Argument Paper Reflection

            When I first was assigned this essay it was no surprise that I stared at the assignment paper and felt lost. This was another college paper that required me to write over 5 pages, something I dreaded doing each time. I think the best thing I did for myself was that when the assignment was first posted, not just explained in class, I decided to read it. I spent about 20 minutes making sure I understood what was being asked. I read through all the different options (education, hope, social change) and thought about which topic would be easier for me to write about. Then, since there were different questions within each topic, I decided to compare some of the things I had written in class about sources we had read to the questions under the topic. This helped me feel calmer about the assignment because the previously written paragraphs from class provided almost an outline for what I was going to write.

            Throughout this assignment, I learned that if I argue my essay through one or two main points, I would feel like I had a better sense of direction. This can be seen in my essay when I continuously used slavery and communism in all 3 parts of my essay. This allowed me to have a clear focus on my essay and not go off on a tangent.


            I also learned about writing introductions and conclusions. I had always believed that an intro started very general and then the last sentence was a concise clear thesis. However, a thesis can be spread out throughout the entire introduction. In my essay, I wrote about the process from oppression to social change and education’s influence in social change from the beginning to the end of my intro. In other words, my whole introductory paragraph explained my thesis. My understanding of writing conclusions was also changed. I was always told that you couldn’t bring in new information to a conclusion. However, based on how I was guided to re-write my conclusion it seems that if new information further defines the argument, than it is acceptable. In my essay, I wrote about basic versus critical education o further define the education I referred to in the rest of my essay. The idea of basic and critical education is somewhat new in context but it does not bring up another argument that strays from the other two arguments (slavery and communism) that are already in my essay.

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