Writing: The Argumentative Essay
Writing: The Argumentative Essay
A Dutch essay has three named parts — inleiding, kern, slot — and one hard register rule: no je. Formal written Dutch replaces the generic 'you' with men, a passive, or a nominalization.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
Avoid generic je in formal writing
Je moet daar rekening mee houden. → Daarmee moet rekening worden gehouden.
You have to take that into account. → That must be taken into account.
The generic je that is so useful in speech is out of place in an essay. The formal alternatives are the passive (moet rekening worden gehouden), men (men dient rekening te houden met), or a nominalization. Note dienen te as the formal equivalent of moeten — it appears constantly in written instructions and academic prose.
The three-part structure is named and expected
de inleiding, de kern, het slot
the introduction, the body, the conclusion
Dutch essay conventions are explicit: an inleiding that states the stelling (the proposition), a kern that develops arguments with a paragraph each, and a slot that concludes without introducing new material. Each paragraph is an alinea, and paragraph-initial signposting is expected rather than optional, which is why the formal discourse markers matter so much here.
Keep the register consistent across the whole text
Er kan worden geconcludeerd dat ... / Alles afwegend kan gesteld worden dat ...
It can be concluded that ... / On balance it can be stated that ...
The closing formulas use the same impersonal machinery as the rest: er kan worden geconcludeerd, alles afwegend, op grond van het bovenstaande. Consistency is judged strictly — a single je or a colloquial particle like hoor in an otherwise formal essay stands out far more than a comparable slip would in English, because Dutch marks register so heavily in its function words.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- the introduction
- English
- the main body
- English
- the conclusion
- English
- the thesis / proposition
- English
- to be required to (formal)
- English
- to conclude
- English
- the above
- English
- on balance
- English
- the conclusion
- English
- on the basis of
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