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Argument
The word "argument" as it is used in academic
writing des not mean "disagreement." Instead, an argument consists of written
or oral points that support what you are saying. For example, I can say
that the legal age for driving should be 21. If I give several good reasons
why younger persons should not be allowed to drive, these reasons are my
argument. If I do not give reasons but simply repeat my statement, I do
not present an argument. Argumentation is extremely important in academic
writing. The more carefully I build my argument, the better my speech or
writing will be.
Emotion, Passion, Opinion
In a personal essay, emotion is often used to convince the
reader that what you are saying has value and meaning. A good argument in
academic writing, on the other hand, is free of emotion. In the
personal
essay, we use reason, logic, evidence,
passion, and emotion to express our feelings and convince the reader that
we are right. In academic writing, we limit ourselves to reason, logic,
and the presentation of objective evidence in our argument.
There is a reason for this. If a scientist is writing about
his research, we are interested in the facts he found, not in his personal
feelings about his studies. For example, maybe his girlfriend smokes a lot
of cigarettes. During the time the scientist was studying about smoking,
she convinced him not to report the real number of cases of lung cancer
he found. He was in love with her, so he reported only half of the cases
he found. His research was a lie. Because of his weakness, many people might
have gotten sick and died.
© Copyright 2002 Dr. Clyde Coreil
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