esl phd argumentative essay help

esl phd argumentative essay help

Effective Strategies for Writing an Argumentative Essay in ESL PhD Programs

1. Introduction to Argumentative Writing in ESL PhD Programs

For this reason, conversation and debate about new and interesting content are also associated with high level academic learning. Much of the work people are expected to do with their first author article (or book) is not just writing up new knowledge, or writing it is an argument. The more expert the writer, the more complex and more reflexive that argument will be, but novice writers do nonetheless need to be able to make an argument, which will stand up to the questions of an expert audience. More than that, being able to talk about what is unique about their work in persuasive ways that will convince others in their discipline that they should put time into reading it, will also help them find people to write reviews and facilitate networking and collegial relationships. Therefore, writing and presenting an argument in an essay is a useful skill, in and of itself, for doctoral level students.

Argumentative writing is a powerful and complex academic skill that assists learners to take positions and engage other members of their community in meaningful conversation about a topic. It is an important skill in doctoral work, regardless of field, and proposing and refining research in an argumentative essay is considered an advanced skill that can only be taken up by individuals who already have a deep background in their discipline. Based on this multilinearity of the concept and practice of argumentative writing, it is important that novel researchers are trained not just in writing compelling essays, but in carefully taking up and considering others’ points of view, and thinking systematically are key characteristics of the argumentative scholar. Yet, it can also be harder for ESL students to write argumentative essays than for native writers, especially at the doctoral stage, when an original contribution is demanded.

2. Key Components of an Argumentative Essay

The introduction sets the stage for the essay. In developing an argumentative essay, it introduces the entire thesis statement and takes a stand on a limited subject. It introduces specific topic areas to be discussed and offers a brief preview of the major issues that will be addressed. Native speakers of English are often expected to have a thesis statement as their final statement in the first paragraph, but in writing for English as a Second Language (ESL) PhD programs, writers may benefit from creative placement. Since a thesis is a work-in-progress, it can be revised multiple times. Including it in the first paragraph or so may unduly pressure the writer to overcommit to any one thesis. Therefore, it may move its development throughout the first couple of paragraphs. Instructors refer to this strategy as an “incremental thesis.” Because such ESL programs also draw students from diverse cultural backgrounds, the writer’s careful expansion of the ways pacing and language can impact comprehension could indicate finer analyses of cultural implications.

Section 1: Key Elements of Increments to a PhD Program for International Students

While each professor has unique requirements, there are key components that constitute a typical argumentative essay. These primarily fall into two areas: structure and content. After offering a brief explanation of a general argumentative essay, they can be detailed as follows.

Introduction

3. Research and Evidence Gathering in ESL PhD Argumentative Essays

Dissertation writing may manifest different activities among students, including research and evidence gathering. There are very few opportunities for students to present their viewpoints on a composite and coherent research topic. In the case of junior academics and postgraduate students, this point of view is more often evidenced by supporting scholarly resources. The purpose of this section is to illustrate the challenges faced by these students in finding the necessary scholarly resources. The reasons for foreign students’ reluctance or not feeling capable of challenging the scholarly academic world are plentiful.

One participant reported having found a scholarly article showing the dark side of adaptive assessment in educational technology that once in the library was not accessible. Another participant used scholarly sources to indicate where the argument could be with claims of others. All respondents agree that the argument should be defended with “evidence” and should use “facts” to do so. Nonetheless, a couple struggled to offer an explanation of what they understood by the term “evidence” at the doctoral level, and hence they generalized by arguing that it could include “repeated facts,” opinions from “experts” or “research papers,” and “credible data or sources.”

Strategies: Writing is an exploration of beliefs and can be referred to as a long and continuous conversation of ideas. Thus, the ability to reason and argue in self-authored essays is an expression of authorial identity. Many scholars argue that LLC is a process of negotiation, including research papers at the post-graduate level. To help students better create an effective argument, educators recommend research and presenting the counterarguments. I should also “twin” the proof as a way to defend the argument.

Research and evidence gathering: Epistemic interdiscursivity is important to highlight the topic and establish the rationale to ensure a strong research gap when informing the audience. In particular, being familiar with academic conventions can support students’ argumentation. They can also research the topic to find scholarly research that reinforces their claims and offers evidence to support their point of view.

4. Structuring and Organizing an Argumentative Essay in ESL PhD Programs

In a PhD composition program, a novice writer might struggle to determine the correct disciplinary framework or structure for argumentative essays. While there are numerous ways to approach the task of organizing a genre, some likely methods include placing a heavy emphasis on structure and moving to a more rhetorical method based on genre analysis. This can bridge Ong and Merkley’s work by emphasizing the foundation of clear expectations that will enhance clarity within the context in which their student will be expected to perform. Such is the case of rhetorical methods like genre. For example, Weissberg and Buker argue for a three-move structure that begins with a general statement of the problem, proceeds to the specific argument and evidence, and concludes with a gesture towards the essay’s particular solution. This three-move genre structure can be particularly appropriate for novice academic writers with limited experience. Refining genre and structure can also help students see the benefits of using classification effectively in organizing an essay because we can demonstrate that introducing the ideas in this specific manner is better respected in a particular scholarly context.

When approaching the question of how to structure and organize an argumentative essay for students in English as a second language (ESL) PhD programs, an instructor might consider the principles of effective argumentation as well as the specific linguistic and academic needs of ESL students. Writing pedagogy in the composition community promotes a number of strategies for ensuring clear, effective argumentation using claims, evidence, and counterarguments. These include a clear organization and progression of ideas as well as an immediate sense of context through the use of introductions and ideas. Likewise, effective argumentative writing can require a certain degree of complexity in the use of language in building coherent cohesion among all individual parts of the argumentative essay.

5. Refining and Polishing the Argumentative Essay in ESL PhD Writing

Lehtomaki cautions that “a focus just on good writing, spelling, and grammar will not be enough to help ESL writers make the necessary changes from a more familiar generic form either in ESL or EFL to those expected by an Anglophone audience” (qtd 327). An exploration of the continuum of the argumentative essay as it is constructed by English as a Second Language (ESL) graduate students and as constructed in the dominant syntax of PhD work. There are already some writing experts, like Grant Medd (1999), who speak on this typological diversity in the North American graduate writing in English, and there are also researchers and tutors in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) writing who explain ways to help EFL learn the expected generic conventions of articles published in North American journals.

Refining and polishing the argumentative essay in ESL PhD writing. Distancing, organization, citing, and genre expectations at the macro level all need to be taken into consideration when plotting the reader/writer relationship in academic writing. Inside these larger categories, issues like coherence, cohesion, purpose, audience, context, disciplinary background, and linguistic considerations, along with many others, all need to be taken into account – one level down – discipline and genre considerations. One level down from this are the more localized aspects of argument – the details of thesis, evidence, support, and potentially even guidance about the language to use in doing so, which could be used in meeting the more localized expectations of an academic publication.