Member-only story
How Writing an Argument is Like Telling Good Gossip
The argument essay is one that English teachers and professors all dread. This essay is often the toughest to teach and the driest to grade. Every semester we look at that stack of arguments and think out ways to get them graded without actually reading them all. So, far no one has figured out how to grade without reading the essays. However, I have found a way to make the essays much more interesting than they were before — by structuring the argument like good gossip.
Why Gossip?
In my nearly 15 years of professional writing, one of the things that my editors have taught me is that the writing has to be interesting before it can be good. Why interesting? Because the reader must be able to get through it without passing out or wishing they could be doing anything else. You must engage the audience or they will click away to someone else's work.
The same holds for academic essays that kids learn starting in high school. The reader — the teacher in most cases — must be able to stay awake, stay invested in the writing in order to consider it good. You have to hold their attention. The best way is with tension. Tension pulls the reader in and keeps them looking for the next part — and then, the resolution. Humans want to know what happens next. We love gossip because it is a story that satisfies that…
