A Genre Description Of The Argumentative Essay

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DOI: 10.1177/003368829002100105
1990; 21; 66
RELC Journal
Ken Hyland
A Genre Description of the Argumentative Essay
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by Ken Hyland on August 19, 2008
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A Genre Description of the Argumentative Essay
Ken Hyland
PNG University of Technology
Lae, Papua New Guinea
Abstract
The difficulties faced by EFL/ESL students when asked to pro-
duce a piece of writing are often due to an inadequate understanding
of how texts are organized. To facilitate effective writing therefore,
teachers have to familiarize students with the rhetorical structures
which are an important part of the meanings of texts.
This article focuses on an important type of written discourse,
the argumentive essay, and proposes a preliminary descriptive frame-
work of its rhetorical structure. Presenting research results, the
author shows that a "categories analysis" can clarify the structure of
written texts and provide pedagogically useful materials. A case is
argued for the importance of explicit linguistic knowledge in deve-
loping writing skills and some implications for teaching strategies are
drawn.
Introduction
Much of the published advice on teaching writing skills to second
language students in recent years has focused on the &dquo;process approach&dquo; .
The emphasis has been on optimising opportunities for learner writers to
&dquo;discover meaning&dquo; and engage in interaction with their audiences.
However, this concentration on composing strategies has meant that an
important aspect of writing instruction is frequently overlooked: The
problematic business of precisely defining the required product.
Most applied linguistic endeavours in this area have been concerned
with establishing general principles of text description rather than speci-
fying the linguistic nature of the tasks we set our students. Until recently
little attention was given to establishing the features of particular text
types and so our understanding of schematic text structure is largely sketchy
and implicit. As a result, we reward good work when we see it but
without a clear awareness of what is required to achieve it.
This paper sets out a preliminary description of the structure of a
familiar and important genre, the argumentative essay, and outlines
some of its pedagogical implications. These initial findings are published
both to show that common EFL genres have describable structures and
to stimulate a more interventionist approach to teaching extensive
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writing. By this I mean using knowledge of text structure to enable
students to shape their work to the conventions of the genre.
We need to acknowledge that L2 learners may have only a limited
competence in using alien discourse forms and that process methodologies
fail to address this issue. Learners simply need more information on
what we expect them to produce.
Schemata and Genre Analysis
We recognise an effectively presented argument because our com-
petence includes a shared knowledge of what constitutes a coherently
organized text. To the extent that this formal structure is not employed,
communication is impaired and the reader left either confused or uncon-
vinced. If the text structure of the argumentative essay can be made
explicit however, this information becomes an important pedagogical re-
source. Knowledge of text organization can be used to improve our
teaching of writing.
Research in cognitive psychology has established that efficient
comprehension of a text is dependent on the reader’s ability to relate its
skeletal design to a familiar stereotypical pattern called a schema (Kintsch,
1982; Widdowson, 1983).
&dquo;Formal schemata&dquo; (Carrell, 1983) constitute knowledge about
text types and are indispensable to understanding, enabling the reader to
correctly identify and organize information by locating it in a conven-
tional frame. Obviously the range of texts a reader can participate in
depends on how many formal schemata she or he can use proficiently.
Teachers therefore have a vital role to play in familiarizing students with
the schemata associated with particular varieties of writing or genres.
Describing the schemata appropriate to different genres involves
analysing how writers typically sequence information. The schemata
which invoke familiar processing strategies in the reader can be examined
to discover how they are routinely constructed to form particular rhetori-
cal structures.
The description proposed here then has its theoretical foundations
in genre analysis, an approach concerned with the communicative pur-
poses of written language. Genre theory has yet to make much impres-
sion on EFL methodology but has had a major impact in the fields of
EST and EAP (e.g. Swales, 1984; Dudley-Evans, 1986; Hopkins &
Dudley-Evans, 1988). In this system of analysis, texts are distinguished
according to their goal orientations and examined to determine how they
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are structured to achieve specific ends. This involves revealing how
writers typically sequence information in the context of a particular text
type...
