There are three main ways to approach an argumentative essay. These techniques will help you create a proper structure.
Learning this style of writing is the beginning of your journey to getting the grades that you deserve. Read this article to learn how to write an argumentative essay with an expert essay writing service.
Just like with all other essay types, here are a ton of topics to choose from. The main criteria should be the following:
- What is the most important second language to learn as a student in the US?
- Should the minimum driving age be lowered?
- Are standardized tests a fair reflection of a student’s skills?
- Are athletes overpaid?
- Should high school students be free to choose their classes?
3 Ways to Approach Argumentative Writing
An argumentative essay is a style of academic writing where an author presents both sides of an argument or issue. The main purpose of an argumentative essay is to inform rather than convince – that’s why this type of paper should not be confused with a persuasive essay.
However, it is important to remember that it must be presented in a debate format. In other words, explain why option A is better than option B, or vice versa. Even in the Rogerian approach, you need to be able to pick a side, but do it very carefully.
Good Argumentative Essay Topics for High School
As students begin writing this type of content in school, it is essential to give them easy essay topics for them to get a grasp of the task. Here are some examples:
A bunch of great essay examples can help you aspire to greatness, but bad essays can also be a warning for what not to do. This guide to bad college essays will help you better understand common mistakes to avoid in essay writing!
A good argumentative essay isn’t just based on your individual thoughts, but research. That can be citing sources and other arguments or it can mean direct research in the field, depending on what your argument is and the context in which you are arguing it.
The thesis is the core of your argument. What specific message are you trying to get across? State that message in one sentence, and that will be your thesis.
So, to choose a topic, think about things you feel strongly about, whether positively or negatively. You can make a list of ideas and narrow those down to a handful of things, then expand on those ideas with a few potential points you want to hit on.
Focus
When you’re crafting an argument, it can be easy to get distracted by all the information and complications in your argument. It’s important to stay focused—be clear in your thesis and home in on claims that directly support that thesis.
Don’t assume that your audience is already familiar with your topic. Give them some background information, such as a brief history of the issue or some additional context.
One of the most important things you can do in writing a strong argumentative essay is organizing well. Your essay should have a distinct beginning, middle, and end, better known as the introduction, body and opposition, and conclusion.
An argumentative essay is one that makes an argument through research. These essays take a position and support it through evidence, but, unlike many other kinds of essays, they are interested in expressing a specific argument supported by research and evidence.
While this depicts the general spirit, every individual situation/ social relationship is characterized by peculiar circumstances that all need to be considered in order to reach a mutually satisfying solution (or at least a compromise). Last but not least societies worldwide are undergoing serious changes nowadays, that also need to be addressed. Find below a selection of argumentative essay topics related to society:
Topics for argumentative essay should be special and unique. This is your chance to stand and pick something that others might have tried to avoid. Don’t be scared to take the risk if it is properly calculated. Common themes are way too boring and will not deliver the message you mean to send to your audience. But if you are going to choose a unique and controversial topic, you should make sure that you can provide enough information. Include enough data to argue for both sides of the argument.
A standard argumentative essay could consists of 5 parts/paragraphs: a paragraph containing the thesis (the claim), 2 paragraphs with supporting arguments/evidence, a paragraph listing potential counterarguments along with their rebuttal, and a paragraph with a persuasive conclusion.
Some major events on this road were the invention of laws, capitalism, money, state institutions, constitution, separation of powers in a state. Many recent historic events help understand current relationships/processes occurring between countries but also within societies. Check the following topics:
Argumentative Topics about Family
Moreover, given the current cultural transitions characterizing liberal societies, traditional values on which families were build have known a dramatic shift due to a shift in gender roles, the recognition of LGBT rights. Thus, families nowadays are facing existential questions – many of the aspects we grew accustomed to are simply redefined (same sex marriages and parents). Here is a short list of argumentative essay topics related to family:
Academic papers are normally required to abide by a specific formatting style that is characteristic to the field (APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, etc.). This preference for a given formatting style is primarily dictated by the nature of content and the type of in-text citations, bibliography, page header, or footer format that works best with such content.
