Step Three: Elaborate Your Paragraphs

To elaborate your paragraphs, you first need to elaborate on your introduction, which introduces your claim.

To elaborate on your introduction, you can address one or more of the following questions:

• What is the issue at hand?
• Why is it so important to resolve the controversy?
• What is at stake when debating this issue?
• Why is this issue so hotly contested?
• How do opposing parties disagree on this issue? Why do they disagree?
• Why should somebody take your position?
• What overall reason best supports your position?

Be sure to introduce your claim, or thesis, at the outset of your essay, either within the first paragraph or at the beginning of the second paragraph.

Sample Argument Essay with an Elaborated Introduction

Second, you need to elaborate on your reasons in order to build the body paragraphs of your essay.

One way to support your reasons during the exam is to use descriptive writing to illustrate the major reasons you give in support of your position.

Descriptive writing is loaded with details that a reader, drawing upon his or her own experience, can readily visualize, hear, or even smell.

Below are two examples of how this technique can be used to flesh out a body paragraph in an argument essay.

Example 1

Topic: Should unleashed dogs be permitted within city limits?

Claim (thesis): Unleashed dogs should not be permitted within city limits unless they are let off-leash in special dog parks. Human rights need to be upheld over animal rights.

Reason 1: Off-leash dogs poop wherever they please-usually in other people's yards.

Reason 2: Off-leash dogs intimidate and even attack children.

Reason 3: Off-leash dogs belong in special dog parks.

Example of a paragraph that uses descriptive writing to support
Reason 3.

Why not provide special dog parks for off-leash dogs and owners who enjoy watching Fifi sniff Fluffy's rear, or Scruffy dig holes in the dirt, or Muffin tear around in circles? Let Diablo the great Dane knock over a three-year-old within a fenced-in dog park, where all visitors are dog-tolerant. A dog park is also a fine place for Angus, the high-strung terrier, who has a tendency to nip. In this sanctuary, Sam the St. Bernard is welcome and at liberty to show his love for humans by saturating their clothes with slobber. The dog-park also provides a place for dog lovers to fawn over each other's pets, to exchange stories about the cute thing that Sparky or Rufus did last night, or to recommend veterinarians, flea treatments, and dog sitters. In this designated doggie zone, dog owners can no longer complain that it's cruel not to let their canine friends get the exercise they need. More importantly, dog parks make it so that people who do not love dogs need not be subjected to dog teeth, dog slobber, mounds of dog poop, or all around bad doggie behavior in public parks.

Example 2

Topic: Should teacher shortages be addressed by issuing temporary or emergency certificates?

Claim (thesis): Rather than issuing temporary certificates to address teacher shortages, states should lure new teachers into the field with more pay and more respect.

Reason 1: Formal certification programs ensure teacher commitment and provide valuable training.

Reason 2: In our culture, money symbolizes respect, and people who get respect do their best.

Reason 3: The legislation is an insult to certified teachers, who have shown dedication by choosing to train for their vocation.

To elaborate upon and support Reason 3, one could first answer the question, "Why is this a bad thing?" and then use descriptive writing to illustrate just how bad..

Example of a paragraph that uses descriptive writing to support
Reason 3.

Teachers with alternative certification will be regarded as uncommitted upstarts by faculty members who have paid their dues and completed formal teacher training. A large influx of teachers with temporary certification might well create tension among faculty members and deprive the new teachers of the support they need to perform well in the classroom. In the faculty room, the two groups will no doubt sit at different tables. Instead of offering newbies mentoring and emotional support, old-timers will mutter with satisfaction about how the "temps" can't keep control in their classrooms: "203 sounds like the Call of the Wild" (smirk, smirk). Meanwhile the sheep who have been thrown to the wolves will huddle together at their table, talking about bailing out and changing career paths. In this way, teachers with temporary certification are likely to bear the brunt of the resentment that certified teachers feel as a result of the quick-fix legislation.

Upstart (n) - one that has risen suddenly from a low to high position; one that claims more personal importance than is warranted