Writing an Argumentative Essay: Basic Advice
An argumentative essay is the basis of all student’s future academic research papers. Unlike other types of essay, such an essay requires deep research. It is not enough to simply present evidence of your thesis. Opposite points of view with the evidence base in favor of each of the parties must be considered. You should be able to show that you are able to controvert the point of view of your opponent, analyzing the problem from all sides in detail and, taking into account the evidence of the opponent, put forward your strongest arguments and build a contradiction. It sounds complicated and confusing, but in fact there are some rules for writing an argumentative essay that will help you cope with this work quickly and efficiently.
As in the situation with any other type of essay, you need to start by choosing an interesting topic for you which can inspire you to explore and analyze it from all sides. Properly chosen topic is the key to the success of your argumentative essay.
Before writing an argumentative essay a lot of critical and selective reading should be done. Critical reading means understanding, doubting and evaluating the material being read. Scientific references to other authors will only strengthen the arguments put forward by the student. The data, information, and quotations collected during the reading process become relevant only when they are logically and sequentially integrated into the argument.
After studying all sorts of materials related to your topic, you need to think carefully, structure all your thoughts and determine your attitude to the topic being studied. Do not be afraid to write down all your thoughts and ideas when writing an argumentative essay, perhaps the most suitable one will suddenly appear among them. Break all existing thoughts about the topic under study into conditional categories. This will help to arrange them correctly in the course of writing an argumentative essay.
The argumentative essay can be divided into certain component parts, 4 of which must always be present: introduction, presentation of the argument, expectation of objections, conclusion. The introduction should contain an introductory and abstract statements. The introductory statement is a special, eye-catching statement or a question, quotation, or other fact – it is all that will make the reader read further. The thesis is, as a rule, the last sentence of the introductory part, which acts as the governing force of the essay. For such an essay, it is very important that at a certain stage, the author acknowledges the opposite view. If a student is not able to consider the expected objections, thereby he/she deliberately ignores the evidence against his/her argument. The practice of contradiction improves critical thinking, forcing the author put himself/herself in the framework of discussions and realize that other points of view not only exist, but have their own ground. When considering objections, the student must offer solutions to problems that put the opposite opinion before his argument, indicate the weak points on which the opposite opinion is based, and finally offer a compromise position or solution. The conclusion should include the synthesis of the argument, the re-formulation of the thesis and the final statement.
When writing an argumentative essay, it is extremely important to make sure that all the selected arguments and examples correspond to the time and place required for research.
It is always possible to avoid over-generalization by remembering that the data used are illustrative material. They confirm arguments and reasoning and show that the author is able to use the data properly. It is important to choose as many as possible illustrative facts that would militate in your favor: quotes, numbers, statistics, research results. Every time you use such data, check the correctness of their design. It is important to remember that you cannot refer to works that you did not read. You should always check the sources and be able to select among all reliable and those who are not worth trusting.
Thus, we see that, adhering to the above rules, the qualitative writing of an argumentative essay becomes quite possible when certain requirements are met. However, the fact that this is a difficult scientific work of a student, which requires great efforts, certain skills, perseverance, concentration and, moreover, time consuming, is indisputable. If you are unable to write this complex type of essay at a decent level – do not worry! Today, there are many specialized resources, such as https://pro-papers.com/argumentative-essay-writing, that will be happy to help students succeed in writing high-quality argumentative essays without spending a lot of time and effort.