Writing an Argumentative Essay: What Should You Know to Get an A+?
What is an Argumentative Essay?
An argumentative essay is one of the most common essay types, the general idea of which is to advance a particular idea and prove it. What it means in particular is that the writer’s general task is to provide critical evidence and science-based facts to make the reader believe in the validity of the writer’s claims. One of the most fundamental tasks of an argumentative essay is to present your own line of arguments and make it possible for the reader to interpret the statements. Each of the arguments presented in the paper should be backed up with actual scientific data, valid facts, or current developments.
For you to get a fuller understanding of what an argumentative essay is, here is an example:
Suppose that you are writing an essay about how plastic straws affect the fauna of the ocean. You come up with an argument that plastic straws harm the sea creatures. To support your argument, you may conduct research on how the current prohibiting practice contributes to the sea creatures’ well-being. Also, you need to explore in which ways straws affect the animals and what consequences it leads to. After finding enough evidence, you can connect it with your line of arguments and end up with a perfect argumentative essay.
5 Types of Argument Claims
The crucial step in writing an argumentative essay is developing a definite opinion on the given topic. To demonstrate your opinion as explicitly as possible, you need to come up with a thesis statement. The latter is fundamental for the reader to be able to comprehend your ideas. After you have figured out your opinion on a topic and successfully written a thesis statement, you can decide how to present your arguments. Deciding on how in particular you’ll present your ideas is a crucial step as well. To make your essay sound convincing and proficient, you may use five different argument claims:
- Fact. This argument claim indicates whether the mentioned statement is true or false.
- Definition. This implies providing an official dictionary or encyclopedia definition of what you are arguing on in your essay. Besides, you can provide your own vision of the definition and interpret it in your way.
- Value. At this point, you need to convince the reader of the value of your argument. In other words, you demonstrate the importance of your point and persuade the reader that what you are talking about is relevant and critical for solving the problems of today.
- Cause and effect. Such a claim implies indicating what causes the problem that your essay reveals. Also, it showcases some of the current and potential effects that a problem might have. And, of course, it highlights what future implications of these effects from a global perspective will take place.
- Policy. This argument claim tells the reader why they should be concerned about the topic. Such an argument also brings the reader to what they have to undertake after reading your argumentative essay. Overall, it may play the role of a call to action.
Argument Strategies
The argumentative essay structure will depend on the way you decide to work on your topic. In other words, you can outline your argumentative essay in three ways: classical, Rogerian, and Toulmin. Each of them implies a different layout and a way of convincing the reader of your arguments’ validity.
The Classical Strategy
A classical strategy is the most common way used to outline your argumentative essay. Such an essay begins with an argumentative essay introduction, which is immediately followed by a thesis statement. Then, to reason your idea indicated in the thesis statement, you present your arguments. Later in your essay, you offer reasonable ideas and evidence to convince the reader. Also, this strategy implies mentioning some ideas that support the opposite opinion. But you need to state why such views are not relevant anymore, or why a counterargument is too weak to be reasonable. Such a line of thinking is relatively easy to follow, and using a classical strategy is appropriate when your audience does not know a lot about the topic.
Rogerian Strategy
Rogerian is the best strategy to choose when discussing wide, contentious issues. The main idea of the Rogerian method is not to be too critical and support both sides of the argument. However, the best way to use the strategy is to favor both sides but demonstrate your inclination to one of them. Unlike the classical approach, the Rogerian approach does not deny the validity of the counterargument; instead, it implies that both arguments can exist and there is enough evidence supporting both. But most importantly, you need to demonstrate the reader your point and explain why it is relevant. A Rogerian strategy is incredibly useful if your purpose is to polarize topics and come to some logical conclusion about both sides of an argument.
Toulmin Strategy
This approach allows oneself to make a clear and explicit analysis of all the arguments. It presents a claim and implies providing relevant evidence. What the writer does afterward is suggests drawing the link between the evidence and the claim. Toulmin strategy shows one side and backs it up with the list of facts that convince the reader that this side is valid. Toulmin strategy effectively works with complex, broad issues, where you can’t give an explicit ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.
How to Choose a Topic for an Argumentative Essay?
Choosing argumentative essay topics on your own might be challenging. First of all, you need to select a topic that can be argued. If you can either argue for or against the topic, then you may choose it. First of all, you have to keep in mind that you need a topic where you can easily come up with a reasonable counter-argument. For instance, if you decide to write an essay about your favorite city in the US, it’s unlikely that you can think about a convincing counter-argument. Moreover, in this case, your arguments will be too subjective, while an argumentative essay requires objective thinking.
