Final self-seessment - Essay Example

Reflection Essay One of the greatest lessons that I have learnt over the past term is the value of effective writing. Great writers spend great deal of time trying to figure out on how best they can present their argument to their reader. Therefore, before commencing any piece of writing, identifying the question at issue (Q@I) is very critical. The Q@I is the essence of any argument which makes it important for the writer to give answers or further discussion to the question. In my essay titled Two Years are better than four; the Q@I was “Which colleges are better?

Is it the two-year colleges (community colleges) or the traditional four year colleges? (paragraph 1)” The novelty of the four-year colleges have made so many people ignore the two-year colleges. Informed by this reason and bearing in mind that community level colleges are equally producing successful students, I sought to answer the aforementioned question in my essay. The second bit of developing my essay was coming up with an enthymeme. My enthymeme was basically a statement with the claim, issue, and evidences to be discussed.

It is more or less like a thesis statement but tailored particularly to expound on the Q@I. Written on the first paragraph of my essay, the enthymeme was “The community colleges are suitable alternatives to traditional four-year colleges and universities because in addition to being affordable, community colleges give students better opportunities for growth and self-discovery.” This statement helped me keep focus and structure my essay from one paragraph to the other. For example, in the second paragraph of my essay I needed to discuss the issue of affordability of community colleges as stated in my enthymeme.

Therefore, my claim here was that community colleges are better than traditional four year colleges because lesser school fees are needed. To add support to my claim, I had to provide evidence. My evidence was derived from Liz Addison’s article “Two Year are Better than Four” where she sympathizes with a poor students who fails to realize the opportunities community colleges offer. The decision to quote Liz Addison in my work was important to add on the credibility or rather appeal to the ethos of my readers.

Counterargument is the other important part of any piece of persuasive writing. This represents a different point of view which critics my peg on dispute the argument presented in the rest of the paper. There is no doubt that it would be a lie to claim that two-year colleges do not have their own misgivings. Therefore, in my paper I had to acknowledge the point of critics that “that two year colleges offer substandard quality education due to resource limitation (page 3).” This is certainly hard to argue against because most of community level colleges are cash strapped.

However, the support of the community colleges is pegged on the fact that “they encourage student aggressiveness while at the same time promote a fresh start.”In conclusion, question is at issue is an important aspect of any piece of argumentative writing as it informs the essence of the argument. Secondly, a well developed enthymeme helps structure the rest of the essay by guiding and focusing the author’s main points. Lastly, a counter-argument is important in enhancing the objectivity of the paper.

It also helps the writer clear up general issues a majority of readers may have against his or her argument.