Claim/support. Many writing assignments involve some kind of claim/support structure, but some assignments specifically ask you to construct and support your own argument. In a college class, these assignments usually require you to develop fully your own opinions about things that you read, but they may or may not ask you to cite specific readings. Often, assignments for this kind of writing are phrased as questions: "Is human nature inherently good?" "Is it ever appropriate to disobey the law?" "When is war a justified response to aggression?" "Do people have a moral obligation to help the poor?" These highly debatable questions are all covered in this book, and, at some point, your instructor will probably require you to express and defend your opinions about issues such as these.
An argument about any issue consists of two parts: the claim and the support. You cannot simply make an assertion such as "Everybody has a moral obligation to help the poor" or "War is justified when people are defending their families." You also need to include a statement that gives a reason for your belief: "Everybody has a moral obligation to help the poor because morality is based on our responses to others" or "War is justified when people are defending their families because taking care of one's family is the most important duty that human beings have." The procedure for embedding a claim and a statement of support in a thesis statement is covered in depth in Chapter 11 (p. 633).
Compare/contrast. Strictly speaking, "compare" means to show how things are alike, and "contrast" means to show how they are different. Sometimes, an assignment will ask you to "compare and contrast" two things, such as to "compare and contrast the views of Paley and Darwin on the origins of life on earth." Such an assignment asks you to explain similarities and differences in the two texts. Often, instructors simply use the term "compare" as a way to ask you to look for similarities and differences in two or more texts.
Describe. An assignment to describe something—whether that something is an argument, a painting, or your best friend—asks you to give its essential characteristics without evaluating or taking a position on those characteristics. Though perfect neutrality is rarely possible in a writing assignment (the act of choosing which characteristics to describe conveys an evaluation and a perspective), descriptive writing should present its subject objectively. For example, an assignment that asks you to "describe the situations that led to the emergence of Taoism and Confucianism in ancient China" is asking you to explain a set of historical facts, not to give your opinion about a pair of philosophies.
Respond. Many assignments ask you to respond to another text or to a specific argument in a text. Such assignments may or may not ask you to "agree or disagree" with the argument. They do, however, require something more than mere approval or disapproval. They require you to use the text that you are responding to as the basis for your own arguments or observations.
An assignment asking you to "respond to Machiavelli's assertion that it is better for a ruler to be feared than loved" is asking you to consider this argument and evaluate its appropriateness. Does this argument work better in some political systems than others? Does it rest on defensible assumptions about human nature? Which leaders might have agreed? Which ones might have disagreed? What would a government look like that completely accepted—or completely rejected— Machiavelli's advice? Each of these questions or their answers would be legitimate starting points for an essay asking you to "respond" to Machiavelli's argument.
Summarize/paraphrase. Some writing assignments ask you to summarize or paraphrase other texts. The two words do not mean exactly the same thing. A summary is a short encapsulation of a longer argument, cutting out all but the most important details; a paraphrase is a restatement of an argument in your own words, containing most of the original text's detail. A paraphrase of a three-page text should take about three pages, while a summary of such a text could consist of a few carefully worded sentences. When writing about other texts, do not summarize extensively or paraphrase unless you are asked to do so. If you merely summarize or paraphrase an argument that you have been asked to analyze or respond to, you will almost certainly fail to meet your instructor's expectations. (See also "Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing," p. 685.)
Get responses
To make sure that you have met your instructor's expectations for an assignment, get responses, both to your topic and to your early drafts. You might meet with your instructor to talk about your topic, or you might ask your instructor to comment on drafts. You might also seek out the tutoring resources at your school. Most colleges and universities have a writing center or other tutoring service that can serve as a tremendous resource for improving your writing.
Peer tutors can help writers with every stage of the writing process, not just with the finished product. A good peer tutor will be able to help you think critically about an assignment and brainstorm ideas and essay topics. Occasionally, a tutor will have the expertise to help in areas where you are weak. But sometimes, it just helps to have somebody to bounce ideas off of when you are trying to decide on an essay topic. A peer tutor can also read your essay and point out things that you might miss simply because you are too close to the writing process to view your essay objectively.
Consider your audience and purpose
Before you start writing, ask yourself who you are writing for and what you want to accomplish. The answers to these questions will help you present your ideas appropriately—in a class, this will help you meet your instructor's expectations; outside of school, it will help you effectively reach your intended readers. In both cases, considering your audience and purpose is essential.
Any time that you write for other people, you will be constrained by your audience's expectations. Novelists, journalists, corporate executives, screenwriters, Web designers, and even professors all know that the form, style, and content of their writing must meet certain expectations. "Good writing" in the absolute sense is virtually impossible to define, since writing always occurs in a context of stated or unstated expectations. An effective argument in one context might be totally ineffective in another. Take the following argument as an example: "providing beer in a college dining hall would make the dorms more attractive." This would probably be extremely successful with the student body, much less successful with faculty and administrators, and not successful at all with parents. Part of learning how to be a good writer is learning how to assess these expectations accurately and respond to them effectively.
Just as important as understanding your audience is understanding what you want to accomplish when you write. Different kinds of writing have different purposes. Writing can, among other things, inform, persuade, motivate, express, and entertain. An essay written to persuade your instructor of an argument will be very different from one designed to give an initial impression of a reading. If you begin with a solid understanding of what you want to accomplish when you write, you will be able to incorporate this purpose into every stage of the writing process.