Welcome to Writing Argumentative Essays, a unit of curriculum which aims to teach students how to write short argumentative essays of approximately 1000 words. The unit was prepared for students undertaking the Victorian Certificate in English for Vocational Education and Further Study (EVEFS) course during my perod of employment at Victoria University of Technology (TAFE) in Melbourne, Australia.
These students had a minimum ASLPR level of 2 (Upper Intermediate). However, the unit should be useable in any course involving the preparation of first or second language learners for further study at university or TAFE level. The unit assumes that the students have their own argumentative essay topic for the course they are undertaking. The unit is built around one particular type of argumentative essay.
It is important to understand that there are many other ways of structuring argumentative essays than the one proposed in this unit. However, the structure outlined here has proved to be very effective in giving students a clear, accessible and useable model for their own essays. If you are a student who is accessing this curriculum in order to prepare for an assessment task involving the writing of an argumentative essay, you should first check with your teacher / tutor / lecturer to ensure that the structure outlined here is suitable for that task. (You should probably print out the marine park model and show it to the teacher / tutor / lecturer concerned). If you have any comments or questions about this unit of work please feel free to contact me: emailprotected or emailprotected This unit of work may be downloaded, printed and used for teaching and learning purposes by students or teachers on the sole condition that the copyright details are not to be removed from the bottom of each page.
Thanks to ESL Planet for hosting these materials from February 1999.
