argument essay tips

argument essay tips

Effective Strategies for Writing Persuasive Argument Essays

1. Introduction to Argument Essays

When you string together a series of sentences and paragraphs that lead your reader to your conclusion, you are practicing one of the first steps of the problem-solving process. Writing argument essays lets you supply solutions to some of the problems facing our world. Everyone benefits when writers clearly define issues and current problems on a subject and offer creative solutions to those problems. Writing argument essays lets you gather, evaluate, use, and cite information correctly, and follow a logical plan as you form your own good conclusions. In the end, the ability to write persuasive argument essays is one of the most important, enlightening, and rewarding skills you can develop and contribute to our society.

In many subject areas, and sometimes in the labor force, it is not enough to simply state what you believe or to share your own opinions. You need to carefully support your argument with powerful evidence and persuasive language. This important academic or workplace skill is the reason you write argument essays. Your job in writing argument essays is not simply to agree with someone and then defend that person’s ideas. Instead, your job is to read and consider different sides of an issue. Then, you find the side that you believe in or support and give it your full backing. You should be confident and able to write as if you are speaking out for your position and beliefs. Your essay allows your reader to hear and understand your point of view and strong recommendations. As you write about what you believe, you will become a better researcher, reader, and writer, too. Writing argument essays allows you to demonstrate your intellectual abilities.

2. Structuring Your Argument Essay

This form of essay writing facilitates evaluation and enhances the students’ ability to critically discern the arguments supporting the various perspectives. It involves the student looking at the different viewpoints surrounding an issue and agreeing with one of them. As already stated, the classic argument essay involves two sides of the subjects and issues. An argument essay can be considered strong and valid if it has a clear thesis statement, consideration of opposing and supporting viewpoints, an accurate consideration of the audience, and an effective conclusion which includes a call to action.

Developing a good argument essay begins with a list of argument essay topics. There are many different ways to approach an argument essay. The most common way is the classic approach. This method is called expressing the issue in terms of opposing viewpoints. When the issue is expressed in terms of opposing viewpoints, the essay is intended to express the points of view which produce tension and arguments among the writers.

3. Crafting Strong Arguments

A clear sense of argument is essential to all forms of academic writing, for writing is thought made visible. Insights and ideas that occur to us when we encounter the raw material of the world—natural phenomena like the behavior of genes, or cultural phenomena, like texts, photographs and artifacts—must be ordered in some way so others can receive them and respond in turn. This give and take is at the heart of the scholarly enterprise, and makes possible that vast conversation known as civilization. Like all human ventures, the conventions of the academic essay are both logical and playful. They may vary in expression from discipline to discipline, but any good essay should show us a mind developing a thesis, supporting that thesis with evidence, deftly anticipating objections or counterarguments, and maintaining the momentum of discovery.

An argument essay is a piece of academic writing that presents an argument alongside evidence on a topic. It includes a thesis or main point that the rest of the essay goes on to support, and readers will typically find their arguments to be contentious. Writers will usually present two sides of an argument—though one side is preferable—along with its counterarguments. The body paragraphs include reasons and evidence at persuasive essay level depth to back up the claim. The expectation is that readers come away from an argument essay with a far better understanding of the topic than they did before they started reading. So, writers need to write in a structured essay format. This is where it begins to challenge the structure persuasive essays use.

4. Supporting Your Claims with Evidence

‘Real world’ down to earth evidence, and ‘citing’ that evidence with scholarly, academic rigor, need not ‘undermine’ your originality of thought. It can strengthen it (and it makes originality entirely more tenable, credible, and convincing). Do not ‘water down’ your narrative style with heavy-handed forms of citations, but don’t be afraid of citations: use them where appropriate.

Even when you make a highly contentious or challenging argument that is likely to antagonize some or most readers, you still need to show that your claims are supported by evidence. Just asserting that your evidence is obviously accepted as fact by ‘everyone’ you know assures no reader. You cannot afford to assume automatically some kind of underlying agreement with your readers if you are not to risk ‘sabotaging’ your apparent position of authority.

Whether you are making a cautious, perhaps qualified argument, or making a forceful and deliberately provocative argument, you are probably going to be asked to support your claims with credible arguments. In argument essays, evidence is really important. In fact, strongly biased writers might appear to be consistently confident and uncompromising, but it is often a sign that they lack immediate and credible evidence to support their claims.

5. Concluding Your Argument Essay

When you have studied your essays at school, you might still have been told that a good conclusion must present your arguments attractively and persuasively, encouraging the reader to agree with your point of view. But this time it is very dangerous to do this because the examiner knows what he is looking for and he knows when your writing essays have been arranged in a way that seems unnatural. Interestingly, it is your perfect conclusion that generally presents your limitations. Though the essay may be well organized and have a clear point, shut out any chance of positive feedback and the examiner will then have to deprive you of points. Always, as we said above, make sure you present a well-portfolio conclusion where you realize that you have achieved a balanced view and also a fair and objective analysis of the points you have raised.

Ending your argument essay without a clear conclusion can be a problem because the examiner will only award you with a certain grade if you make sure the reader has a clear understanding of what has been argued throughout. To do this, you must sum up everything you have written in the last paragraph. In all argument essays, some kind of conclusion must be present in order to summarize what has been said clearly.