In order to help our students succeed in this area of study, it’s important to think about what their teachers and examiners are looking for in the essay.
There are so many things teachers are looking for in an Argument Analysis essay – here is a quick (but not exhaustive) list:
- the depth of insight the student has into the author’s sequencing and structure of their arguments and evidence
- the student’s analysis of how visuals are used in supporting and augmenting the author’s argument
- how well the student understands how authors employ arguments to position intended audiences
- how the context of a text and author’s identity can affect an audience’s reaction to the text
- the student’s analysis of how the features of print, digital, audio and/or audio visual texts are used by the author to position their intended audiences
- the student’s mastery of the relevant metalanguage
You’ll notice that many of these skills overlap or are dependent on each other. For example, the ‘depth of insight the student has’ is very much dependent on ‘how well the student understands how authors employ arguments’. So tutors, parents and teachers need to be able to teach these skills in conjunction, rather than in isolation.
Over the years, we have found that the best way to teach argument analysis is to just talk with our students, and get really curious with them about how they think what they think. Fostering those unique relationships with our students have opened up worlds of possibility in terms of uncovering new depths of critical thinking and analysis!
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