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Argumentative Essays: Effectively Presenting Arguments
Argumentative essays are assignments that can be paralleled with debates, in which the student should present the affirmative and the negative arguments. In that regard, despite presenting opposing views, the student should support only one position, convincing others to agree with it.
Thus, it can be stated that the quality of argumentative essays lies in the effectiveness of the students using the arguments to persuade the reader. This is not an easy task, and thus, this article presents a simple guide that will help in writing good argumentative essays.
The Parts of Argumentative Essays
As previously stated, argumentative essays should persuade the readers to take the author’s point of view, and at the same time present the opposing view as well. Thus, argumentative essays can be structured as follows:
- Introduction – attracting the reader and presenting the authors position.
- Support – arguments and facts, ordered according to importance, and which support the position of the author.
- Opposition – present the view of the opposition, if the topic is a known controversial issue, or the potential arguments that might be used to oppose your point of view.
- Refutation – answering the existent or the potential opposition.
- Conclusion – a summary of your arguments leading to a concluding statement of your position.
Building Argumentative Essays
The following steps might be helpful when building argumentative essays:
- Separate facts from opinions.
- When preparing opposition, consider your potential audience, and anticipate their objections.
- Follow logic in choosing arguments, appealing to reason and supporting them with reliable resources.
- Avoid bias in presenting the arguments of the opposition.
- Focus on the introduction and the conclusion, as introduction in your argumentative essay will bring the attention of readers, while conclusion will be the last part they will remember.