chinese argumentative essay format

Jocelyn Chinese Tuition

Argumentative Writing 01: Fight or Flight

Argumentative essay 议论文 – fight or flight.

一篇好的议论文会让读者臣服于你的观点。而从考试的角度来探讨，想在 O 水准及 A 水准的考试中写出不同凡响的议论文绝对是一门学问。那么如果想要正面挑战议论文写作，同学们应该如何做好准备呢？

Argumentative Essay is a key question type in both O and A levels Chinese Language Paper 1. However, many students tend to avoid it, fearing that they might lack the techniques or evidence needed to score. What should students do? With our JC and Upper Secondary Chinese tuition classes , we will teach you how to tackle argumentative essays head on!

Basic structure of an Argumentative Essay

Drafting the right Points is essential for the essay to remain on the right track. The process for many of our students is often instinctive upon looking at the essay question. Hence, in an exam, it is typical that many students will end up writing similar points. Our team of experienced teachers who had been National Exam markers observe that it is common to have thousands of candidates sharing similar points in their essays each year. It’s no wonder that students find it hard to excel at this question type.

论点往往是对题目的理解所作出的逻辑性思考。描写恰当的重点是重要的，它决定了学生的议论文是否切题、偏题或离题。然而，在“高手过招”的情况下，往往分数的高低取决于文章中论据以及对论点的扩展。

Evidence + Elaboration :

With a valid and succinct valid Point, how can students then make their Argumentative Essays shine amongst others? One distinguishing factor is that the Point must be backed by relevant Evidence and Elaboration. This is usually where a series of Chinese Idioms/sayings or general knowledge is applied.

However, students who are unprepared for this question type usually include their personal life experiences or perspectives. Well-prepared students, on the other hand, would have a few overused Chinese idioms/sayings and snippets of biography of famous individuals, like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, up in their sleeves.

而写出好的论据是需要学生对实事、新闻、文献及文学的累计的。因此，对于议论文才会常有“Easy to pass, difficult to ace”的说法。

“Argumentative Writing & The Classics” Series

In this light, our team at Jocelyn Chinese tuition centre prides ourselves in consistently creating updated lesson materials that are aligned with current news and world affairs. Our team believes in the authenticity of learning and we are passionate in value-adding our students with content and topics that are transferable across multi-disciplines, like General Paper and Social Studies. With these content framed within our refinement of study techniques and strategies, our students are able to utilise these content to their advantage in many examinations.

In our upcoming posts, we will be introducing the series: “ Argumentative Writing & The Classics ”. Our team will extract, translate and adapt valuable resources from Chinese Classics and Literature, which are previously inaccessible to the students due to language barriers. We will provide bite-sized, finally comprehensible explanations, which allow you to inject some flair of Ancient Chinese wisdom (that you probably have no time to search on your own) into the Argumentative Essays.

How to Write a Chinese Essay?

However, this is not an option.

Chinese essay writing is an important part in GCE O level Higher Chinese Language or Chinese Language exam.

Then, what are the students suppose to write in an essay? For GCE O level Chinese exam in May 2017, many parents complained about the essay questions set were too difficult ( link ). However, this is the direction we are heading in O level Chinese and the students need to level up necessarily.

Before we even talk about what to write, we must first know what will be tested.

For GCE O level Chinese exam , essay writing is in section 2 of Paper 1.

In this section, students are expected to choose to write 1 out of 3 questions, and the 3 questions will be in one of the following categories:

情景文 (Scenario essay writing)
说明文 (Expository)
议论文 (Argumentative)
材料作文 (Material essay writing)

Each category would need students to write the essay using different skill set. Students need to master the required skill set in order to write essays that meet the criteria.

For 情景文 , students need to use the skills of writing 记叙文 and characters descriptions ; for 说明文 , they need to use the skills of expository essay writing ; 议论文 needs the 3 key elements; as for 材料作文 , depending on the question, students will either need to use the skills for 记叙文 or 议论文 .

When students are clear with all these skills, they will find Chinese essay writing a lot more easier. When equipped with these necessary writing skills , they will be able to focus more on acquiring their language skills.

With our help, we are confident that our students are able to master all these essential Chinese essay writing skills.

Call 97690373 today to register for our class.