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Sophomore Handbook for Writing
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Argumentative Essays
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[Pick the date]
[Type the author name]
Dear Sophomore Student,
During your freshman year you learned to write the most basic form of the argumentative essay. This
was presented to you in the Freshman Writing Handbook. This basic essay was strictly formatted and
required you to write in a very specific order; therefore most freshman essays looked the same.
During your sophomore year, armed with what you learned about the elements of a basic
argumentative essay freshman year, you will take your writing to the next level. As you begin to master
these advanced skills, you will develop a style of writing that is unique to you and based on your own
beliefs. Your essays will be more interesting to the reader and you will be moving closer to the art of
writing. Most importantly, your essays will contain more complex thoughts and analyses. Developing
these complex arguments on your own will be your greatest challenge.
As you move through the next years of your education, you will be confronted with three situations as a
writer. These are: writing an argumentative essay in response to a piece of fiction, writing an
argumentative essay in response to an informational text, and writing an argumentative essay in
response to a writing prompt with no text. This handbook is set up to address each one of these
situations by giving you explanations and examples of the choices you can make in your writing.
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: Prewriting
Page 4
PART II: Argumentative Essay in Response to a Piece of Fiction
Page 5
PART III: Argumentative Essay in Response to an Informational Text (Nonfiction)
Page 9
PART IV: Argumentative Essay in Response to a Writing Prompt (No Text)
Page 15
PART V: Revising
Page 19
PART VI: Editing
Page 20
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PART 1 – PREWRITING
There are many different ways to brainstorm and organize your ideas before writing an argumentative
essay. Try one or more of the following: web, cluster, list, or an outline. One method that works well
for an argumentative essay is a T-Chart. When you create a T-Chart, try not to over analyze your ideas,
rather jot every thought down. Then choose which side you will support and pick your two best
supporting ideas. Finally, choose one idea from the opposite side as the counter argument that you will
argue against. Examine the T-Chart below based on a question found in a writing prompt that you will
encounter later in this handbook: In your opinion, should high school be extended to five years?
YES
-Take more classes
-Concentrate on 4 subjects at
a time instead of 5
-Allows time for jobs, sports,
or clubs
-More mature at graduation
NO
-Most 18-year-olds ready to be on own
-Most students can handle 5 or more
different classes
-Many of best students have jobs and
are active
-College costs more each year
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PART 2 – ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY IN RESPONSE TO A PIECE OF FICTION
Prompt:
Rick Moody makes some unique decisions in his writing of “Boys.” These decisions include the
repetition of the phrase “boys enter the house,” and the choice to not name any of the characters.
Considering these choices, is “Boys” an important literary work and example of authorial skill worthy of
note, or is it simply a charming piece written to be a quick and humorous read?
Introduction:
When writing about fiction, it is important to bring the reader into the conversation about the text.
Good writing does not assume the reader has read the work of fiction that is the subject of the essay.
As seen below, this essay starts out with a short description of the text. You will also notice that the
thesis statement does not have to be strictly formatted the way you did it during your freshman year, as
long as it serves its purpose, which is to tell the reader exactly what the essay is about including, most
importantly, your position.
“Boys” is a short story by Rick Moody. The story highlights the life struggles of twin brothers
from their birth to the death of their father. Along the way, the boys experience the carefree nature of
childhood, the awkwardness of adolescence, the death of a sibling, struggle for identity in young
adulthood, and ultimately men themselves, they leave their childhood home. Moody uses the boys’
home as an anchor for the story, beginning each moment in the boys’ life with the words “Boys enter the
house.” The characters have no names and sometimes a stage in the boys’ life is explained in only a
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sentence or two. These literary choices and techniques are intended to make “Boys” relate to readers
universally, in fact, the story’s success as an emotional journey depends on it.
Supporting Body Paragraph 1 and 2:
When writing about fiction, the reasons supporting your thesis come from you. It requires critical
thinking, as if you are a lawyer defending your case. You are not using quotes from the text and then
explaining them to the reader; you are using quotes to show that your thinking is correct. Notice how
the writer of this essay uses the text to prove his point. You must spend some time examining the text
to figure out what you want to say, and then prove it by showing the reader why you are correct.
As one reads “Boys,” it is to Moody’s credit that one hardly notices that the characters are not
named. There is the life of an entire family contained within this three-page story and yet none of them
are referred to as more than boys, sister, mother and father. Certainly, the rather short nature of this
short story prevents too much character development, but Moody does not want these characters to