The Argumentative Essay - Data and Categories
The preliminary categories proposed here are based on a detailed
study of the top 10% of essay scripts submitted for the Papua New
Guinea High School matriculation in English in 1988 (65 papers). The
topic required candidates to choose one sector of the PNG education
system and argue a case for giving it more resources. This data was sup-
plemented by an informal sample of journalistic material from the
British and American press, partly to ascertain if the model could be
generalised beyond L2 school essays. Although the findings which follow
are preliminary, the model represents all the examples examined in the
study.
The notion of structure assumes an assembly of analytical units with
constraints on permissible sequences of categories. Because genre
analysis is a directive to examine texts in terms of their purpose, rather
than content, the units in this description are determined functionally, by
the contribution they make to the discourse. The approach adopted here
follows the familiar &dquo;categories analysis&dquo; of Halliday’s early grammar
(Halliday, 1961) and the Birmingham model of spoken discourse
(Sinclair & Coulthard, 1975). It involves combining units of the same size
to form larger ones in much the same way that words combine to form
groups which make clauses and so on.
The Description
In this model the text is the highest unit of description, having nice
tidy boundaries and a clearly describable function. Thus the argumenta-
tive essay is defined by its purpose which is to persuade the reader of the
correctness of a central statement. This text type is characterized by a
three stage structure which represents the organizing principles of the
genre: Thesis, Argument and Conclusion. In turn, each stage has a struc-
ture expressed in terms of moves, some of which are optional elements in
the system. Below this, moves are realized in various ways at the level of
form by lexical and grammatical means. Here the opportunity for variety
arises and this brief analysis is unable to isolate the particular clause rela-
tions or lexical signals which typically express discourse moves.
Table 1 summarises the elements of the description, naming and
defining the functions of the structural units. As can be seen, the
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organization of the three stages is stated in terms of move sequences.
Bracketed elements are optional components in the structure and indi-
cate that such a move need not occur but will appear in that position if it
does.
I. The Thesis Stage
This stage introduces the discourse topic and advances the writer’s
proposition or central statement. Frequently coterminous with the para-
graph in the exam data, its potential structure is identified as consisting
of five moves, only one of which is obligatory.
1. The gambit is distinguished primarily by its arresting effect. The
function of the move is to capture the reader’s attention, rather than in-
form. The move is frequently found in editorials and requires a certain
skill and authority to impress rather than aggravate the uncommitted
reader.
The South African Government stands constantly trapped between
the anvil of right-wing resistance and the hammer of international
opprobrium.
(Times Editorial 9/12/88)
The chorus ... blaming American &dquo;intransigence&dquo; for the near-
collapse of the Uruguay round of trade talks in Montreal last week is
hypocritical and self-serving.
Many foreign employers complain about the sub-standard graduates
produced in PNG.
2. Informing moves, on the other hand, are almost universal fea-
tures of this type of writing. Realizations are largely drawn from a
restricted class of illocutions which include definitions, classifications,
descriptions, critiques or &dquo;straw man&dquo; arguments. It is possible that
there is a restricted variety of ways which this move may be realised and
that future analyses may suggest a rank level of discourse acts.
Education is an investment in people and is vital to the progress and
development of society.
Potential students of PNG have over 3,300 education institutions
available to them ranging from primary schools through High
Schools to vocational colleges and universities.
Since independence PNG has spent a lot of money financing the ter-
tiary system and has not obtained good value for its money.
3. The proposition is the central move in the thesis stage and its only
indispensable component. This functions to furnish a specific statement
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of position which defines the topic and gives a focus to the entire com-
position.
It is clear that more money is needed in the secondary sector and that
more money should be spent there.
The Universities should be given more financial assistance by the
government to improve the quality of graduates in this country.
I strongly propose the idea that our rural community schools be
given first priorty in terms of government funding.
The proposition is not always expressed so succinctly however and
may emerge from an informing move
There is one sector that stands out in developing the country. That is
the base of our education system -
the community schools. This is
where we should pay the closest attention.
or contextualizing information can be embedded in the proposition itself
The justification for the decision not to extradite Father Patrick
Ryan offered by the Irish Attorney-General yesterday is a shabby
evasion.
Experienced feature writers often make their proposing move text
initial by composing the central statement in the form of a gambit:
In Thatcher’s Britain ... powerful citadels of the worst type of trade
unionism still flourish doing mighty damage to our internal and over-
seas trade.
(Woodrow Wyatt, Times 14/12/88)
4. An evaluation may follow the proposition, this provides a posi-
tive comment on it.
