Six Easy Steps to Write a Good Argumentative Essay

EasyWriting.Org provides useful tips on how to write an A-Plus argumentative essay for high school, college or university.

Argumentative essay is aimed at showing the teacher the correctness of student's assertion (theory, opinion or hypothesis) on some certain phenomenon or situation. To write a good argumentative essay is a true art that is not so easy to acquire. When presenting your argument you should note that there will be lots of others presenting their counterargument. So, to successfully complete an argumentative writing, it is of high importance to learn how to form reasons, make inductions and draw respective conclusions. Although argumentative writing does not require that you necessarily prove your viewpoint, it should still convince the readers that your viewpoint is worth considering. To cut it short, in a good argumentative essay your argument outweighs the competing arguments.

Based on its vast academic writing competence and experience, EasyWriting offers a six-step approach towards writing a good argumentative essay.

1) Select the right topic

A good topic for a good argumentative essay is an arguable topic. You should note that not everything in the world can be argued. For instance, we can't argue that the Earth rotates around its own axe or John F. Kennedy was killed in Texas. The topic must be relevant and contemporary, because it is easier to find arguable things in present-day life. A good topic would be recent Michael Jackson's death. While the case is being investigated, there is an opportunity to argue that Jackson died of his private doctor's mistake rather than pills overdose. However, this topic will no longer be arguable once the police find the irrefutable cause of his sudden death. Since arguments evolve due to multiple opinions, a good argumentative essay should be linked to the values and disagreements of the present. However, if you are not really interested in the topic you are going to write about, you should not expect your essay to be of high quality. Focusing on high grade rather than knowledge pursuit is most likely to lead to paper failure. Remember - if you are interested in what you are trying to argue, you make an investment in your personal growth.

2) Narrow the subject to be argued

Many topics chosen to be argued in an argumentative essay are too broad to research carefully. To write a good argumentative essay, you should focus on some specific aspect of the topic rather than try to embrace everything. For instance, when writing about environmental protection, you may want to argue that a local plant is the cause of pollution in your community instead of writing about global pollution.

3) Analyze your audience

Think in advance about the audience you are going to argue your topic to. If your assignment sheet does not assign you to a specific audience, then in most of the cases your major audience will be your teacher and classmates. Knowing your audience will allow you to properly determine how to develop and organize your argument as well as stylistic techniques you'll be using. For instance, when writing for your instructor, try to think about him/her as a human being and ask yourself what kind of tone (formal or informal) and what type of evidence (from peer review journals or professional sites) s/he will expect to see in your argumentative essay. The same concerns your classmates or fictional audience indicated in your assignment sheet.

4) Use only credible sources

When preparing for your argumentative essay, you will most likely begin with typing the most relevant keywords in the search engine browser rather than going to the brick-and-stone library. WWW 2.0 allows you to access billions of resources, which generally shortens the physical time of essay writing and eliminates the necessity of going out for information. However, you should note that not every piece of information that can be found on the Internet is reliable enough to use in your essay. The quality of any academic paper, including an argumentative essay, depends to a great extend on the sources cited. Try to escape using such human driven web sites as Wikipedia or Answers.Com in your argumentative essay. They are fine for general knowledge, but lack research credibility. For a good argumentative essay it is better to use sources from established professional and educational sites as well as subject-specific online databases such as, e.g., EBSCOHost, Xavier, Emerald Insight etc. Online libraries such as Questia and Highbeam Research are suitable for argumentative writing, too.

And of course, if you want to turn in the state-of-the-art argumentative essay, you should dig deep and present existing conflicts and contradictions in the subject area and diverse evidence instead of basing your argument on a single fact or idea.

5) Demonstrate solid argumentation

In order to produce a good argumentative essay, you should express your judgment instead of opinion. Argumentation is the final outcome of your work. Note that your instructor is less interested in what you argue than in how you argue it. Do not focus on proving your rightness and some else's wrongness. Instead, focus on your line of argument. To check if you are moving in the right direction, make a short list of the following questions with checkboxes: Does my paper integrate solid evidence? Is my paper based on numerous ideas? Does it demonstrate in-depth research? Does it demonstrate solid topic understanding? Does it meet my audience's expectations? Does my argument sound strong enough? If you have all checkboxes crossed, it means you're close to producing a good essay. If at least one checkbox is left blank, then come back to your point of concern and revise it.

In order to enhance your argument and show critical thinking about the subject matter, utilize the following rhetorical patterns: cause and effect of your argument, theoretical perspectives to analyze your argument through, examination of opposing arguments, solution proposal and implications evaluation. Use your best judgment to integrate these techniques in to the body of your essay.

6) Revise and revisit

We suggest that you never write your argumentative essay in rush, since, as is well known, haste makes waste. On finishing writing your essay, read it through just once, correct spelling and grammar mistakes and put it aside until next morning. Revisit your essay next day

and look at it with a fresh eye. We ensure you that you'll find a lot of "litter" such as misspellings, illogical argumentation, clichés, inconsistencies, poor paper flow, omissions etc. Don't worry - it is quite normal, since writing process is affected by many factors: surrounding environment, your physical state, your emotional state, background noise etc. It is therefore important to revise your essay several times after continuous breaks to polish your language and to make your paper perfect.

EasyWriting.Org hopes that these tips will help you better understand the objectives of an argumentative essay and get A-Plus for your paper demonstrating high-quality research, solid argumentation and reasoning.

For more tips visit us at www.easywriting.org