100):
 Thesis is clearly presented in the first paragraph
 Thesis shows that the essay is the student's way of working out the
assignment
 Every subsequent paragraph contributes significantly to the development of
the thesis
 Conclusion pulls together the body of the essay and demonstrates how the
essay as a whole has supported the thesis
 The essay is interesting and enjoyable to read
 Information is correct
 Interpretations are interesting
 Paragraphs are well-organized
 Ideas are clearly articulated
 Paper reflects student’s own ideas
 Paper includes proper citations of sources
 Sentences and paragraphs follow one another logically
 Essay is virtually free of errors, i.e., misspellings, sentence fragments; run-on
sentences; comma splices, other errors in punctuation and word choice
B (80-89):
 Thesis is clearly presented in the first paragraph
 Thesis makes clear the relationship between the essay and the assignment
 The student has read the text carefully
 Every subsequent paragraph contributes significantly to the development of
the thesis.
 Final paragraph pulls together the body of the essay and demonstrates how
the essay as a whole has supported the thesis
 The essay is easy to read
 Information is correct
 Interpretations are solidly founded on fact
 There are patterns of organization, logical sequences of sentences and
paragraphs in this essay
 Paper reflects student’s own ideas and includes citations of sources
 Essay may have a small number of the errors mentioned above, i.e.,
misspellings, fragments, etc.
C (70-79)
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Thesis is hard to find
The essay shows that the student has read the text and is responding to the
assignment
Paragraphs do contribute to the thesis, but the organization of these
paragraphs is not clear
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Final paragraph simply summarizes essay without integrating the ideas
presented into a successful support of the thesis
The essay is not easy to read.
However, the essay demonstrates some important points
Some passages are unclear and hard to follow
There is support for the thesis in the paragraphs of the argument, but it is not
easy to locate. There is no evident logical structure to the argument.
There are many errors mentioned in the criteria for the A paper, i.e.,
misspellings, fragments, run-on sentences, comma splices, etc.
D (60-69)
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Thesis is not clear
Essay is not easy to read
No direct and clear connection between the thesis and the essay, or between
the essay and the assignment
There may be some insights in the essay, but individual paragraphs do not
support the thesis
Little indication that the student has actually done any reading for this
assignment
Many misspellings, fragments, run-on sentences, comma splices, other errors
in punctuation, syntax and paragraph organization
F (0-59)
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Essay does not respond to the assignment
Paper is plagiarized
The paper is poorly written, with no attempt at a thesis and no paragraph
organization
Student's work demonstrates no understanding of reading assignment
supposed to read
4