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writers break down the introductory material into two
paragraphs: the first one introducing the problem and the
thesis and the second one providing additional information
or definitions, and giving background information necessary
for the argument.

2. The essay should offer reasons and support for these reasons.
In other words, the essay should prove its point. It is a good
idea to spend one paragraph on each reason.

3. The essay should refute opposing arguments. Refute means
to prove wrong by argument or to show that something is
wrong. It is this characteristics that is most peculiar to the
argumentative essay than to expository essays. Since there
are two sides to the issue, and since you want to convince the
reader that you are right, not only must you prove your own
case, but you should also prove that the opponent is wrong,
or at least that your points are more valid or significant.
Depending on how many points the writer wishes to address,
the refutation can take from one to three paragraphs.

4. If an opponent does have a valid point, concede that point. It
does little good in an argument to ignore any valid points the
other side may have. You can concede them and then go on
to show that your points are more important anyway.

5. The conclusion should logically follow from the argument.
The conclusion can summarize the main points and reassert
the thesis. In an argumentative essay, however, the

securing the blessings of liberty for all of us. Recent newspaper
opinion polls, however, suggest that many Americans are dissatisfied
with the men and women running our communities, our states, and
our nation. More and more of us have come to believe that our
leaders are isolated from the realities ordinary people face. We fear
we are losing control.
2. Instead of helping to alleviate this feeling of impotence,
however, politicians and bureaucrats continue to make and enforce
regulations that constrain our lives and constrict our freedoms. To
help people regain a rightful measure of control, government –
whether national, state or local – should stay out of our private lives
whenever possible. As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis
1
noted,
Americans treasure their “right to be let alone”.

1
Louis Brandeis was associate justice of the United States Supreme Court
(1916-1939). He was a champion of individual rights.

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3. There is no reason for the government to interfere in our lives if
our behavior does not adversely affect others or if there is no
immediate necessity for such interference. Were I in the throes of
terminal cancer or facing the horror of Alzheimer’s disease, I should
be allowed to kill myself. Faced with the agonizing degeneration of
my memory and personality, I would probably want to end my life in
my own way. But the government says this is illegal. Indeed, were I
to call upon a doctor to assist me on this final quest, she would stand
a good chance of being charged with murder.

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7. Clearly, government is a necessity. Without it, we would face
anarchy. Yet those who roam the halls of power should remember
from where their power originates and should find ways to reduce the
burden of unnecessary regulations heaped on the backs of the
American people. Explain what is meant by:

1. Those to whom the people entrust power are charged with
maintaining justice, promoting the general welfare, and
securing the blessings of liberty for all of us.
2. Instead of helping to alleviate this feeling of impotence,
however, politicians and bureaucrats continue to make and
enforce regulations that constrain our lives and constrict our
freedoms.
3. Were I in the throes of terminal cancer or facing the horror
of Alzheimer’s disease, I should be allowed to kill myself.
4. Similarly, when I wanted to convert my garage into a den, I
was overwhelmed by official red tape.
5. Yet those who roam the halls of power should remember
from where their power originates and should find ways to
reduce the burden of unnecessary regulations heaped on the
backs of the American people. QUESTIONS FOR STUDY AND DISCUSSION

1. How did Glazer build up the introduction of his essay?

one of the examples he uses to support his thesis.
12. Think of some instances in which people would welcome
government “interference”. List as many examples of such
beneficial interference as you can. EXPAND YOUR VOCABULARY

Match the words in Column A with their definitions in Column B
A B
1) adversely a) to make sth less severe
2) to promote b) to limit or restrict what sb is
able to do
3) to secure c) to put things in an untidy
pile
4) welfare d) to help sth to happen or
develop
5) to alleviate e) the process of becoming

75
worse or less acceptable in
quality or condition
6) to constrain f) to stop yourself from doing
sth, especially sth that you
want to do
7) to constrict g) to walk or travel around an
area without any definite
aim or direction
8) to endure h) to protect sth so that it is
safe and difficult to attack

women should enjoy equal rights.

3. Write an argumentative essay discussing some debatable issues on
human rights or democracy in our country. Try to sound convincing
by providing concrete facts and figures. Other Possible Topics

• Should everyone go to college?
• Should women serve in the military?
• Should students work full time while carrying a full school load?
• Should younger people replace older people in the work force?
• Should books, plays and films be subjected to censorship? Note:

An important concern for any writer is the ability to organize his
writing in a form that is easy to follow. The best way to do this is
to arrange, or focus, the details you’ve collected around a central
idea. The central idea is often called the main idea (thesis
statement) because it conveys the writer’s main point. It is also
called the controlling idea, for it controls (or determines) the
kinds and amounts of detail that a paragraph or essay contains.

The central idea is the focal point to which all the other ideas in
an essay or paragraph point. Just as you focus a camera by
aiming at a fixed point, you focus your writing by making all the
details it contains relate directly to the central idea. Everything

4. Make sure your topic sentence or thesis clearly states the
point you want to make about your subject.
Not: Computers affect student performance in college.
But: Computers can help students succeed in college.
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TEXT 2

There’s No Way to Go But Ahead
By Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov discusses the problems
of growing industrialization and
technology. But unlike those who find
them responsible for many of the
world’s problems, the author tells why
he sees them as part of the solution. 1. We are all now aware that some new scientific or technological
advance, though useful, may have unpleasant side effects. More and
more, the tendency is to exert caution before committing the world to
something that may not be reversible.
2. The trouble is, it’s not always easy to tell what the side effects
will be. In 1846, Ascanio Sobrero produced the first nitroglycerine.
Heated, a drop of it exploded shatteringly. The Italian chemist
realized in horror its possible application to warfare and stopped his
research at once. It didn’t help, of course. Others followed up, and it

drop – thanks to medicine – in the death rate.
6. Does that mean science should have avoided improving man’s
lot through medicine and kept mankind a short-lived race? Or does it
mean we should use science to correct the possibly deleterious
2
side
effects, devise methods that would make it simpler to reduce the
birth rate and keep it matching the falling death rate? The latter,
obviously!
7. Science and technology are getting a bad press
3
these days.
Increasingly scornful of the materialism of our culture, young people
speak about returning to a simpler, pre-industrial, pre-scientific day.
They fail to realize that the “good old days” were really the horribly
bad old days of ignorance, disease, slavery and death. They fancy
themselves in Athens, talking to Socrates, listening to the latest play
by Sophocles – never as a slave brutalized in the Athenian silver
mines. They imagine themselves as medieval knights on armored
chargers
4
– never as starving peasants.
8. Yet, right down to modern times, the wealth and prosperity of a
relative few have been built on the animal-like labor and wretched
existence of many – peasants, serfs and slaves. What’s more, nothing

1
“Precipitous” = “sharp”
2
“deleterious” = “harmful, causing injury”