how to write argumentive essay

how to write argumentive essay

Strategies for Writing a Persuasive Argumentative Essay

1. Introduction to Argumentative Essays

In my classes, depending on the essay, I will either require students to use at least two scholarly sources and one popular source, or a variety and/or quantity of sources. This is an example of what the mandate for collected evidence/research may look like ethically, responsibly, and sincerely employed for a researched argument or persuasive essay: “In the spirit of scholarly research and as part of your responsibility to contribute to the argumentative conversation so far as is feasible at this point in time, you should have retrieved a variety of quality, unbiased, and provoked sources that have and do discuss the topic with opinion. In other words, in the spirit of fair play and scholarly responsibility, you should have cited an unbiased quantity of sources to support your argumentative thesis.”

An argumentative essay is an essay in which you agree or disagree with, or give your opinion on, a subject or statement. It should be well-founded and supported by sound evidence. It should be convincing, evidence of unbiased research, and be logically presented. While incorporating evidence, be sure to use quotes and passages from non-biased sources as well as your own analysis. Strategies for writing a persuasive, evidence-based argumentative essay are detailed below. These may include, but are not limited to, open-ended queries and explanations, evidence-based abstracts, literature reviews, annotated bibliographies, the argumentative essay, white papers, business case analyses, social impact analyses, science article reviews, technological analyses, or the rant.

2. Structuring Your Argument

To be clear on this, you first have to break the situation down into its parts. The situation that each essay prompt presents to you will fall under one of the following two categories: policy or factual claims. What does this mean? A factual claim normally says that a specific thing has or hasn’t happened or is or isn’t true. They’re about what is. That is, they’re about the present. On the other hand, a policy claim doesn’t focus on whether something is true, but whether something should or should not be true. In asking about whether it should be excellent or bad, true or false – they are about what ought to be. They have to do with suggestions for arbitration in the future. What does this mean? This means that in case the questions ask for particular information, do not make broad claims about one general topic. That’s painting with a broad brush. Practice making a response powerful instead.

Now that we’ve had a general introduction to argumentation, it’s a good time to dig deeper into argumentative writing as a new form of assignment is introduced. One key in this process is to understand what the question is asking you to do. If you don’t have that clear, then you can write a great argument all day long and not get a very good grade. Knowing exactly what is asked of you in the question will ensure that the arguments in your paper are properly tailored to the task at hand. Also, questions can change both the purpose and structure of your essays depending on what is asked of them.

3. Supporting Your Claims with Evidence

Footnotes are another choice of providing citation information. Footnotes work by putting the author’s last name and a page number in parentheses to show where you obtained that piece of information. The conclusion is a chance for you to tie up all loose ends. Since you have spent time and energy crafting an argumentative essay, you might want to take a step away and look at the work through the lens of the essay “reader”. It will help you decide whether the evidence will be beneficial to you or not. That way there are no surprises for your professor.

Writers of argumentative essays should always use credible information to back up all of their claims in order to gain public trust. The use of credible information means that you have done your homework and have read from books or articles. You should always try to use the most up-to-date source for your argument. Do you remember the example about the type of clothes we wear? That would be hard to do if the information used in the essay was out of date. It is important to tell where you obtained the evidence that you are using to substantiate your argument. Use an in-text citation. For example, “A study from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School found that 95% of 12,700 news stories in local newspapers were derived entirely from press releases.”

4. Addressing Counterarguments

Use imagining what your opposition believes and writing an opposing view statement in response to a claim as strategies for generating counterarguments. Keep an open mind as you read the revision guide, discuss your writing with others, and read news articles – be on the lookout for quotes that disagree with your belief.

After you write:

Challenge yourself to brainstorm potential reasons to disagree before you write your essay. Why would a reasonable person shut down a line of thinking?

Before you write:

In a persuasive essay, you really do want to persuade readers to agree with your view on an issue. Strong evidence and sound arguments will keep counterarguments rare, but expect readers to disagree with you occasionally. If you can show that a counterargument really weakens your own argument, you need to acknowledge its validity and then add a second rebuttal in response.

5. Concluding Your Argument

At the same time, the writer can help to control a reader’s reactions to his evidence and help them fit smoothly into the overall strategy for persuasion, whatever it may be. Writers should remember that their entire purpose was to write a successful argument, not just to summarize. An essay that is nothing more than a summary leaves the reader wondering whether anything of major importance had been missed or whether the writer really means to do such a thing. Unlike the usual creative procedure, the purpose in composing a conclusion must have been to convince supporters once again, aligning them to exit relatively well convinced.

In the concluding section of an argument, the author should punctuate his efforts to convince the reader with final persuasive statements and a summary that attempts to present the writer as one who has proved his point. The method of conclusion is related to the way in which the writer has developed his body and should grow naturally from the evidence. A very important aspect to consider is to avoid leading the readers to wonder whether important evidence has been left out in a hurry to prove a case or whether all the evidence has been fudged a bit.