ABSTRACT
The middle section of an essay makes good on the promises of the introduction. This chapter looks at the structure, and shows how to organize thoughts into an intellectually mobile and energetic argument. A good undergraduate essay needs a good structure. Structural problems often start with a flawed approach to the question. The chapter talks about how and when to use critics: even, or especially, when their views contradict one's own. Critics exist for four reasons: to provide support or authorization at crucial points in one's argument; to be disagreed with as a means of developing one's material; to act as sounding boards for one's ideas; and to act as springboard for the ideas. Critics make ideal sounding boards; the process of bouncing ideas off them until a satisfactory intellectual position is arrived at, is part and parcel of fashioning a lively, discursive essay. By showing the counter-argument to readers, one can gain their trust.