develop individual personalities. He wants them to be universal; these boys are not unique; they
represent all boys and their family—all families. Even examining the anchor phrase reinforces this
concept: “BOYS ENTER THE HOUSE” (Moody 1). The boys are not entering “their house” or “their
parents’ house.” It is the house, a seemingly subtle move that allows for any reader to consider it to be
his child home. Moody makes some less subtle choices that further individualize the story for reader.
Each moment the boys experience is one to which the reader can relate. These moments are
described quickly, but carefully. Sometimes they are mundane, but as they move through the life of the
boys, the experiences are universal in nature. Take for example the common experience of adolescent
acne. As the boys move into their teenage years, Moody gives us two sentences on this very subject:
“Boys with acne enter the house and squeeze and prod large skin blemishes in front of their sister. Boys
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with acne-treatment products hidden about their persons enter the house” (Moody 1). Moody is
counting on the readers to empathize, to nod their head and laugh as they tie those two sentences to
their own experiences. These two sentences are not much without the reader to give them meaning.
The author expects it. This is why we find no names, vague reference to place and short descriptions of
common experiences.
Counter Argument Body Paragraph 3:
During freshman year your counter argument paragraph was equally focused on explaining the
argument of the other side as it was on showing why it is wrong. As you move into more sophisticated
writing, you should spend less time explaining the other side and more time proving why it is incorrect.
Also note, how the writer integrates paraphrasing, quotes, and his own writing to make his case.
Critics will point out that it is this lack of specifics that leaves “Boys” nothing more than a clever
short story designed to elicit a laugh but largely devoid of any real emotion. One need only to string
together the snippets of the boys’ relationship with their sister to examine the catharsis, a relationship
that begins with the boys digging a hole to bury their sister’s dolls and continues in such a fashion with
the boys chasing their sister to flash their private parts or remove her eyebrows with the nose-hair
clippers (Moody 1-2). Things change when the boys are informed their sister has cancer: “Boys enter the
house, having attempted to locate the spot in their yard where the dolls were buried, eight or nine years
prior, without success; they go to their sister’s room, sit by her bed” (Moody 2). The boys go to their
sister’s room after cutting school to “hold vigil” (Moody 2). In the end, the boys ultimately suffer the
agony of their sister’s death. The reader suffers with them, as Moody is counting on the idea that most
readers have experienced cancer in one capacity or another.
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Conclusion:
During freshman year, you learned that a conclusion should restate your thesis and recap your
arguments. You will see that this conclusion does that, but not as robotically as you did freshman year.
You want your conclusion to be as interesting as the rest of your paper. You can accomplish this by
saying what you have already said in a different way. Most importantly, your conclusion should contain
a statement answering the question: “Why is this important to the reader?” Of course that statement
should never start out: “This is important to the reader because…”
Moody is counting on his reader’s experiences to make “Boys” work as more than a cute story on
the nature of boyhood. The skilful choices he makes in his writing are designed to entice the readers to
draw upon their own experiences to make the reading personal and meaningful. Anchored in “the
house,” Moody’s “Boys” is a family story that appeals to the universal human experience. The nameless
characters allow the reader to personalize the story and the fragments of their experience require the
reader to remember his own. “Boys” is not only a study in masterful writing choices; it is an incredible
reading experience.
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PART 3 - ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY IN RESPONSE TO AN INFROMATIONAL TEXT (NONFICTION)
Prompt:
In the article, “Random Drug Testing in High Schools,” by James Allen both sides of this controversial
issue are explored. Having weighed the evidence on both sides, should random drug testing be used to
determine if students are using drugs?
Introduction:
The introductions you wrote as a freshman were very simplistic, but did contain all the elements of a
proper first paragraph. This year, you want your introduction to do basically the same thing it did last
year, introduce the topic of the essay and your opinion, but you don’t have to follow such a strict
organization. For example, the thesis statement can be moved in the introduction or broken into two
sentences. Overall, you have the freedom to introduce the point you are arguing for in any way you see
fit as long as it accomplishes the purpose of an introduction. You will notice the thesis of this essay is
clearly stated at the end, but is not in the simplistic “one sentence with three blanks” format you
learned freshman year.
“If I knew then, what I know now. . .” This phrase has been uttered by millions of people as they
discuss the folly of youth. Most adults look back and know that, with proper perspective applied, they
made decisions in their younger years that they would never make as an older and wiser adult. A perfect
example of this for many adults is the choices they made in regards to the use of drugs and alcohol.
Youth, especially the teen years of high school, is filled with choices, decisions, and consequences
9
