Argumentative Essay Tips
Purpose
Your purpose is to convince others to:
- Agree with your fact-based opinions
- Share your values
- Accept your argument and conclusions
- Adopt your way of thinking
Important Elements
Techniques
Useful Strategies
Your purpose is to convince others to:
- Agree with your fact-based opinions
- Share your values
- Accept your argument and conclusions
- Adopt your way of thinking
Important Elements
- Establish facts to support your argument
- Clarify relevant values
- Prioritize and sequence your points to build a coherent argument
- Form and state your conclusions clearly
- Persuade your readers that your point of view is valid
- Be confident, but not arrogant
Techniques
- Link introduction to conclusion
- Step by step approach – build your essay
- Quotations – well known but not overused
- Anecdotes – i) Personal ii) General
- Statistics and figures
- Facts – topical information
- Shocking statements – perhaps an outrageous opinion stated at the start that will be explained as the essay progresses (but be careful!)
- References to reliable sources
- Repetition (for persuasive purposes)
- Questions – rhetorical or otherwise
- Direct address to the reader
- Contrasts
- Appealing imagery, etc.
Useful Strategies
- Write out the question (and relevant sub-questions) in your own words
- Think about the specific question to filter the relevant material
- List out facts: prioritize, edit, sequence, discard, and ask yourself ‘what’s missing?’
- Anticipate the feelings / response of your reader
- Your opening paragraph is essentially important – entice your reader to read on
- Keep your voice active
- Quote from reliable sources
- Stay focused on your point of view throughout. Each paragraph needs to be purposeful and related to the question.
- Focus on logical arguments
- Don’t lapse into summary – wait for your conclusion to do this
- Conclusion - summarize and conclude your argument at the end
- Edit / rewrite the first paragraph to telegraph your development and conclusion