Argumentative essays are the most common type of essays that you have to complete while studying at college or university. Academic writing is challenging so many students who lack writing skills may feel overwhelmed with their numerous college essays and term papers. They often start looking for a cheap essay writing service where they can find experienced writers whom they can delegate their assignments. Although you can easily find someone who you can ask: “Write my essay free online,” it’s quite possible to master the complexities of academic writing if you work hard on improving your skills and practice a lot.
Here you can find an easy writing guide that will help you learn how to write a good argumentative essay step-by-step.
What Is an Argumentative Essay?
It’s the type of essay where the writer has to declare a specific position on a certain issue and provide several reasons to support that position backed by convincing evidence. Your task is to convince the readers that your position is right and prove that they should adopt your point of view. In order to be effective, an argumentative essay must have certain components that can help persuade your readers to accept your point of view. They are a convincing essay topic, a balanced argument, relevant evidence, and specific persuasive language.
Now that you have an idea what an argumentative essay is let’s discuss what steps you should follow to write it.
Find a Good Topic and Determine Your Position
You can easily find several good topics for writing an argumentative essay. Consider current news or some popular debatable topics that are being discussed by many people. You should consider only those topics that have at least two opposite points of view. Create a list of several argumentative essay topics and choose the one you are interested in. If you are passionate about the topic, your essay is more likely to be a success.
After that, you should create a list of points for each side of the argument and decide which point of view your support. Besides, you should research both opposite sides of the argument so that you could write a convincing essay.
Gather Supporting Evidence
Now you should assess both sides of the issue and gather evidence to support your position and the opposite position as well. You should think about convincing facts and statistics that provide proof to support certain claims. You don’t have to rely on emotions so you should gather enough facts and other reliable data that prove your stance.
Write an Introduction
Now it’s time to start writing your essay. You have to make an outline and write your thesis statement that you will argue in your essay. You should think about the essay structure and write down the key points. It’s important to determine what evidence you will use to support each point. If you create a detailed outline for your argumentative essay, it will be easier for you to write your essay.
Start your introduction with an attention grabber, then briefly introduce your topic and provide some background information. End your introduction with your thesis statement.
Write the Body of Your Essay
In the body paragraphs, you need to provide your argument and to present both sides of the issue. You should start with describing the position of the opposite side and provide the strongest points of the other position. Then you should present your own point of view and explain why your position is correct and why your readers should support your position. You should also consider possible objections to your position and provide counter arguments to defend your stance. Remember your purpose is to change the point of view of your readers so you should use a mix of relevant evidence to prove that you are right.
Write the Conclusion
In the conclusion, you have to summarize your point of view and tell your audience one more time why your position is a better option. Write a concluding paragraph or two and use the most shocking statistic or real-life examples in it to prove that your stance is correct. Restate your topic and your position and appeal to your audience. Reiterate your opening argument in one sentence.
Final Essay Writing Tips
When writing your argumentative essay, you should use clear language to create a rational argument for your readers and avoid emotional language because emotional language can sound and feel irrational. You shouldn’t appeal to your readers’ emotions and provide a logical conclusion. That’s why you should use only trustworthy sources to find evidence and always make sure you cite them.
It’s important to edit and proofread your essay when you finish writing it. You should improve the word choice, check logic and the flow, and fix grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes and typos.