This sector is the most important because it provides basic know-
ledge and skills.
This is primarily because it is the base of our education system.
5. The marker structures the discourse by signposting its subsequent
direction. It occurs more frequently in the examination scripts and is
often confined to a restricted class of formulae.
There are a number of reasons for increasing assistance to community
education.
A solution has at least three interlocking parts.
(Guardian Weekly 13/11/88)
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II. The Argument Stage
This stage presents the infrastructure of reasons which characterise
the genre. The argument stage consists of a possible four move cycle
repeated indefinitely in a specific order.
1. The marker frames the sequence and connects it to both the steps
in the argument and to the proposition. The shift to a new sequence may
be implicit in a topic change, being embedded in the claim, but writers
often wish to explicitly guide the reader through the argument stage.
There are two main devices for accomplishing this:
a) Listing signals such as &dquo;first(ly)&dquo;, &dquo;second(ly)&dquo;, &dquo;next&dquo;, etc. A
closed class of formulaic elements, loved by students, which
provide an inventory of items but require interpretive work by
the reader to discover the relationships between them.
b) Transition signals to indicate the step to another sequence,
marking addition, contrast, condition, specificity, etc. by
adverbial connectives, conjunctions and comments indicating
changes in the discussion.
Turning to the economic benefits of vocational education ....
Another way to improve the standard is to ...
However, a start must be made somewhere and ...
2. A restatement of the proposition in some form is common here,
particularly in the exam data where foregrounding the proposition pro-
vides a reminder of the subject
The second reason why more money should be directed at the tertiary
sector is ...
’
Another way to improve the quality of primary education is ....
3. The central move in the argument sequence is the claim. This is a
reason endorsing the validity of the proposition. Typically three tactics
of persuasion- are used:
(i) A statement appealing to the potency of &dquo;shared&dquo; presupposi-
tions or expectations about topic background. This is an invi-
tation to agree with the writer’s assumptions and thereby ac-
cept the reasonableness of the position. Here, for example, we
are obviously expected to understand events in the same way
as the writer accepting the argument as relevant and the inter- &dquo;
pretation as favourable to his support for community edu-
cation.
With the basic skills we learn from community schools it would be
easier for us to understand the trade and economy of our country.
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The following claim also relies on an appeal to uncontentious back-
ground assumptions, although it may require more work to demonstrate
relevance _
Providing for this sector also helps people learn how to vote in elec-
tions rather than someone directing them.
(ii) Alternatively, the writer may approach his audience by presen-
ting a generalization based on factual evidence or expert opi-
nion.
We spend least for each student in community schools for the highest
social returns (Table 1)
British Rail’s claim that it takes two years to build new trains to meet
these demands has been dismissed by Richard Hope, Editor of
Railway Gazette, as ’pure hogwash’.
(Nigel Hawkes, The Observer 18/12/88)
Sir John Guise states that this sector prepares students to participate
in the economy of the country more directly.
(iii) The third tactic is a declaration of opinion aiming for max-
imum effect with minimum regard for opposing views.
It cannot be denied that higher forms of education decrease our
dependence on foreign domination in the economy.
An example of how wrong and mad things are can be found in the
discussion about Scotland.
(Niel Ascherson, The Observer 18/12/88)
The country’s economy is disintegrating.
(Times Editorial, 19/12/88)
4. The support move is an indispensable second part to the claim in
a tied pair of moves. It furnishes explicit reinforcement for the claim and
can comprise several paragraphs appealing to several sources of
evidence. The support move is therefore both directly relevant to the
claim and seeks to demonstrate the relevance of the claim to the proposi-
tion. The successful accomplishment of the claim-support pair depends
on explicitly establishing these relevances.
The connection almost always involves some tacit understandings
or warrants (Peters, 1985:8) and these differ enormously in the generality
of their acceptance. Obviously the writer’s knowledge of the audience is
important here as the length and complexity of the support move often
reflects the extent he/she believes the warrant diverges from shared
understandings. Where a common knowledge base is assumed with the
reader, as in this example, the writer can expect less resistance to a parti-
cular claim and leave a great deal unsaid.
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74
...all children should be allowed a basic education.
Economy is not possible however with more specific warrants or where
the warrant appeals to readers’ specialised knowledge.