pertaining to this subject. These choices can have long lasting, even life-altering, consequences and that
is why many schools have moved to the implementation of random drug testing for students. While
random drug testing in high school has caused many opponents to bring up privacy issues, the probable
benefits of such programs far outweigh any possible negatives. Subsequently, random drug testing
should be used in high schools in order to benefit and protect the students.
Supporting Body Paragraph 1 and 2:
Your two supporting paragraphs need to do the same thing they did last year; thoroughly explain one
reason why your opinion of the topic is correct and support that reason using evidence from the text.
The biggest difference this year is that you want to focus on interpreting the information from the text
and using it to support your own idea. You want to explain exactly how and why the information in the
text supports what you think. In the sample below you see that the student makes an inference based
on the information in the text and uses it to support his own idea about why drug testing in high schools
is a good idea.
One of the most important ways that random drug testing can benefit the students is by giving
them a solid reason to decide not to experiment with drugs and alcohol at a young age. Peer pressure,
whether real or imagined by the student, can be a motivator to choose to experiment. Random drug
testing gives students something to use as an explanation for why they choose not to engage in such acts
without having to make a moral stand against those who do. “Schools that have implemented random
drug testing programs show a 22% decrease in the number of students who say they have experimented
with illegal drugs” (Allen 6). It is unlikely that the drug testing actually reduced the amount of illegal
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drugs available to students, but rather that more students decided on their own not to use illegal drugs.
This is how random drug testing can actually empower students to make their own choices free from the
judgments of others. In this way, random testing can help students who would possibly experiment with
drugs, but it can also help students who may have or developed serious drug problems too.
If you think back to last year, you can see how this paragraph does the same things your supporting
paragraphs did. The big difference here is that the student is making his or her own point, that random
testing will give students an easy reason to say no. Notice that the evidence does not simply repeat that
idea, it isn’t even about that idea. The evidence simply states that schools report less students saying
they’ve tried drugs. The author uses that information to support his idea, connecting it to the idea of
kids being able to say no because of the testing. This is a big step in a student’s writing and is something
you need to concentrate on this year. Here is this student’s second supporting paragraph.
A random drug testing policy can help identify students who are using drugs so they can get
help. There are high school students who develop a drug problem beyond that of simple
experimentation. Random drug tests will make it harder for these students to continue to use drugs and
identify those students who do. If a young student having problems with addiction gets a positive test
then the school and its guidance department can focus on that student and intervene. “Surveys show
that the majority of addicts in treatment today report that they started using between the ages of 13
and 18” (Allen 9). These addicts filling out surveys were all once high school students who could have
benefited from earlier treatment. If the schools they attended had random drug testing policies they
could have been identified and could perhaps have avoided the addiction problem that developed as they
moved into adulthood. This shows how schools with testing are truly helping students and that benefit is
what should be most important, not issues of privacy.
11
Counter Argument Body Paragraph 3:
The purpose of the counter argument is to bring up a reason in support of the opposite position from
yours and explain why it is wrong and you are still correct. The following paragraph accomplishes this,
but the writer organizes the information in a more interesting way for the reader. This student is
constantly coming back to how privacy is not a reason to believe schools should not do random drug
testing.
The largest area for concern for those opposing random drug testing in high schools is privacy. It
is true that drug testing requires the student to give up bodily fluids and that clearly invades privacy.
However, parents make decisions like this for their children all the time. Why should signing their kids up
for vaccines be any different than signing them up for drug testing? Even if schools required testing as a
part of enrollment, an argument could be made that the temporary and harmless invasion of privacy is
far outweighed by the benefit to the students. Clearly, testing can decrease the number of students who
use drugs, and could even help some students who might develop serious problems down the road. As
long as schools only use the information gained from the drug tests to help students, not punish them,
then any argument against testing on the grounds of privacy falls short. It’s hard to argue against, “If
testing can help even just one child stop using, or stay off of drugs at a young age, then how can it not be
worth it” (Allen 11). Random testing would be an inconvenience to students who have no intention of
using drugs of any kind, but at the same time it can be seen as little more than an extension of their
school physical. Testing, like mandatory physicals, is another way that schools are doing everything they
12
can to create and maintain the safest environment possible for all students. A school with less drug
