Constructing an argument PBS Study Support

Most university essays require you to construct an argument. This may be different to the kind of
descriptive writing that you did before coming to university.

What makes good argumentative writing?

 State a point of view and give a clear line of reasoning to support it

 Offer evidence or examples to support your argument
 Show where the evidence came from show that it is reliable, by referencing
 Show that you have considered the possible arguments that might contradict your case
 Be able to demonstrate why your argument is reasonable
Adapted from Stella Cottrell, Study Skills Handbook

The argument process

Assertion +

Evidence +

Reasoning
= ARGUMENT

Adapted from Ramsay, Maier and Price’s AER Model of constructing an argument

Thus an academic argument must have these three components, assertion, evidence and reasoning.

Assertion: This is making a statement about something, at this stage it is not backed up by evidence.

Evidence: This can vary in business, management and lawas type subjects, and can include:
 Quantitative data
 Qualitative data
 Case studies
 Material from academic texts (books or journals)
 Organisational and business documents
 Material from reports of regulatory or government bodies
 Material from professional or trade journals
 Personal communications

The library will be the best place to start looking for evidence.

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Reasoning: This shows the relationship between different concepts, assertions and evidence etc. It is up
to you as the writer to provide the reasoning that shows you understand how concepts might link together
and draw conclusions from the evidence that support your assertions.

Example

Assertion: Sport does merit the kind of interest and attention that it is getting in today’s society.

Evidence: The following is an essay fragment written to support the assertion above.

Does sport merit the kind of interest and attention that it is getting in our society?

Mourniho (2012) suggests that, from a social standpoint, sport plays a positive role in uniting people from
different social backgrounds in support of their favourite team. This can aid people's understanding and
tolerance of each other (Redknapp, 2015). However, Wenger (2015, p.16) suggests that “just as sport
unites people so it can divide them”, as is often demonstrated by crowd violence at football matches.

As far as education is concerned, Ferguson (2015) found that sport is an important part of every child's
schooling, as it plays a big role in both their physical and mental development. It teaches children how to
work as a part of a team and cooperate with others, while at the same time improving physical condition.
However, Torres (2015) found that a drawback to this is that children who are less able to perform well in
sport are likely to feel inadequate in comparison to their more gifted teammates, which may affect their
self-confidence.

From an economic point of view, sport can be very profitable, as it attracts a lot of sponsorship and
advertising (Beckham, 2013). On the one hand this creates revenue for the sporting industry which allows
for improvement and expansion. On the other hand large sums of money are often paid to event
organisers to promote products such as cigarettes, which are harmful to one's health.

Evidence:

Examples of evidence above are:

 Mourniho’s work suggesting that sport unites people.
 Redknapp’s suggestion that sport aids understanding and tolerance
 Wenger’s suggestion that sport can lead to people being divided as well as united.
 Ferguson’s finding that sport plays a role in children’s development.
 Torres’s finding that sport can make less able children feel inadequate.
 Beckham’s assertion that sport can be profitable and attract a lot of sponsors.

These may not really seem like facts, but in business and law writing where, unlike science, nothing can be
proved you will use other people’s opinions as facts. However, these are treated as facts to support or
argue with your assertion.

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Reasoning:
Reasoning is your interpretation of the facts and opinions given by other writers.
 “as is often demonstrated by crowd violence at football matches” – some reasoning to back up
Wenger’s assertion about sport dividing people.
 “Thus sport may hold developmental advantages for some young people, whilst others may suffer
from feelings of inadequacy due to failure to excel.” – this draws together the opinions in this
paragraph.
 “On the one hand this creates revenue for the sporting industry which allows for improvement and
expansion. On the other hand large sums of money are often paid to event organisers to promote
products such as cigarettes, which are harmful to one's health” – this draws further conclusions
from Beckham’s assertions about financial issues in sport.

Your reasoning might lead you to conclude that:

 sport has a social dimension which can unite or divide people
 sport can have developmental advantages for children, but may be detrimental to children who do
not excel in it
 that sport has financial advantages but that there are concerns as to the source of some of the
money

References:

Ramsay, P, Maier P, & Price G, (2010), Study Skills for Business and Management Students, Pearson
Education Ltd, Edinburgh

Cottrell, S. (2008), The Study Skills Handbook. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan

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