’
At the moment, rail suffers from its heritage.
III. The Conclusion Stage
Rather than a summary or review, the conclusion is a fusion of con-
stituents in this genre. It functions to consolidate the discourse and retro-
spectively affirm what has been communicated. There is a possible four
move sequence to this stage.
1. Again many of the essay samples included a marker from a res-
tricted class, normally &dquo;thus&dquo;, &dquo;therefore&dquo;, &dquo;to conclude&dquo;, &dquo;the lesson
to be drawn is&dquo;, and so on.
2. The consolidation move refers back to the content of the argument
section to relate the themes of the argument stage with the proposition. It
is the central part of the conclusion.
Thus the quality of the graduates is improved and the various sectors
of the community are satisfied.
....many changes need to be made to improve the quality and quantity
of students today.
3. The affirmation is an optional restatement of the proposition;
rare in journalism, its omission is unusual in the exam data.
To sum up, I strongly advise that more money should be spent on the
primary sector.
The community level is thus a crucial stage in development and there-
fore deserves more.
4. In contrast to the retrospective function of the consolidating
move, the close provides a prospective focus. It looks forward to unstated
aspects of the discussion by widening the context.
In turn, this will increase the standard of living in the villages.
Unless active measures are taken, the next generation will have little
to thank us for when they start to contemplate the transport system
they have been left.
The future of the country will be jeopardised if nothing is done to
improve this sector.
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75
Some Pedagogical Implications
A genre-based description of text organization is not an end in itself
for an increased understanding of communicative events can be of great
value to teachers and learners. Such descriptions give a central role to
language by emphasizing that it can be used to acquire knowledge about
writing. Genre analysis provides the vocabulary and concepts to explicitly
teach the text structures we would like our students to produce.
Writing problems of EFL students are often due to an inability to
correctly marshall the resources of content and organization to meet the
demands of the argumentative genre. This is not surprising while its
structure remains an implicit element of the learning process. By employ-
ing genre descriptions, teachers can help students comprehend text struc-
ture and hence gain proficiency in making meanings effective.
Knowledge of generic structure has been successfully used to teach
writing at primary schools (Rothery 1986a & b; Martin et al 1987). Grade
2 children were taught to recognize elements of narrative structure in
familiar texts and then guided to model their own writing on the stages
identified. The authors point out that knowledge of staging and gramma-
tical realizations did not frighten the children but promoted
more effective negotiations and consultations as well as providing
each child with their own individual scaffolding that can be deployed
as needed to produce successful texts.
(Martin, Christie & Rothery, 1987:142)
The contribution of a language to examine language is therefore of
primary pedagogical importance, allowing a greater and more effective
degree of intervention by the teacher. This description of the argumenta-
tive essay could therefore prove useful in a number of ways.
Firstly, by making explicit the schema characteristics, good exam-
ples of the genre can be selected as models. These could then be discussed
and exploited stage by stage to show how an essay is developed and
meanings convincingly communicated. Conversely, badly organized
texts provide opportunities for analysing weaknesses and examples of in-
effectual communication.
Secondly, the framework can be used for guided writing practice in
the genre. Control over structure means that stages can be worked on
separately to polish strategies for, say, formulating a proposition or
developing an effective conclusion. This can be achieved gradually by
slowly increasing the complexity of how functional units are expressed.
Alternatively, constraints can be placed on actual content to develop ex-
pression within a larger discourse.
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76
Thirdly, research skills can be improved as they become an integral
part of assembling an argument stage. By focusing on the connection
between claim and support moves and showing how they are related to
the proposition, skills such as library searches, material selection, sum-
marising and note-taking become central aspects of essay writing.
In addition, the teacher’s assessment of student’s written work can
be made more constructive. The genre description provides a paradigm
for useful feedback, offering objective criteria for qualitative evaluation
and a basis for informed discussion on each stage of the essay. Rather
than simply encouraging students with marks and grades, strategies for
improvement can be suggested based on explicit understandings of text
requirements (Marshall, forthcoming).
Finally, the provision of an explicit approach increases opportuni-
ties for group discussion and teacher intervention at each stage of the
writing process. Writing becomes more of a collaborative enterprise as
students can both consult the teacher and work together to jointly con-
struct their arguments. With explicit knowledge of the argumentative
genre, the teacher is better able to provide informed input and fellow
students can offer more positive suggestions and evaluations.
