Argumentative essay: definition, main features and other important aspects

Yes, here is another type of essay. As you probably know already, there are a lot of them and each one has its own distinctive features and is useful for students’ education in its own way. Speaking about an argumentative essay it is necessary to mention that its main idea is to teach students to defend the chosen position in a written way, using gathered information and reliable data. It won’t be enough just to express your opinion and presented information should be substantiated with evidence.

The argumentative essay as the way of knowledge assessment presumes to check of student’s depth of knowledge and his skills in reserving the position with regard to the suggested question.

Why it is so important to write your argumentative essay on your own

As it was already mentioned in previous articles, don’t be in a hurry to order and to buy an essay as soon as you get the task to write it. Your professor asks you to write an argumentative essay not because he or she is a fan of reading student’ papers before sleep. The best professors try to give their students as much as they can, to teach them in different ways and writing essays is one of them. Even if you don’t notice that your writing and thinking skills are developing while working on argumentative essays.

Argumentative essay and what skills it helps to master

• Pressing your point. When working on your argumentative essay, you should be ready that your point of view will be argued, so you need to have enough evidence of your vision. One of the best ways to do it is to understand an opponent’s point of view. The overall pattern gives a better understanding of the problem. In order to master your skills, try to answer all the possible questions the reader might have. Be proactive.
• Critical reasoning. Gathering, studying and analyzing information is very helpful for improving your thinking skills. Being critical will help you to see weak points of your own papers or positions in the future, staying unbiased.
• Skills of researching. Working with information isn’t as easy as it might seem. However, proper information gathering, processing, and collecting is the main base of any good argumentative essay. The more researches you do the better academic paper you will write.
• Skills of writing. Here it is almost the same as with researching skills – the more you write the better you write. Every essay thereafter will be better and easier than the previous one.

Argumentative essay and its content

Writing an argumentative essay isn’t as difficult as it might seem from the very beginning and a half of the battle is a well-done and structured plan. Though argumentative essay is a kind of an essay and has a well-known structure, there are still some differences from ordinary essays, because of its specific character. So, below you can find the example of an outline that will help you to write your argumentative essay.

• Introduction. Catch the reader’s attention, make him follow a flight of your thoughts and become a strong fan of the idea you represent. Use all the ways you can find – start with proverbs or famous quotations, make your reader laugh or get intrigued. As soon as it is done, announce the topic of the future argument and opinion you hold by.
• Argument’s development. This is the part, where you show your positive or negative attitude towards the subject of discussion. Share with the reader the facts that made you such a strenuous supporter of the problem, idea or person. Show the evidence you gathered while working on your essay. Remember that every new paragraph of this part presumes a new claim. The more claims – the more paragraphs. Every claim should be followed by evidence. All these points (paragraphs, claims, evidence) should relate to each other.
• Discrediting the opposition. In order to make your point of view better, just prove why your opponents are wrong.
• Conclusion. As always it is the summary of everything that was previously written.

Argumentative essay and writing tips

• Make proper research. Even being a great philosopher Socrates said: ‘I know that I know nothing’. Even if you have a feeling that you know everything about your topic, make a proper research. You will surely find the information that will be useful and helpful.
• Think the claims out. It doesn’t really matter how many claims you are going to choose. The quality of the evidence is much more important. It will be definitely better to present three properly supported claims than five ones without necessary evidence.
• Write everything down. Yes, writing all the thoughts you have in mind while searching for information will help you to find the necessary words for writing your essay. If you don’t note your impressions, they will be forgotten and you will never retrace them.

Argumentative essay. In conclusion

‘Writing makes a man perfect’ – this paraphrased famous quotation describes student’s needs in the extreme. The more you write – the better researcher you become. Do your best and never give up!