by Daniel Onyango

Created on: April 01, 2010

An argumentative essay presents an argument backed by well researched, and articulated views to persuade the reader or an opposition side. The position taken normally should be backed by facts, statistics, the testimony of others through interviews, questionnaires, articles, books and/or examples. A good argument ought to undertake a reasonable tone, and the writer should assume that the reader will disagree with the stand taken, and hence the need to anticipate objections and make concessions. That way, the writer inspires confidence, and shows good will in his approach.

When writing an argument it is imperative to develop both sides of the topic, but eventually take a position. A convincing argument will offer two well developed contrasting sides to the topic in order to inspire those in disagreement to accept the stand taken. The idea is to convince, not to coerce the reader into agreement. Therefore, the first task in writing an argument is to research on several strong points supporting the two contrasting views. Of course the strong arguments for the ‘other’ side will have to be shot down convincingly.

An argumentative essay should ordinarily contain three parts: the introduction, the body and the conclusion. The length and the detail of the parts, obviously, will depend on the assignment, the media or even the audience it is directed to. A newspaper article, for instance, will have to consider the size of the space given and the readership, while a college paper will be assigned a certain number of words. The introduction should have a brief explanation of the topic, some background information and a thesis statement. In this case, the thesis statement will be a statement of the writer’s position on the topic being discussed.

In the body of the essay, the writer will present both sides of the controversy. Thus the body of the essay should contain all the arguments in detail, on both sides of the coin. A ‘fair’ argument presents the strongest points for the counter-side of the issue being discussed. This is followed by a well-presented counter-argument that neatly shoots down each point raised. After this presentation, the position of the writer is described, supported with evidence to show why it is the correct position to take.

In the conclusion, the writer’s position is re-stated as the most convincing one to take, of course the data, sources and how well it is presented should be helpful in winning the reader to his side of the argument.

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