Intervention, then, is a deliberate and informed contribution by the
teacher to the development of students’ metacognitive and metalinguistic
knowledge as a means to improve their writing skills.
It is important to be clear about the notion of intervention. An em-
phasis on structure and use of a linguistic metalanguage do not imply
proscriptive rules or constraints on &dquo;creativity&dquo; . This is not the conquest
of form over content and the reinstatement of classroom grammar drills.
It is a means of making students aware of how language works in the
context of the argumentative essay.
I am not suggesting here that we adopt an exclusively &dquo;product-
based&dquo; orientation to teaching writing as students obviously need to
develop process skills. However, our understanding of writing processes
should not prevent the provision of structural information. Furnishing
students with explicit knowledge of target language discourse forms is a
necessary correction and can complement process methodologies. Des-
criptions of text products will offer crucial classroom support for the L2
writer whose linguistic competencies are unlikely to extend to alien
discourse conventions.
Genres are culturally formulated activities and represent how lan-
guage is commonly used to achieve particular goals in our society. Effec-
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77
tive argument is as much a matter of organization as content or creativity
and constructing meaning involves developing rhetorical steps. In other
words, to argue is to express ideas in these particular ways.
Conclusion
This preliminary description of the argumentative essay has begun
to sketch the circumscribed range of options available to writers when
presenting an argument. It is based on the notion that the structure of a
text contributes significantly to the realisation of the meanings it con-
tains and that a clarification of this structure can be an important peda-
gogical resource. Further investigation is necessary to develop the model
and reveal the structure of the lowest units. Perhaps a greater degree of
delicacy will establish that moves can be more finely distinguished as per-
missible sequences of &dquo;acts&dquo; or indeed, that the argumentative essay is
more usefully categorised into sub-genres.
Nevertheless, I hope the model will serve as a useful starting point
for discussion and prove valuable to teachers trying to develop more ef-
fective writing programmes. After all, the more explicit we can make our
knowledge of particular genres, the clearer we can be when asking our
students to write and the more positive we can be when intervening in the
process. Writing is clearly a teachable skill and increasing the visibility of
what is to be learnt must be an indispensable part of this teaching.
References
Carrell, PL (1983). Some issues in studying the role of schemata, or
background knowledge, in second language comprehension....
Reading in a foreign language. 1,2 81-92.
Dudley-Evans, T (1986). Genre-analysis: An investigation of the intro-
duction and discourse sections of MSc dissertations. M Coulthard
(Ed) Talking about text. ELR, Birmingham.
Halliday, MAK. (1961). Categories of the Theory of Grammar. Word
17:241-292.
Hammond, J. (1987). An Overview of the Genre-Based Approach to the
Teaching of Writing in Australia. Australian Review of Applied
Linguistics 10, 2:163-181.
Hopkins, A & T Dudley-Evans (1988). A genre-based investigation of the
discussion sections in articles and dissertations. English for Specific
Purposes. 7:113-121.
Kintsch, W (1982). Text representations. W Otto & S White (eds). Read-
ing expository material. New York, Academic Press.
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Marshall, S. (forthcoming). A Genre-Based Approach to the Teaching of
Report Writing. Unpublished Paper, PNG Unitech.
Martin, JR. (1986). Intervening in the Process of Writing Develop-
ment. Applied Linguistics Association of Australia, Occasional
Papers 9, 11-43.
Martin, JR, Christie, F & Rothery, J (1987). Social Processes in Educa-
tion : A reply to Sawyer & Watson (and others). Working Papers in
Linguistics 5, Linguistics Dept., University of Sydney 116-152.
Peters, P. (1985). Strategies for Student Writers. John Wiley.
Rothery, J. (1986a). Teaching Writing in the Primary School: A Genre-
Based Approach to the Development of Writing abilities. Working
Papers in Linguistics 4, Linguistics Dept., University of Sydney.
Rothery, J. (1986b). Writing to Learn and Learning to Write. Working
Papers in Linguistics 4, Linguistics Dept., University of Sydney.
Sinclair, J McH & Coulthard, RM (1975). Towards an Analysis of Dis-
course. OUP.
Swales, J (1984). Research into the structure of introductions to journal
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