Argument Essays: Overview
Arguments can be stressful, frustrating, annoying, time-consuming, and demoralizing. Arguments are also often how our culture finds consensus about important issues and discovers solutions to our biggest problems. In simple terms, an argument is just a conversation with a clear purpose: to prove something to others. But, as we all know, the act of arguing rarely feels simple at all.
To craft a fair, balanced, and successful Argument Essay in a college course requires a writer to use many skills. You must pick a position. Carefully consider your audience—usually those in opposition. Think about how you will use rhetoric to connect with and influence the opposition. Use a variety of good supporting evidence. And write and revise until you find the right tone and structure that helps you prove the merits of your argument. In short, arguing well is never easy, but it’s incredibly important in our academic and personal lives.
As part of writing an argument essay, it’s important for you to understand rhetoric, fallacies, and different types of argument:
- The Rhetorical Situation
- The Rhetorical Appeals
- Logical, Emotional, and Ethical Fallacies
- Classical Types of Argument
Key Features
Capture Audience’s Interest
As writers, we must always keep audience in mind, perhaps especially so when writing an argument. We can collect impeccable evidence, develop excellent claims in body paragraphs, and deliver a persuasive conclusion—but none of this matters if the audience isn’t interested from the start.
An effective opening for an argument should accomplish at least two things:
- Establish the current significance of your topic
- Convince a reader to stick around for your argument
There are many ways to capture a reader’s interest. Whatever you do to start your essay, always ask yourself if someone who doesn’t know you would keep reading after the first few sentences of your essay. If your honest answer is no, then try something else.
Some Effective Ways to Open an Argument Essay
Here are a few methods to consider using to start an argument essay:
- Explain Some Background/History of Topic
- Connect With Readers’ Values/Interests
- Reveal Unusual Fact or Startling Statistic
- Pose a Question, Offer an Answer
- Describe Core Problem/Issue Related to Topic
- Use a Vivid Example Related to Topic
Keep in mind that each of these methods will work better for some topics than for others.
Also, these methods might be blended together. For example, as part of explaining the historical background of a topic you might describe a core problem related to that topic. That said, it’s probably best to identify and develop one primary method of opening your essay so that your first paragraph remains focused.
Provide Context & Present Thesis Statement
Even if you have a first paragraph solely dedicated to capturing your audiences’ interest, early in your essay you should still provide some context for your argument. For example, in an essay about cancel culture, a writer might highlight some controversies and side-effects that have arisen due to cancel culture. Providing important context helps readers better understand the basis for your argument.
Before you develop the body paragraphs and present supporting evidence for your claims, you need to present a clear thesis statement that indicates your argumentative stance. Keep in mind that an effective thesis should establish your stance and be debatable. In other words, a thesis statement should not simply restate a fact, and should instead be arguable.
Thesis Statements: One Useful Formula
The goals of any thesis statement in argumentative writing are two-fold: to present a clear argument and lay out a stance that is debatable. Remember that your goal is to take up and defend a stance in your argument essay, so your thesis statement should represent one possible stance within the larger debate surrounding your topic.
There are many methods for writing an effective thesis statement, but here’s one that will lead to a debatable thesis statement:
- Fact/s about X (wherein X is your topic)
- Claim/s based on fact/s about X
This formula helps ensure that the claims in your thesis are based on accepted facts related to your topic.
Here are some examples of ineffective thesis statements:
- Superman’s cape is red.
- Technology is always advancing.
- Florida faces challenges due to extreme weather events.
These statements are all just facts most people would agree on. If your thesis statement only presents a fact about your topic, that’s an ineffective thesis statement because there’s no stance or claim.
Here are some examples of effective thesis statements:
- Superman’s red cape symbolizes his thirst for blood.
- Technology’s constant advancement illustrates the human desire toward progress and improvement.
- The challenges caused by extreme weather events in Florida demonstrate a need for comprehensive legislation to protect homeowners from unethical home insurance practices.
Notice that each of these examples includes both a fact about the topic and a claim based on that fact, joined together by an argumentative verb. These thesis statements are effective precisely because they’re debatable — someone else could argue that technology’s constant advancement actually illustrates our culture’s failure to think ahead about societal consequences. Both arguments use the same fact to present different stances.
Supporting Claims & Relevant Evidence
The bulk of an argument essay should be body paragraphs built around claims and evidence. While some body paragraphs might compare and contrast philosophical sides of an argument, some might use historical information, and some might examine current debates, each body paragraph should start with a clear claim and be supported by relevant evidence.
