by Briar Miller

Created on: January 22, 2008   Last Updated: January 12, 2012

To write an argumentative paper you first need to have an opinion about the subject matter, which means a certain amount of reading. I'm going to outline 2 methods for getting good grades on this kind of paper. The first I will call the Optimum or 'How to annoy your friends by being perfect'. The second I will call the Economy or 'Pulling off something worthwhile in the minimum amount of time'.

I shall say this again later because it is the most important thing: Get your structure right and you won't go too far wrong. The structure is identical in both Optimum and Economy methods.

Optimum

Read all of the relevant material you can. Do it over time, on the bus, in bed, anywhere, as long as you get the reading done. Think over what you are reading . Discuss it with friends. At the same time, hunt out current articles on your subject, magazines, newspapers, the internet. Anybody reading and marking batches of essays gets easily excited by new material. They get sick of hearing the same quotes. Make sure you keep a record of all the references you might want to use.

In the weeks before the essay is due, read more selectively, pinpoint the most useful material.

So, having done all this you have an opinion and an overview of your subject, and a knowledge of where you might find the evidence and the quotes that you need. Now you can go straight to 'Essay structure' below.
Get your structure right and you won't go too far wrong.

Economy

Ok, so you have to have this wretched paper in by tomorrow and it's already evening. You've never bothered reading the books. Get out anything you have to hand which is relevant and skim read it, marking the relevant bits. If you've got time search the internet as well. By now you should have some idea of what your opinion should be. In your case it will have to be the argument which you can get the most information about. This does not mean you ignore the opposition, oh no, it just means you can be more persuasive. Now, prepared as best you can you can progress to:

Essay Structure

Don't start to write straight away. First you must plan your essay but you need to have the structure in your head first. Remember, get the structure right and you can't go far wrong.

The Introduction

Here is where you tell your reader what is going to happen. You don't want them getting any surprises afterwards so your introduction is like a map. A typical intro will run along these lines:

''With regard to the subject at hand there are 2 main lines of thought:

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