Main features of argumentative essay
An argumentative essay is a type of academic writing, which has as its goal persuading someone to adopt your point of view. In other words, this type of paper writing is intended for defending a certain controversial thesis statement that has a number of pros and cons.
Aims of an argumentative essay:
- To persuade your audience to accept your point of view as the right one, to win them over. To do this, you will have to pay a lot of attention to the opposite point of view and to a lot of analyzing and comparing.
- To clearly define why your point of view should be preferred to all the other ones. As you write your argumentative essay, you hold a discussion with yourself (evaluate various statements, provide some proof and support for your own thesis statement, make suggestions and consider hidden arguments and internal contradictions). As a result, you conclude that one of the points of view can be preferred to others, even though other people may not agree with it at the start.
Argumentative essay topics may range from those addressing social and political issues to those focusing on more personal matters, so unless your professor gave you a specific topic to research, you can choose any subject that speaks to you. The main thing is to make sure that the topic of your choice has at least two controversial opinions, both of which are supported by large groups of people.
Argumentative essay structure:
1. Introduction:
- topic description;
- topic relevance;
- the divergence of views regarding the essay topic;
- the structure of the topic overview and transition to the main thesis statement.
2. Main part:
- Main statement (supported by arguments) offered by an author (there may be only one or two-three of these);
- Specifying principal concepts used when presenting thesis statements;
- Supporting evidence (facts and/or examples from reliable sources) for each thesis statement;
- Reviewing counter-arguments or opposite statements (here you have to prove why they are weak compared to your own statements).
3. Conclusion:
- Repeating the main thesis statement;
- A couple of sentences to summarize all the arguments supporting the main thesis statement;
- A general warning about the consequences of not accepting your main thesis statement. General conclusion on the usefulness of the statement.
Main features of an argumentative essay:
- The distinct subjectivity of author’s point of view regarding the issue in question. This allows avoiding the thorough scientific in-depth study of arguments in essay writing, at the same time attracting the attention of the public to the issue that may not be popular at the moment.
- Argumentative essay style stands out for its figurability and aphoristic character, as well as free use of metaphorical language and analogies.
- In some way, an argumentative essay is a blend of methods used on other areas of creativity: problematizing of a well-established point of view and preparation to solving a certain fundamental problem.
- An argumentative essay requires more than a certain amount of knowledge; it requires emphasizing personal feelings and experience, an author’s personal attitude to what he or she is writing about. This allows the audience to see the author’s strong personality whose opinion is to be respected.
- The borders of this type of academic writing are blurred and determined by sketches, reflections, fragmentary stories.
All of the above-mentioned allows us to note the following particular characteristics of an argumentative essay:
- Small size and topic particularity;
- Personal approach to covering the topic, subjectivity;
- Independent analysis of the issue in question, conclusions that summarize an author’s point of view on the problem;
- Free use of language, from lofty level of discourse to informal speech.
As you can see, argumentative essays are not much different from other kinds of essays you get to write during your student years. But still, it has a number of distinctive features that make it stand out. No matter if you order a custom essay or write it yourself, there is some work required in order to present your essay to the audience.
