The first part of our assigned reading from St. Martin’s Guide to Writing talked a lot about all the different scenarios where arguing a position comes into play in the real world. It showed you that learning how to argue a position can and will benefit you outside our GSW 1110 class. In the same section it also talked about how most people associate arguing with quarreling but in reality when debating a controversial topic, it should lead you to reflection on your own position rather than a verbal altercation. In the next reading from St. Martin’s Guide to Writing a sample essay was presented to us. The essay was a prime example of what are first essay should sound like. She presented a issue, supported her position, had an effective counter argument and introduced a plan. The next part of the reading included a second example essay. This particular essay helped you to see not only the purpose of a position essay, but also acknowledged the need to speak to a general audience. It also let you see how something as minor as the title or sub-stories throughout an essay can really make an impact on your writing. The next portion of the reading broke down the essays into several parts: a well-supported position, an effective counterargument, and a readable plan. These three parts are key to a satisfactory essay. The last part of our assigned reading was from A Writer’s Resource. This text really made me brainstorm about my upcoming essay. Some of the incite I took from it was to really know your issue and to try out different perspectives in order to see where you really stand at on your issue. This reading also included a section about coming up with a debatable thesis. It stated a good thesis excludes personal feelings and accepted facts.
I found all of the readings to be more helpful than I had imagined they would be. I’m a visual learner so seeing the example essays of a position paper really helped me out. It helped me to start to mentally structure my paper. I also thought it was neat how in the first text it applied what we are learning about in class to the real world. It made me feel like writing this paper was not going to be a pointless task but would really benefit me in the future. I really enjoyed the text from A Writer’s Resource as well. For me, I took it as the baby steps to starting my paper. The part I found to be the most helpful was the section about developing a thesis. I tend to struggle with creating a thesis and that section seemed to clear things up for me a bit. Again, the fact that there was a sample thesis presented really helped me see what a strong thesis should look like.