problems in and outside of the building must be seen as a better and safer place for kids to be educated,
and any worries of student privacy do not measure up to the significant benefit to the school, students,
and the whole community.
You can see how the student is doing the same thing you did last year, but that he or she takes more
time to continually explain why the counter argument, that privacy issues are a reason to be against
random testing, is wrong.
Conclusion:
As a developing writer, you can move away from simply repeating yourself in your conclusions. Your
conclusions have a different job now that your writing has advanced. A conclusion needs to explain to
the reader why what you said in your essay matters. You need to explain why it is important. How or
why should the reader see things differently now that they have read your essay? Notice how the
author returns to his point from the introduction, bringing the essay full circle.
Random drug testing for students in high school is a good idea because it can give kids a reason
or excuse not to try drugs and can help identify students with larger drug abuse problems so they can get
help. The educational benefits of such programs far outweigh any concerns about student privacy issues
as long as schools clearly outline what the information gained from the tests will be used for. If the
outcome of a positive test for a student is time with a substance abuse counselor and an alert to parents
and staff about student choices, not a suspension, it is hard to argue with the benefits of the testing
program. Most schools state that their goal beyond educating students is to be a major part of students’
13
early development and to help them become a valued member of society. If this is true, then monitoring
drug use at an age when individuals’ judgments are questionable actually fulfills this goal. The idea is to
help students to be saved from themselves. The idea is to eliminate, as much as possible, the adult in a
rehabilitation center looking back on his or her high school years saying, “If I knew then what I know now
. . .” and random drug testing in schools can help do just that.
14
PART 4 - ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY IN RESPONSE TO A WRITING PROMPT (NO TEXT)
This writing situation often presents itself on exams and is timed. In your near future, you will
experience this on the ACT where you will have thirty minutes to write your argumentative essay,
because of this you will notice that these paragraphs are much shorter and stick closely to the basics of
writing.
Prompt:
Educators debate extending high school to five years because of increasing demands on students from
employers and colleges to participate in extracurricular activities and community service in addition to
having high grades. Some educators support extending high school to five years because they think
students need more time to achieve all that is expected of them. Other educators do not support
extending high school to five years because they think students would lose interest in school and
attendance would drop in the fifth year. In your opinion, should high school be extended to five years?
Introduction:
To break away from the standard introduction that you wrote freshman year, try using a contrast
introduction to grab the reader’s interest. Begin with an attention getter; then explain one or two
features of the opposite side that some people may accept as true; finally state your position in your
thesis statement. It is vital that you address the opposite side in the introduction, while letting the
reader know that everyone may not agree. You can do this by using qualifiers including: in most cases,
many, some, occasionally, or usually.
15
Why would a student want to stay in high school for an extra year? Most students are in a rush
to get to college or start jobs. They may feel they are ready to be on their own. While that may be true
for some students, there are many who would be better off if they took full advantage of everything high
school has to offer by staying an extra year. For that reason, high schools should allow students to
choose a five year plan for graduation.
Supporting Body Paragraph 1 & 2:
Make sure the topic sentence of each paragraph states a reason that supports your thesis statement.
Further explain your reason and make reference to specific examples. Try ending with a concession
statement, reinforcing why your position is better than the opposing point of view.
Some students would benefit from taking more classes if they could choose a five year plan.
Students would be able to experiment with electives and make better college and career choices. For
example, my friend Jasmine discovered her love of cartooning only after taking an extra semester of art.
She ended up majoring in art in college, something she never would have chosen had she not tried
cartooning in the art class elective that she took. Allowing students to choose a five year plan lets them
take a variety of classes and discover themselves before they go off to college or choose a job that they
are not interested in.
A five year option would allow students to have jobs or participate in school or community
activities while still maintaining a high GPA and having time for family. With the current system, many
high school students must often choose between a job, activities, and school work. Many students who
participate in sports have to be at practice before and after school. During the season, their grades drop
16
and they have no time for family. If they could choose the five year option, they could take one less class
during the season, so they would have more time to study and spend with their family.
Counter Argument Body Paragraph 3:
Begin this paragraph by refuting the strongest opposing argument. First, acknowledge the strongest
opposing argument; then tear it apart and reinforce why your position is the best option. Try using one
of these templates:

Of course, some may disagree with the assertion that ____. They may believe ____. However
it’s important to remember that ____.

Some people might argue that ____. However, there are several reasons to oppose this view.

While it is true that ____. The benefits of ____ outweigh the drawbacks because ____.

At first glance, it appears that ____. But on closer inspection, ____ is better in the long run
because ____.

Those who believe ____ may have overlooked ____.
While it may be true that a five year system could cost more in the beginning, it could save
communities and families in the long run. First of all, students who are more mature and have taken a
wider variety of classes in high school will make better choices in college and be less likely to spend five
years in college. These students may have a better chance of getting a scholarship because they have a
higher GPA. In addition, the community benefits from service projects these students provide. If a
student takes five or six years to graduate from college it will cost him or her thousands of dollars that
17
could have been saved if he or she had been more mature and knowledgeable when graduating from
high school.
Conclusion:
Restate your thesis statement, making sure that you address the opposing view point while reinforcing
your position. Explain why this topic is important and briefly recap your point of view. End with a call
for action.
Even though it may cost school districts more in the short run, it is more beneficial to some
students and to the community to give students the option of attending high school for five years.
Schools will turn out a better product, and students will be better prepared for college, their career, and
life. Not every student will opt for the five year plan, but schools should give students that choice.
18
PART 5 – REVISING
When you have finished writing your essay, the next step is revision. Consider the following:

Does everything in your paper support your thesis, or have you gone off the topic? No matter
how much you like a point or a sentence, if it is off the topic, you must cut it.

Does one idea follow naturally from the previous one and lead naturally to the next idea? Will
the connection be clear to the reader? Fill in any jumps between thoughts.

Have you made clear how the details are connected to your ideas? If not, connect them.

Have you checked to make sure that you have transitions in every paragraph so that your ideas
flow smoothly?

Have you repeated a point more than once? Have you said the same thing over and over?
19
PART 6 – EDITING

Is the grammar correct? For example, do the verbs and subjects agree? Have you used the
correct verb forms?

Is the punctuation correct? For example, do you have any run-on sentences or fragments?

Have you used the correct form of a word (e.g., believe rather than belief)?

Are words spelled correctly? With spell check, there is no excuse for misspelled words.
20