What Is An Argumentative Essay? The Complete Guide
Most students today do not know what is an argumentative essay. In simple terms, an argumentative essay is an essay where you take a stance on the subject being discussed. For an argumentative essay to be deemed as good, you need to persuade the reader to understand and support your viewpoint about a subject by stating your reasons and providing enough evidence to back your theory up.
Argumentative essays are commonly used in high schools and colleges. Mostly, topics for this type of essay are related to health care, politics, technology, and science.
Argumentative Essay Format Structure
An argumentative essay format structure is quite easy. The goal of your essay needs to outline your perspective, reasoning’s, and proof. While learning how to write an argumentative essay, you will also understand that the overall integrity and structure of your essay can be held together by the following:
1. Introduction: The introductory paragraph of your argument essay needs to state the overall objective of your essay, provide the needed background information that will help the readers understand your argument, outline the pieces of evidence that you are about to present, and state your thesis.
2. Thesis statement: This is a part of your first paragraph and is a one-sentence and concise summary of your main claim.
3. Body paragraphs: An argumentative research paper consists of three or more paragraphs that will explain why you are covering and supporting the subject matter. Each paragraph will cover a different piece or idea of the evidence and contain a single topic sentence, which will explain why your audience will agree with your arguments.
These are the paragraphs where you will back all your claims with text citations, studies, statistics, research, and examples. You also need to address the opposing views and explain to them why you disagree with or disprove them. You need to present all your facts correctly and consider a topic from every available angle; this will help you add more credibility to your work and gain the trust of the reader.
4. Final thoughts/Conclusion: This is the paragraph where you will summarize and restate your thesis and all the arguments that you made in the above argumentative paragraphs. You should appeal to the emotions of the reader here, instead of presenting more new facts and/or arguments. You may also use a personal anecdote to explain why and how this particular topic affects you personally.
Some Tips On Writing An Argumentative Essay
If you want to know how to start an argumentative, here are some tips that can help do so:
- As mentioned above, your introductory paragraph of your argumentative writing essay should revolve around your thesis statement. You should provide background information for your reader to understand your argument more easily and keep presenting pieces of evidence to back your argument as you move along.
- Always start with something enticing; you can begin by presenting an interesting quote, statistic, personal anecdote, fact, or a thought-provoking question. This will draw your audience in and get them interested in what you are about to present.
- Ensure that you provide some context and background. For instance, you need to show your reader what the situation is and what are the different events that lead you to write down this essay. You also need to make points as to why people should be interested in your argument. Keep everything as concise as possible – nothing less, nothing more!
Types Of Argumentative Essays
There are three different types of argumentative essays. You can either choose any one format or mix them all to create your own argumentative essay:
- Classical argument strategy
Here, your argumentative essay outline should contain the main argument and opinion; you need to work your hardest to convince the audience why your stance is the right one. The classical argument strategy, or also known as Aristotelian, is considered one of the most popular strategies for making an argument because it is the simplest line of thinking to follow. Additionally, your reader will also don’t have to process a lot of information, since the facts are outlined in a concise manner.
- Rogerian argument strategy
In this type of argument strategy, you need to present your claim and back it up and justify the backup to the claim of your essay. The Rogerian argument strategy is considered more effective for essays containing polarizing topics; both sides of the topics are acknowledged and the middle ground is presented in the argumentative essay.
- Toulmin model of argument
Lastly, you have to present your claim and the linked backup in the Toulmin model of argument. Similar to the Rogerian argumentative essay outline, this type of argument works for polarizing topics as well. However, the difference here is that you present only one of the two topics. You also need to hinge particularly on the facts and present them in such a way that the claim cannot be argued against easily.
Take A Look At Other Samples
Argumentative essays are a bit more complicated than other types of essays. Hence, it is no surprise if you face some of you do not know how to write an argumentative essay. Even if you do, do not hesitate to reach out to MyCustomEssay for quality essay samples or writing assistance. The writers here are available throughout the clock to help you with your needs.
