The argumentative essay is where a lot of Northern Ireland pupils either find their voice or lose their nerve. Ask Years 9–12 to “write an argument” from cold and you tend to get either a shapeless rant or a timid list of points. The remedy is to teach argument as a set of physical, spoken, sortable moves before anyone writes a full essay. The six low-prep activities below each build one part of the argumentative repertoire that CCEA English expects at GCSE and A-Level, all within the Northern Ireland Curriculum. They work with class sets of paper and a board, and they complement the structured guidance in Writing a Comment and Argumentative Essay.
1. The line of opinion
Purpose: committing to a position. Read a provocative statement (“Homework should be banned”) and ask pupils to stand along an imaginary line from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree”. Three pupils justify their spot. Then read a counter-fact and let anyone move. Pupils feel that a claim must be defended and that evidence can shift a position — the heart of argument.
2. Claim, evidence, warrant card sort
Purpose: seeing the anatomy of a paragraph. Cut up a strong paragraph into three strips — the claim, the evidence, and the sentence that explains how the evidence proves the claim. Pupils reassemble in pairs and name each part. Most pupils under-write the warrant, so this makes the missing move visible before they draft.
3. Steelman the other side
Purpose: counter-argument. Pupils write the strongest possible version of the view they disagree with, then a rebuttal that concedes a point before overturning it. This kills the straw-man habit and produces the balanced handling of opposing views that examiners reward. The rhetorical awareness it builds links closely to Analysing Political Speeches – Rhetoric and Stylistic Devices, where pupils see professional persuaders anticipate objections.
4. Rhetoric relay
Purpose: crafting persuasive language. In small groups, pupils pass one sheet round, each adding a single persuasive device to build one paragraph — a rhetorical question, a triple, a direct address, a well-placed statistic. Read the best aloud. Because the devices come from real oratory, this activity sits naturally next to speech work and even the persuasive dimension of drama such as Shakespeare – Analysing a Drama (Macbeth), where characters argue to persuade.
5. The 90-second thesis
Purpose: a clear controlling line. Give a topic and ninety seconds for pupils to write a single sentence that states their position and previews two reasons. Swap with a partner, who marks it “arguable or obvious”. A thesis that no one could disagree with is not an argument, and pupils quickly learn the difference.
6. Live paragraph surgery
Purpose: revision as a skill. Project an anonymous weak paragraph and improve it together under a visualiser — sharpen the claim, add a warrant, cut the padding. Pupils then perform the same surgery on their own draft. This models that argument is redrafted, not poured out once.
Run in sequence, these activities take pupils from stance to structure to style. A suggested order for a two-week unit:
- Line of opinion to establish that positions need defending.
- Card sort to reveal paragraph structure.
- Steelman to build counter-argument.
- Rhetoric relay and 90-second thesis to sharpen language and focus.
- Paragraph surgery to embed redrafting before the assessed essay.
None of this needs a big budget — a full set of resources runs to only a few pounds — and the payoff is pupils who can construct, defend and refine an argument rather than simply assert one, exactly the independence the Northern Ireland Curriculum and CCEA examinations are looking for.
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