Another recommendation is to select a topic that is not entirely alien to you. Instead, choose the one you are interested in and already have some idea of. It is always better to write about something you have at least some previous knowledge of.
Argumentative Essay Outline
Creating an argumentative essay outline is the most fundamental point to consider prior to working on your essay. An outline acts like a helping guide for you to organize ideas in a sound, comprehensive way. Besides, an outline allows you to reduce the time needed to compose an argumentative essay substantially. It also allows you to make sure you don’t miss a single detail while presenting your line of arguments. To ensure that you master argumentative essay writing, don’t forget to include its essential sections: introduction, thesis statement, supporting arguments, counterargument, and conclusion.
Introduction
The general idea of an introduction is to give some background to the topic and logically proceed with your opinion and a thesis statement. Introduce the topic and point out its importance. You can also mention statistical data to make the topic sound convincing straight away. At the end of your introduction, you need to reveal your thesis statement. In particular, you should offer a solution to a problem and clearly define your point of view. As long as you indicate a problem in your introduction, the task of the thesis sentence is to demonstrate what, in your opinion, is a reasonable way to resolve the problem.
Supporting Body Paragraphs
Supporting paragraphs defend your thesis statement. For instance, if your thesis sounds like “Children should learn a second language during infancy,” you will need to provide arguments in each body paragraph. Once you come up with convincing arguments and evidence, you may incorporate them into supporting paragraphs. At this point, your task is to find real data and make sure it is relevant to your research.
Counterargument
It is apparent that there will always be counterarguments to your argument, regardless of the topic. However, you should also object to the counterargument and indicate that the counterargument is controversial. So, what you should mention is that the counterargument is valid and might be the case; however, one can easily deny it, and evidence can so far contradict it. A counterargument enhances your argumentative essay’s quality since you not only demonstrate your neutral attitude and broad-mindedness but also maintain a solid opinion.
Conclusion
The argumentative essay conclusion summarizes all the arguments and evidence you presented in your main body. Try not to repeat yourself, but also avoid adding new information. You may also offer further actions and ideas for future research.
Argumentative Essay Examples
Better understanding of the general idea of an argumentative essay and getting some insight on how to build your line of arguments is facile if you refer to an example. Taking a look at some sound argumentative essay examples is always a good idea if you want to master essay writing. If you need to refer to good sample essays, you can do it here:
https://blog.prepscholar.com/argumentative-essay-examples
https://www.mesacc.edu/~paoih30491/ArgumentSampleEssays.html
Useful Tips for Argumentative Essay Writing
Always Start by Creating an Outline
An outline is a tool that ensures your essay will follow a logical, transparent structure. Besides, it allows you to save time and nerves. Even though it takes 10-15 minutes on average to draw an outline, this small time investment is worth it.
Use Online Checking Tools
The top tip for double-checking your text is to utilize some online grammar checkers and plagiarism-detection tools. Even though you cannot entirely rely on online grammar checkers without proofreading text on your own, they help a lot. Such tools make it possible to detect grammar mistakes and tell you whether your paper is easy to read and comprehend. Plagiarism detection tools, in their turn, are useful for making you sure you don’t get any trouble with unintentional plagiarism.
Dig Deep Into the Topic
First of all, you need to get a sufficient understanding of the topic you are working with. The top way to achieve this is to explore multiple research articles and read them thoroughly. Doing so will also help you to come up with a good thesis statement. So, data research is a fundamental point in writing your argumentative essay.
Paraphrase
Paraphrasing is one of the most effective strategies for avoiding plagiarism. Plagiarism has become a common problem among students, but it is easy to prevent it. Most importantly, practice paraphrasing and improve your vocabulary. You may also use multiple helpful tools for finding synonyms to the word you are struggling to paraphrase.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help
You may feel free to ask your friends or family for help if you are struggling with editing. The truth is, it is always useful when another person gives your paper a fresh look and immediately notices its weak points. Additionally, you may always ask for help from professional essay writers.
Write My Argumentative Essay for Me, Please!
Mastering an argumentative essay writing is not an unattainable goal. As soon as you take the tips above into account and gradually start to implement suggestions while writing your paper, you will notice the difference. But if you are somewhat unsure of your abilities right now, don’t know the argumentative essay format, or are merely out of time – don’t hesitate to ask our writers for help. Whenever you need to get your paper done, you may rely on our professional essay writers who are there for you, even if your deadline is extremely short. All you have to do is give us writing instructions and indicate your deadline, and we will write a flawless paper for you.
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