H1 GP - Essay Techniques Part 3: Make Your Essay More Cogent With Logical Questions (LQs)

This post will cover Logical Questions (LQs) and how they can better help you tie up loose ends. Logical Questions are used to help you cover more ground. Logical questions are simply the questions you would have - put yourself in the shoes of the reader -  upon reading a previous statement (that is usually not one of fact). 

"Why should that be the case?", "How does it happen?", "So what?", "How do you know? / What examples do you have?" 

Ultimately, LQs help you write thorough paragraphs and thorough essays.

Today we'll see how Logical Questions can help us generate 1. Topic Sentences 2. Thorough explanations.

We get LQs from the Thesis to generate Topic Sentences. Thus let's start off with writing a Thesis first.

Eg. "Going green is a luxury only developed countries can afford." Comment.

In future posts, we'll see how to craft theses that incorporate more than one perspective to increase scope. Just take note for now that we'll approach this question from 2 angles: "is going green a luxury or a necessity" and "are developing countries able to afford the luxury of going green or not". In fact you can even approach it from a third angle (in red): "are developed countries necessarily able to afford the luxury of going green or not?" -  this last perspective is optional as two perspectives already gives you enough scope

Thesis: Although going green may arguably be lower in the hierarchy of priorities of a developing country, it does not necessarily mean that developing countries do not have the resources to invest in 'going green'. In fact, many environmentalists may argue that 'going green' is an absolutely essential financial commitment for not just developed countries, but also developing countries. Finally, one should also note that not all developed nations are necessarily wealthy and able to finance environmental pursuits.

We generate LQs by dissecting our thesis. Answering them gives us our Topic Sentences (TS).

LQ1: Why may going green arguably be lower in the hierarchy of priorities of a developing country?

Source: Time Exclusive Photographs

TS:  Many developing countries face a multitude of urgent issues which require short-term policies that satisfy the immediate needs of their people and improve their welfare, hence environmental pursuits which take tend to be of the longer-term and have lesser results in terms of improving the citizens' livelihoods is arguably of lower priority in developing countries. (You can use these Topic Sentences to practice your elaboration. Btw examples you can use for this paragraph include: Haiti earthquake, the fact that 1/3 of the world's poorest ppl reside in India etc)

LQ2:  Why might developing countries have the resources to invest in 'going green'?

TS: Going green may not be a costly endeavour. (Period. Consider the banning of plastic bags in developing countries like Bhutan, Rwanda, Somalia etc. Beijing is also trying hard to preserve the tradition of riding bicycles as a means of transport)

TS: Some developing countries have accumulated much wealth in their coffers and may be able to pursue environmentally-friendly goals. (Think China and its development of the Tianjin eco-city, the oil countries like Dubai and its investment in Solar energy) 

 

 

 

LQ3:  Why do many environmentalists argue that 'going green' is an absolutely essential financial commitment for both developed and developing countries?

TS: However many environmentalists would argue that preventing or alleviating the effects of global warming and environmental pollution and degradation requires our utmost commitment because their effects would be catastrophic for mankind even if they only materialise in the long-term. (Have you seen Obama's recent speech on drought affecting crop yields; and also the massive fish death in Singaporean fish farms due to higher temperatures causing an algae and plankton bloom early this year? And the cost of rising sea levels?)

TS: Moreover, they also argue that there is also a need to solve our environmental problems in the immediate future before they get out of our control, thus such added urgency makes environmental pursuits a necessity rather than a luxury. (If you are well-read in this area, you may be aware of the positive feedback cycles that would accelerate global warming after a certain threshold is reached. Eg. Melting ice may release methane reservoirs, releasing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and trapping more heat... melting ice means less sunlight and heat is reflected into space)

LQ4:  Why aren't all developed nations  wealthy and able to finance environmental pursuits?

Unfortunately even developed nations may not have the financial resources to fund the 'luxury' of more expensive environmental pursuits owing to high public debt. (Yup, think of the US and the PIGS. And not to mention the 2008 global recession wasn't that long ago, and Fed tapering has somewhat induced another mini-recession)

So in this way, from a good thesis, LQs can help you generate many topic sentences and cover more ground.

Likewise when you ask yourself LQs within a paragraph, you'll find that your explanation becomes more thorough. Using the topic sentence:

TS: "The legalisation of marijuana may reduce crime".  

So how does the legalisation of marijuana reduce crime?
"The legalisation of marijuana may reduce crime through regulating otherwise illegal black market activities of growing and trafficking marijuana, which are often associated with crime and violence"
How are such black market activities often associated with crime and violence, and how may regulating otherwise black market activities reduce crime and violence?

"For one, marijuana is often sold by criminal groups such as the mafia. When business-related disputes occur, they illegality of marijuana means that they would not rely on law-enforcement officials to step in, but rather take matters into their own hands, which often ends in violence. "  
How do you know? 
(To answer this last LQ you just need some examples to support the above claims.) Eg. that much of the violence escalating around the Mexican border revolves around Mexican drug cartels fighting over profits...  

 
In conclusion, asking yourself LQs helps you generate more relevant topic sentences as well as improving the thoroughness of your paragraph in a more intuitive manner, so you can write better essays faster.

Coming up in later parts of Essay Techniques series:

Part 1: Hook Your Examiner

Part 2: Write Theses With Greater Scope

Part 3: Make Your Essay More Cogent With Logical Questions (LQs)

Part 4: The Overall Structure - TATATA approach vs. TTTAAA approach

If you liked this, do consider our even more engaging and informative tuition classes here :)