An analysis of the definition argument in Enem essays

Abstract

This work aims to describe the way in which the argument of identity appears in Enem essays. We assume that argumentation is inner in natural languages (Koch, 2011; Perelman & Olbrechts-Tyteca, 2014; Fiorin, 2017) and we take the proposal of kinds of arguments shown in Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (2014). Then, we consider that the speaker (Enem candidate) delivers a speech (essay) in order to persuade the audience (The Evaluation Commission) with respect to a thesis, by employing rhetorical elements for that. Our hypothesis is that the definition argument may be one of the most frequent resources in the structure of this text, since the comprehension of the essay structure considers the fact that the candidate must deeply discuss the problem. In this case, the candidate can use definitions (or redefinitions) as resources to deepen and to indicate his argumentative direction. After analyzing 31 essays from Enem (2018 edition), supported by Tropes software, we found 11 different verbs related to the argument by definition – even some of them cannot be analyzed in this way. The most frequent case was the ser (to be) verb, that appears in 167 contexts of 1.679 verbs found in the research, especially in compound periods in predicative contexts. Then, we conclude that the New Rhetoric studies can contribute to characterize the genre Enem essay as well as to solve some difficulties found in the teaching of writing, especially for argumentative texts.