An Informal Guide to Academic Essays: How to Find a Point Worth Arguing

Posted on July 4th, by Omar Said

I'm going to start today's post with the idea that you're already familiar with the general structure of an essay. After all, as you progress along your academic journeys, you will all be continually challenged to write them both with increasing frequency and to a higher standard, especially concerning literature. Maybe, when you were first learning the ropes, you were only challenged with presenting a provable point (no matter how obvious or trite) and then presenting evidence to further support that point. That general structure to essay writing will remain, more or less, the same as you grow and evolve. However, what will change is the complexity of the point you are trying to argue. An essay is only as interesting as the argument it is trying to make. Today, I'd like to show you how I hone in on an argument that I find worth writing about in hopes of helping you find ways to do the same.

Let's make some quick ground rules. First, I'm going to be working under the supposition that you're writing about a singular piece of literature and not comparing or contrasting multiple pieces at the same time. I'm doing this mostly for simplicities sake. Furthermore, I can promise you the strategies I discuss here will be just as useful in those situations too. Now, with that out of the way, let's begin.

The first step to finding an argument worth proving is taking a second, deeper look, at the piece under scrutiny. First, find an interesting pattern, a feeling you feel is echoed across the piece that you feel compelled to understand. That, my good friends, is likely a theme being presented within the piece. In fact, I bet a few of your teachers have taught you similar methods of sussing out themes within literature as well. But, where some teachers might ask that you stop there and simply argue that the theme you've found exists, I'd like to challenge you to go further. 

Step 2 is all about that, going further. Its about taking that theme you've found within that piece of literature and going beyond the piece itself. Its about learning to frame your argument in a way that makes it seem like it is something worth discussing in the real world. Now, that might sound vague and needlessly obtuse but bear with me here, I’ll explain it as thoroughly as I can. When I say that you need to make your argument seem like its worth discussing in the real world, I mean that your argument about that piece of literature should, in some way, attempt to say something about reality. Whether it be about the human experience or how we perceive the world, the most interesting arguments are the ones that challenge or expand on how we think in ways that go beyond the literature itself. A man I greatly respect once told me that literature is about so much more then describing conceptual ideas, its about providing us with the tools to navigate this world that we share. When you start viewing literature like that, suddenly rooting your argument in reality isn't so hard. For example, I frame my arguments by attempting to understand or interpret the author's intention behind the themes and ideas they incorporate. Why does the author seem to present the idea of theft as a necessary evil instead of a contemptable act? Why does the author present death as this escape instead of the abrupt ending of life that most of us view death to be? Most of all, through writing this way, what is the author trying to prove? Once you've found that, your argument writes itself. Maybe you decide to agree with the author's point of view and decide to write an essay that supports that perspective. On the other hand, maybe you disagree with the author's assessment and decide to challenge their perspective. Maybe you make a point that’s entirely your own that uses the author's argument to ask further questions and find new solutions. No matter where you venture from that point, your argument will both be pertinent as well as genuinely worth engaging with.

I’m going to attach an example of a thesis that I believe accomplishes everything we’ve spoken about today. The thesis concerns the concept of passing. For a quick definition, "Passing theory describes a unique process by which individuals are not who they claim to be and communicate false identity attributions to gain social group membership without entitlement". The thesis I’m presenting will address both the existence of two very different pieces of literature that may be subtly tackling the idea of passing and, ultimately, what we can conclude about passing and its necessity in the real world through their reasoning.

Here is the thesis:

“Patricia Highsmith's "The Talented Mr. Ripley" as well as Charles Yu's "Interior Chinatown" both succeed through their different, yet complimentary avenues of reasoning to display that the act of passing is not only more than merely a deception, but a means of survival for the oppressed. This can be seen through Patricia Highsmith's subtle depiction of the internal struggle and self-inflicted oppression afforded by passing through Tom Ripley, Charles Yu's contention that the act of passing is inherently relational in nature through the novel’s interpersonal and intergenerational connections, and finally how both novels argue that to pass is not only necessary but encouraged in our societal landscape.”