Welcome to Writing Argumentative Essays, a unit of curriculum which aims to teach students how to write short argumentative essays of approximately 1000 words.

The tutorial was originally prepared for students undertaking the Victorian Certificate in English for Vocational Education and Further Study (EVEFS) course during Bill Daly's period of employment at Victoria University of Technology (TAFE) in Melbourne, Australia. These students had a minimum ASLPR level of 2 (Upper Intermediate). However, the unit should be useable in any course involving the preparation of first or second language learners for further study at university or TAFE level.

This is a customized version for the use of Foothill College logic students. Slight modification of terms and examples make use by American students somewhat easier.

The tutorial assumes that the students have their own argumentative essay topic for the course they are undertaking.

The tutorial is built around one particular type of argumentative essay. It is important to understand that there are many other ways of structuring argumentative essays than the one proposed in these lessons. However, the structure outlined here has proved to be very effective in giving students a clear, accessible and useable model for their own essays. If you are a student who is accessing this curriculum in order to prepare for an assessment task involving the writing of an argumentative essay, you should first check with your teacher / tutor / lecturer to ensure that the structure outlined here is suitable for that task. (You should probably print out the marine park model and show it to the teacher / tutor / lecturer concerned).

The author of this unit is Bill Daly. With the permission of Mr. Daly, modifications were made by David Peterson. If you wish to see the original version it can be seen at http://users.dragnet.com.au/~dalythom/argueweb/frntpage.htm If you have any comments or questions about this unit of work please feel free to contact Mr. Peterson at: petersondavid@fhda or Mr. Daly at Bill.Daly@nt.gov.au or billdaly@hotmail.com.

This tutorial is part of a comprehensive Logic web site, which you are invited to explore.

This unit of work may be downloaded, printed and used for teaching and learning purposes by students or teachers on the sole condition that the copyright details are not to be removed from the bottom of each page.