’ Helping students
understand what essay writing is
about
Journal of English for Academic Purposes 11 (2012),
145 - 154
Ursula Wingate
King’s College London
Concepts of ‘argument’
Single claim: a proposition is supported by
grounds and warrants (Toulmin, 1958)
= Developing an argument
Teaching argumentation
• Need to teach argumentation within the disciplines
(Davies, 2008; Mitchell & Riddle, 2000)
• Tutors have fuzzy understanding of argument (e.g.
Lea & Street, 1998)
• Tutors provide insufficient advice/ unhelpful
feedback (‘clarity’, ‘analysis’, ‘argument!’)
Learning argumentation
Starkly different concepts of argument in secondary
school essay
Problems with:
1. Analysing and evaluating content knowledge
lack of subject knowledge
2. Establishing a position lack of confidence
3. Presenting position in a coherent manner
arrangement of propositions into logical structure;
not addressed in study guides
Research objectives
• To identify the concepts of ‘argument’ students
have when arriving at university.
Example:
‘Your essay lacks criticality. You provide lengthy
reports of the literature without discussion.’
Analysing and evaluating
content knowledge [2]
Students diaries:
Theme 1: Use of sources
Example:
‘Made tons of notes. I typed all the notes on a word
document and totaled 11 pages, which stressed me
terribly. I get a feeling that I am going off the topic’.
2. Writers development of a
position [1]
Examples from tutor comments:
Theme 4: Who am I?
Example: ‘In the exploratory, he accused me of not
being critical. How can I criticize xxx [a widely
published author]? I know so little, I have to accept
what he says’.
3. Presentation of position in
coherent manner
Tutor comments:
Cat. 1: Lack of structure
Example: ‘Your arguments tend to get buried in the
rather shapeless text structure.’
Student diaries:
Theme 3: Structure
Example: ‘I have all the information about around 20
theories and approaches, and what I am missing is a
structure by which those are to be presented.’
Findings (3): Limitations in
teaching argumentation
1. Vague labelling
‘criticality’, ‘analysis’, ‘evaluation’
2. Argumentation not presented as central
requirement of essay writing