What Is an Argumentative Essay?

The purpose of an argumentative essay is to establish a stance or position on an issue by

providing reasons and supporting evidence. A well written argumentative essay will:

 Introduce a compelling topic and engage the reader;

 Explain and consider all sides of an issue fairly;

 Address any potential counterarguments to the writer’s perspective; and

 Persuade the reader to adopt or consider a new perspective.

What elements should a good argumentative essay have?

1. A clear thesis statement in the introduction.

2. Logical reasoning and points which support the thesis statement.

3. Relevant examples or evidence which support the points.

The structure of an argumentative essay

First Paragraph: Background and Thesis Statement
Your opening statement is where you attempt to grab the attention or ‘hook’ the reader. This
acts as a smooth segue to your background and thesis statement where you later establish
your side on the issue. You can start with a surprising statistic that is not commonly known
within the field. You can get creative here but make sure you’re still following the norms of
scholarly or academic writing. That means no personal anecdotes or inspirational quotes etc.
Save those for your narrative essays.

Next, provide background on your topic to prepare the readers for the rest of your essay.
Engage the reader by answering the following questions:

 Why is this issue important?

 What are the root causes of this problem?

 Who or what is affected?

 Are there any solutions available?

 What can or should be done about it?

For example, if the topic is gender inequality in the workplace, you can share statistics from
research that exemplifies the difference in incomes of the average man and woman who
perform the same role.
Body Paragraphs: Develop your Arguments and Provide Evidence
It’s best to dedicate one paragraph to each supporting point you have for your argument. All
arguments or body paragraphs must always contain the following three parts:
Part 1: Claim
A claim is a statement you make to support your argument. It’s basically a reason that
proves why your thesis statement is true.
Example:
Applying sin tax to products based on the amount of sugar will directly reduce the excessive
consumption of heavily sugary products amongst consumers.
Part 2: Evidence & Explanation
Every claim made should be supported by relevant evidence and explanation of how that
evidence supports your claim. This is where you insert the findings of your research from
credible sources.

Example: Case study of where sin tax resulted in lower consumption.

The Measure D soda tax was approved by 76% of Berkeley voters on 4 November 2014 and
took effect on 1 January 2015 as the first such tax in the United States. The measure
imposes a tax of one cent per ounce on the distributors of specified sugar-sweetened
beverages such as soda, sports drinks, energy drinks, and sweetened iced teas. In August
2016, a UC Berkeley study showed a 21% drop in the drinking of soda and sugary
beverages in low-income Berkeley neighbourhoods after a few months showing that the sin
tax was lowering consumption of sugary drinks.
Part 3: Tie-back to thesis
This demonstrates that imposing a sin tax on sugary drinks is one way to reduce the
consumption of sugar-based products. (Assuming that your thesis is about reducing
consumption of sugary products and ways to do it).

Additional Paragraphs: Challenging Your Own Arguments & Reinforcing Your Claims
A good argumentative essay will also have paragraphs that address counterarguments. This
demonstrates your knowledge of the topic and awareness of existing opposing arguments,
which will impress most readers. However, if you are writing at the university level, this will
almost always be expected of you.

The success of these additional paragraphs will lie in how you refute these
counterarguments and turn them around to strengthen your thesis statement and/or
supporting points. It’s always useful to discuss these counterarguments with classmates or
someone with an opposing view to understand how to break it down and counter it.
Conclusion: Summarising and Closing with Impact
The conclusion summarises your thesis statement and main arguments and tries to convince
the reader that your argument is the most valid. Here are some ideas on how to conclude
your essay:

 Include a call to action. Inspire and invoke the reader to agree with your
argument. Tell them what they need to think, do, feel, or believe from this
point on.

 Present hypotheticals. Illustrate the chain of events that will happen if the
reader adopts your ideas. Use past or present real-life examples to ground
these depictions to a grounded reality.

 Think "big picture." If you are arguing for policy changes, what are the
implications of adopting (or not adopting) your ideas? How will they affect
the reader (or the relevant group of people)?

Once you are done with your conclusion, a good idea might be to go back to your
introduction and see if you want to make any changes to it. While writing the essay, you may
have picked up on or added points that you didn’t have before. You could have phrased your
arguments in a compelling manner that you’d like to replicate in the introduction. This will
definitely improve the flow of your essay.