what is an argumentive essay

what is an argumentive essay

The Art of Persuasion: Crafting Effective Argumentative Essays

1. Introduction to Argumentative Essays

Thus, the idea in instating that each student should write a great many argumentative essays in school. Unfortunately, the reality is that few instructors have much experience in writing persuasive essays or sound proposals. Instructors are mired in the morass of graduate studies and are predominantly concerned with academic complexity. There are courses and handbooks that teach the writing of various expository essays—description, narration, and reportage, for instance—as well as how to write essays based on storytelling and how to construct plots. Very often this training helps provide substitutes for the necessary ingredients of writing argumentative essays because every well-informed individual can do the job. Any gifted individual can write a novel, compose music, or paint a picture that might be well remembered. Yet, the majority who do attempt to write these essays fall short of greatness. Writing persuasively is a special talent; it does not come from creative writing for personal narrative. Such a tale represents a single life experience of no profound significance beyond the writer’s own life. Furthermore, there is very little competition when this methodology is used. The author of a great literary work, after suffering through many revisions, eventually will have an audience of readers and other scholars writing essays citing their texts.

Persuasion is an art form distinct from intimidation or coercion. By definition, it means to cause a person to do or believe something through reasoning or argument. However, this leads to the question of how an argument is created. Is there a formula? What if the person who is doing the arguing is wiser or more educated? Why should a person with no experience be taken seriously? The answer is that any person, by virtue of being a human, has immense capabilities, which can be brought about and honed by practice and guidance. It’s true that few individuals can argue a case for a great number of issues and do it successfully. The people who have honed these skills often rise to positions where their influence is vast. Such authority needs a check and there is no better way to provide a check then teach the citizens of a democracy how to examine and create compelling argumentative writings.

2. Building a Strong Thesis Statement

Crafting a strong thesis statement is an art, not science, and with some effort, every student can learn how to write one. The way to improve your persuasive writing is to test ideas by asking yourself questions that push you to be as specific as possible. If your thesis is strong, there is no room for saying, “Wait, how can that be?” A good thesis may anticipate the reader’s concerns and provide the necessary data to the reader. Remember that a thesis is not just a topic but an opinion, e.g., “College athletes deserve to be paid” vs. “How much money do college athletes make for the NCAA?” A thesis complements a writer’s conversational manner, alerting the reader to the writer’s task and position during each moment of the paper. Always read your thesis carefully and confirm it meets the criteria mentioned above. Only if it does proceed with the rest of your response.

A thesis statement should be concise and clear. If you write a strong persuasive essay, your thesis statement is the foundation. For an argumentative claim to be powerful, it should be debatable, specific, and assert a position that can be argued logically. A direct, brief answer to the given prompt will support your essay development. The rest of the essay is going to be constructed around the central argument. The thesis leads the essay’s body, and the essay’s body will be aimed at supporting the thesis statement. Be sure that your thesis statement is a single sentence and it states a clear opinion on the given topic. Keep in mind that the thesis is neither too broad nor vague, e.g., “The law currently in effect is outdated and needs to be changed” is not good enough. Make sure it is arguable, i.e., one can argue the validity or logic of an opposing view.

3. Supporting Your Argument with Evidence and Logic

Since you should know your subject matter as well as you can and since you have been working on your thesis and its development, you are in a good position to make these decisions. It comes down to doing an editorial job on the material you have. You should not interpret the evidence for your reader, but it will help to make him aware of the outcome of these editorial decisions. These may seem like complicated and time-consuming steps, but mastery of these techniques can greatly improve your prose. You will also be able to produce a more deliberate argument on the spot.

Throughout your essays, the evidence you present should be tailored to the assertions that you are seeking to support. You need to ask yourself: 1. What do I want to convince my audience of? (Your thesis.) 2. What kinds of facts, statistics, specific instances (either historical or contemporary), personal experiences or expert testimony will best support my thesis?

4. Addressing Counterarguments and Rebuttals

In the second part of the paper, and indeed in its conclusion, it is essential to directly address counterarguments and to explain why they are weak, incomplete, mistaken, or insignificant. The extent to which you do so will largely depend, again, on your audience and purposes. If someone could justly claim that the presence of counterarguments should require more of the paper than he offered in response – that would also be a weakness. Another weakness would be if his acknowledgement of other, opposing views in the first part of the paper is inconsistent with his response to them in the second part.

It is important to acknowledge the value of counterarguments within an argument and to address and challenge them. Doing so allows your reader to observe that you have considered the issue from all angles and are aware of other points of view. To address counterarguments directly involves a two-part strategy. The first part consists of summarizing counterarguments without mentioning them. In this part of the paper, you should take an open, sincere, and comprehensive approach to a comprehensive treatment of the matter at hand, which means acknowledging opposing views without setting them up as “straw men” for poor knock-downs. This is precisely the trait of a good thinker. The ability to see and admit other sides of an argument and present them as opposing possible interpretations is essential.

5. Concluding Your Argument with Impact

If an author can master all of the above elements of persuasion, rhetoric is applied to almost any circumstance. However, craft and sellable arguments don’t often come easily; an author must usually spend a lot of time and exercise careful consideration to effectually sell an argument. Despite the hard work and preparation involved, it is usually worth your time and effort. To effectively present a good piece of writing, you must be able to understand, clearly and concisely present your argument, and effectively discuss it with your audience.

In conclusion, a good argumentative essay ends by driving home the reason for the existence of the essay in the first place. If the purpose of the essay has been to defend the idea as a viable, robust theory, then the conclusion is the time to make this clear, without repeating everything that has been said in the main body of the piece. We have found, in the course of our travels through the vast and sometimes complex world of rhetoric, that in order to craft an effective argument, and therefore write an effective argumentative essay, one has to do the following: the author’s ethos resonates with the audience, the writing makes it as easy as possible for the audience to see things as the author does and accept the author’s conclusion, and logos (or logical reasoning) is clearly displayed from the information provided.