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Why Argumentative Essays Are The Worst

Get ready for this rant.

 Caroline Francoeur
Mar 12, 2019
Syracuse University
31
Why Argumentative Essays Are The Worst
Unsplash

Recently I enrolled in a class called GEO 171. It is a 3-hour class that meets once a week and discusses human geography around the world. Choosing the class, I was excited to see what it would be like and I was interested to experience a new kind of class and learn more about human culture. Along with this, it also fulfilled my writing requirement, which is a major advantage.

Hearing about our first essay regarding hunger and whether or not farming can solve it, I was optimistic that I would be able to expel a significant amount of knowledge in completing the essay. The way that my professor described it was that we would be formulating an argument and agree or disagree with the prompt described above.

We were told to cite sources, which is obviously crucial with this prompt, but in my paper, I also gave my own opinions drawn from the research that I had gathered.

Getting back my paper, I was extremely disappointed with the result. Going through it, the comments made absolutely no sense to me. I was confused why after almost every sentence there was a note to cite when I had drawn the conclusion from my own knowledge after reading multiple sources.

So what's the deal? Am I just supposed to cite after every single sentence? I truly will never understand the argumentative essay. This issue with me not citing properly brought my grade down almost 30 percentage points. Maybe it's just the teacher, or maybe this is ultimately just not my cup of tea.

I will never be able to fathom the concept of having to cite after drawing your own conclusions. These kinds of essays are actually the worst.

In my opinion, the best kind of essays is those that value your opinion and let you draw your own conclusions, without having the pressure to cite where you got it. I feel that I learn significantly more from essays that I can think about and formulate my own idea regarding the sources that I have read and the material that I have gone over.

In other words, this essay is the worst and I am upset about my grade. I hope some of you can agree.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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