In an argument essay, think of body paragraphs as different pieces of your argument—each one adds some uniquely necessary layer to your overall argument.
As you seek out evidence for your argument essay, the below chapters will help you navigate the research process:
Address Opposing Positions & Conclude Confidently
Many writers enter college familiar with the idea of a “counter-claim” paragraph tucked in neatly before an essay’s conclusion paragraph. While this is one effective way to address opposing positions, an essay can also address opposing positions throughout. Could you build body paragraphs and topic sentences around opposing positions? Give it a try! Could you reference counterarguments as you end some body paragraphs? That could work, too! However you go about it, addressing other positions solidifies your argument’s logic and helps establish your credibility by demonstrating you’ve thought carefully about your topic and related issues.
When you end an argument essay, do so confidently—after all, this is your final chance to persuade your audience.
Here are some effective methods for ending an argument essay:
- A call to action (what should readers do based on your argument?)
- Looking to the future (what will or won’t happen going forward based on your argument?)
- Finding common ground (what should we all agree on related to your argument?)
Whatever you do, there are often better methods for concluding than to just summarize your essay’s main points—that’s not very convincing at all.
Develop and Maintain a Credible Tone
An argument essay is not an angry, emotional rant. As we’ve seen many times in our society, rants rarely convince of us anything—except maybe to avoid people who rant.
If you rant in your writing, your audience likely won’t trust you and your argument is doomed. If you want readers to trust and believe what you have to say, then it’s your responsibility to develop a credible academic tone from the start to the finish of your essay.
Rely on Rhetoric Throughout
In addition to developing your credibility (aka, your ethos), it’s vital that you carefully consider how to use rhetoric at each step as you craft your argument. Remember that rhetoric is how we persuade others, so well deployed instances of ethos, logos, pathos, and kairos are how you will persuade an audience to agree with your argument.
Citations
As we write argument essays, we often rely on evidence found in sources we find during the research process. Therefore, it’s vital that we use a detailed citation process in order to demonstrate to our readers where our supporting evidence comes from and why it’s credible. This process will involve citations at the end of your essay, but also, and just as importantly, in-text citations throughout your essay. Using in-text citations and signal phrases is necessary to successfully guide readers through the information you have collected in your essay. Without in-text citations, readers are completely lost as to where the information came from, why it’s credible, and how it connects to your argument.
Drafting Checklists
These questions should help guide you through the stages of drafting your research essay.
Prewriting
- What will you choose as the main topic for your argument essay?
- How will you develop an argument built around a clear and debatable stance related to your topic?
- What are some subtopics or related ideas you might need to learn more about during your research in order to support your argument?
- Who is your intended audience?
- In other words, who are you trying to persuade? And why should they care about your argument?
- What background information about your topic might your audience need?
- Are there key terms or concepts you will need to define or describe early in your essay so your audience better understands the main points of your argument?
- What kinds of evidence do you need to find?
- Where should you try to find this evidence?
- Why should your audience care about this evidence?
- After you’ve collected some research, which sources are ultimately necessary for your essay?
- Why those sources and not others?
- How will you use those sources in your essay?
- How might you structure your argument essay?
- What main points might you cover throughout your essay?
- How might your start your essay?
- How might you end your essay?
Writing and Revising
- Is your argumentative stance on your topic made clear early in your essay?
- Does your opening rhetorically and effectively capture readers’ interests?
- Have you provided important background and context related to your argument topic?
- Do you have an argumentative thesis statement?
- Have you presented your thesis statement in the best possible place?
- Have you effectively structured your essay in a logical way that suits your topic and purpose?
- Have you clearly made connections between your overall thesis and main points?
- Have you presented your research in the best way to guide readers through the information?
- Have you successfully addressed opposing positions?
- Have you concluded confidently by persuasively using rhetoric one final time?
- Would your readers be confused at any point?
- Have you written your essay with a credible tone and style?
- Would readers find your tone and style to be professional and authoritative? Or too casual and informal?
- Have you avoided using any slang or other informal language that would detract from your credibility?
- Have you used credible evidence that suits your purpose?
- Have you created correct works cited entries for all your sources?
- Have you used signal phrases and in-text citations to integrate sources into your essay?
- Would readers question the credibility or relevance of any of your sources?