The idea of your next piece of writing should be debatable. This means that you should be able to do the necessary research to find different opinions concerning the idea you have chosen. This topic should be interesting to you, your professor and the audience who will most likely read or listen to your essay. It is difficult to write about a topic that you personally find boring or dull. Since you have an opportunity, you should use it wisely. The more interesting your idea is, the better you will be able to write about it. You should also make sure that you have the knowledge needed to work on your writing. Being able to choose your own idea gives you a good chance to excel.
- Apple vs. Microsoft: Which software brand is more useful for students?
- Do violent video games have a negative psychological impact on children?
- From a financial perspective, should one invest in cryptocurrencies?
- From an economic standpoint, are electric cars better overall?
- Has society become too reliant on technology?
This type of paper is assigned to train a student’s ability to debate. It can therefore greatly influence the public speaking skills of a person later on in their life. When writing an argumentative essay, it is important to focus on facts and information rather than personal ideas or preferences. The author may present arguments equally, or support one in favour of others. Regardless, the thesis must include all of the primary points (and counterpoints) that will appear in the essay. It is almost like a political debate with oneself.
However, it is important to remember that it must be presented in a debate format. In other words, explain why option A is better than option B, or vice versa. Even in the Rogerian approach, you need to be able to pick a side, but do it very carefully.
- What is the most important second language to learn as a student in the US?
- Should the minimum driving age be lowered?
- Are standardized tests a fair reflection of a student’s skills?
- Are athletes overpaid?
- Should high school students be free to choose their classes?
Steps for Writing Your Argumentative Essay
Topics for College
As we transition to the university level, the complexity of the question asked should also grow. With that being said, here are some challenging topics for college students:
This strategy can be quite useful in polemical arguments. It aims to find common ground within an argument and eliminate unnecessary arguments. For example, if your topic revolves around the question of whether drugs should be legal, then you would need to explore the biggest issues on both sides of the argument. Here you can talk about the pros and cons.
- coherency and relativity to your studied subject
- An introduction where you introduce the central message of your paper (the thesis statement). Example: Tobacco products can induce various health problems, including cancers, heart attacks, and obesity.
- Background of the subject where you introduce early studies about children who have grown up in adoptive environments. Here you can also talk about the long-term effects of smoking.
- Main arguments — Talk about the main points of your position. For example, you could write about the feeling of addiction that makes it difficult to give up smoking.
- Refutation — Here is where your counterarguments come into place. Introduce the opposite side you will need to refute as being invalid. Example: Some people think that smoking does not affect health and that genetic predisposition is more impactful in causing problems for one’s health. However, there is major evidence which shows that smoking can cause bigger long-term damage to lungs than a genetic predisposition to cancer.
- Conclusion — Present all of the main arguments and provide solutions or studies that need to be conducted in the future.
- “These aren't people. These are animals,” is just one of the representative quotes.
- How about the fact that his wife is not a local either?
- Mass shootings are what puts the population in danger. Wouldn’t it be better to focus on real threats and their prevention than deportation of immigrants who don’t violate any laws?
- Shifting trends in technology and manufacturing put the States in the best position to benefit from a new wave of globalization.
- Numerous global leading corporations originate from the US or have offices there.
- English is the most popular second language learned around the world.
Don’t forget that you need to specify the exact immigration argumentative topics you are going to write about.
You already have an answer to “How do I write my argumentative essay?” Let’s suppose you have got a topic, too. There is one last thing to pay attention to – a real outline for an argumentative essay you can use as an illustrative example, just like the one below.
Structure of Argumentative Essay Outline
A powerful college argumentative essay outline is always based on a powerful topic. If an issue is not relevant or controversial, it will not be interesting to discuss or read about. Another aspect of a powerful outline is how useful it is. If you write an essay without paying much attention to a prepared outline, you’ve done it wrong.
There are two strategies you can use for body paragraphs during writing an argumentative essay outline:
Essay writing is one of the key moments in the educational process, no matter what stage of your studies you currently are on. Today, let’s figure out how to write a good argumentative paper and receive an “A” for it. An argumentative essay outline is half of the success or even more than a half. It is often more difficult to decide what to write about, how to arrange information, connect your thoughts, and make it all interesting. After you come up with an outline, only grooming is left.
This kind of writing teaches to conduct research and support your opinion, meanwhile refuting an opponent’s position. So what is the outline for an argumentative essay? It is a structure of your future paper. You create a skeleton for an essay. An outline sums up a strategy with main ideas, arguments, and conclusion. It is a map that will help you to move in the right direction.