Argumentative Essay Type
Argumentative essays are widely used in academic university and college programs. You are required to research the topic, formulate your opinion about it, and collect evidence to support your stance. Then, you need to analyze the evidence and provide an extended argument for the readers to prove the correctness of your position.
Difference Between Argumentative and Expository Essays
Argumentative essays are often confused with expository ones. These two types are similar, but argumentative essays need more research and are longer in size. They are assigned as a final task or project for composition courses or other humanity programs. Expository essays require less research and are used for in-course tests and in-class writing practice. They are usually shorter than argumentative essays.
An Argumentative Essay as a Writing Assignment
You can be taught to write argumentative essays in high school, especially in your literature and composition classes. A teacher gives you a prompt asking you to argue for one position or choose one of several opinions and provide evidence to support it. Such prompts always include the words ‘argue’ or ‘argument.’ Sometimes, the assignment is formulated in the form of a question.
- ✔️ A two-sided prompt: Does technological advancement have a positive or negative impact on high-school students? Support your argument with evidence.
- ✔️ An open-ended prompt: What is the most negative impact technological advancement has on high-school students today?
When you take up a college program, you can expect that most of your writing assignments will be in the form of argumentative essays. Even such types of essays as rhetorical and literature analysis require certain argumentation. That means that your assignment may not put it straightforwardly that you will have to write an argumentative essay, but if it requires an evidence-based argument, you need to know that your knowledge of how to write this type of essay is useful here. Or you need to find out whether other requirements are put forward and follow them.
All universities include writing assignments that require responses based on arguments. You have to conduct research on the subject first and then express your specific position on the argument that results from this research. You have to persuade your reader of the correctness of your evidence evaluation, analysis, and conclusions.
That is why it is essential to know what is correct and what is wrong in writing such assignments. For example, the topic is ‘Discuss the effects of global warming on the European economy.’
- ❌ Do not just enumerate the affects you can find during your research.
- ✔️ Do formulate and explain the focused argument about these effects and why it is important.
Or, you are given the topic ‘Analyze the influence of revolutionary views on the 19-th century French literature’.
- ❌ Do not name the revolutionary views which were popular in France in the 19th century, and make a list of fiction works where these views were expressed.
- ✔️ Do a thorough analysis of some specific texts where these views are presented by comparing and contrasting them and form a convincing argument that shows that these views had a great impact on French literature of the 19th century.
Approaches Used in Argumentative Essays
All argumentative essays should be objective. It means that they should follow certain standardized approaches relying on logical structure and argument analysis. You do not need to make emotional comments or assumptions there.
There are two models of structure which are widely used in these essays - Toulmin and Rogerian ones.
You may either pick out one of these two approaches or combine them in your argumentative essay. They are quite helpful if you do not know how to structure your essay. All in all, it should have an introduction, a main body, and a conclusion.
How to Introduce Your Argument
The introduction is an important part of your argumentative essay. You use it to capture your reader’s attention, provide the background of the argument, formulate your thesis statement, and, especially in longer assignments, explain the structure of the body.
How to Develop an Argument in the Main Body
The main body is part of an argumentative essay where you explain your argument in detail. You need to use evidence, analyze it, and put forward some reasons to persuade readers about the consistency of your thesis statement.
The standard essay format has five paragraphs. The body should take five of them. If the essay should be longer, you can include more paragraphs in it.
Each paragraph needs its own topic, and you will introduce it with the topic sentence. The paragraph's topic should correspond to the overall topic of the essay and your argument. Never include information that does not refer to the topic at all, only because you think that it may be interesting.
How to Conclude Your Essay
In the conclusion, you need to summarize the arguments and evidence for their support provided in the main body. You should not give new arguments or pieces of evidence here. You can discuss the pluses and minuses of your argument and provide some ideas for further research on the topic. You also need to emphasize the relevance of the argument and its importance for the field of study.
Final Thoughts
Now, you know what an argumentative essay is, what parts it consists of, and how to make and support your arguments correctly. Use these recommendations in your studies, and you will feel how much easier it is to structure your essay and make it useful and convincing. When the argumentative essay is well-structured and provides reliable arguments and conclusions, it will deserve the highest scores.