Top 10 Tips for Writing Social Argumentative Essays to Score High

Literature can be a daunting subject for many students throughout their school years. It's often considered a difficult subject to master. However, it's a compulsory subject in all major exams, including final exams, graduation tests, and, for those in social sciences, the literature exam is a must-pass. One of the key factors in preparing for your literature exam is having a well-structured outline and a unique introduction. Structuring your essay for social argumentative writing follows a similar approach as writing any other essay, with three main sections: introduction, body, and conclusion.

The introduction: It should briefly introduce the topic of the social argumentative essay. You can choose to open directly or indirectly. The introduction must be concise, focused, and engaging to draw the reader's attention. A well-crafted introduction plays a crucial role in shaping the reader's impression, ensuring a better reception from evaluators – it's essential to "win over the examiners" with a captivating start.

Once you have a compelling introduction that effectively introduces the topic of the essay, the remaining points depend on how you elaborate on the ideas in your outline. The body of the essay is the core of your writing, so you must dedicate ample time to refine it. Additionally, the conclusion should mirror the introduction in quality—avoid rushing through it or writing a shallow, one-sentence conclusion.

Guidelines:

• Body: Break down your argument based on the method mentioned earlier to ensure a well-rounded and sharp essay. The body is where you present your main arguments, supporting them with evidence and reasoning. Ensure your writing is logical and coherent, without unnecessary embellishments.
• Conclusion: This is where you conclude your argument, reaffirm the issue, and relate it to your personal perspective. Keep it concise without going off-topic. However, make sure it’s complete and doesn’t feel abrupt, leaving the reader with a clear sense of closure.

An essay that scores high needs to be perfect in both content and presentation. To score well in literature, particularly in the social debate essay, it’s not just about writing well but also ensuring your presentation is neat and polished. No matter how good the content is, a poorly presented essay may lead to lost points or fail to make a positive impression on the examiner.

The writing may not be beautiful, but it must be legible, clear, and well-organized without any erasures, scribbling, or careless marks. On the other hand, a messy, poorly presented paper will discourage the examiner, even if the writing is exceptional.

To achieve a high score in a literature exam, it's not enough to have sound arguments; you must also provide relevant and compelling examples. In social debate essays, including examples is crucial. Without them, your essay will lack persuasiveness, and your chances of scoring high will diminish.

In an argumentative essay, no matter how sharp the reasoning is, it won’t be effective without proper examples to back it up. Since there are countless examples available in society, it’s important to prepare a few relevant ones in advance to save time during the exam. To ensure your examples are impactful, consider the following guidelines:

• Examples must be accurate and relevant.
• Each example should be sufficient and necessary for the argument.
• Examples must be representative and typical.
• Always provide an analysis of the examples in the essay.
• Ensure the examples are logical and coherent within the argument.

A high-scoring essay isn't necessarily one that's overly long. A key tip for writing argumentative essays is to write clearly and precisely, rather than excessively. The idea that writing longer will earn more points is completely wrong.

Therefore, it’s advisable to create an outline before you start writing, with a clear structure of arguments and supporting evidence. This ensures that your writing remains focused and to the point. Think of the outline as a roadmap, guiding your ideas in a clear and organized manner. However, writing less doesn’t mean writing too briefly. If the essay is too short, it may fail to engage the reader, provide enough convincing evidence, or delve deeply into the topic.

When preparing for social argumentative writing, it's important to review past exam papers, answers, and scoring criteria to gather valuable insights and improve your writing strategy. To prepare effectively, refer to the official and previous years' exam papers, answer sheets, and grading rubrics from the Ministry of Education and Training. By practicing with these resources, you’ll have a clearer direction for both studying and approaching the exam.

While reviewing these materials, pay attention to the scores assigned to each point, why certain points are given higher marks, and how ideas are organized. It's also beneficial to study how high-scoring essays are written, including their introduction, conclusion, argument development, transitions, presentation, and language. Following the official guidelines and examples from past top-scoring essays will significantly improve your chances of performing well in your own exam.

If you have a solid foundation in literature, adding creative elements to your writing can help make your essay stand out and potentially earn you higher marks. Creativity can be reflected in how you write your introduction, present evidence, and use sentence structures. Within a paragraph, try to diversify your sentence types: alongside simple and declarative sentences, include complex, exclamatory, and rhetorical questions to create a fresh tone. Additionally, avoid using overly familiar and common examples that may seem dull. Use language that is both varied and precise.

When writing a literary essay, the introduction should ideally start with a quote or a piece of writing from a well-known author, either domestic or international, that is closely related to the work discussed in the exam prompt. This can help create a memorable first impression for the examiner. Achieving this requires ongoing knowledge accumulation and reading beyond the curriculum. Keep a notebook where you jot down meaningful quotes from poems or literature to build a collection—this habit is essential for any literature student.

There are many different study methods, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, knowing how to effectively apply each method is key. To study effectively for exams, you need to select a method that suits your personal style.

Some tips for studying literature include:

• Practice breaking down a topic or problem every day. Whenever faced with a situation, quote, or action, try to analyze it to the best of your ability.
• Keep up with the latest news, especially current affairs programs, as they provide the most recent and significant information of the day.
• Focus on remembering and understanding the meanings of proverbs, famous quotes, and sayings.
• Refer to multiple books related to the topic at hand and practice analyzing them.

Philosophical essays often revolve around concepts of perception, lifestyle, and family-social relationships. For example, debates on sayings such as 'A straight tree doesn’t fear being struck down' or 'It is better to die with honor than live in shame' are common themes.

Some tips for tackling philosophical thought essays:

• Recognize the key indicators: these are often proverbs, sayings, idioms, or famous quotes from well-known individuals.
• Once the topic is identified, pinpoint the central idea and explain the key terms used within it.
• Express your opinion on whether the idea is entirely correct or partially true.
• Support your viewpoint with evidence and examples that reinforce your stance. To make your essay stand out to the evaluator, it's crucial to link the discussion to real-life situations and draw valuable lessons from them.

Essays on life phenomena discuss issues from everyday life, such as school violence, the lifestyle of today's youth, the situation in the East Sea, road safety, etc. This type of essay is commonly found in high school and university entrance exams.

Some tips for writing this type of essay:

• Identify the phenomenon in question and assess whether it is widespread.
• Analyze the causes and propose solutions to address it.
• Provide evidence to support your analysis and relate it to real-life examples, including your own experience.
• Draw lessons and critique any negative behaviors or trends.