your audience. for what kind of reader are you writing the paper? your teacher? classmates? the general public? it matters, because different audiences call for different approaches, for different amounts of background information and detail to be provided, and the like. If in doubt, ask your teachers about who you should consider your target audience to be. the main ingredients of an argumentative paper the argumentative paper involves five main ingredients: 1 thesis claim, proposition, main idea 2 context background, framework, setting 3 reasons support, evidence 4 counter arguments objections, contrary considerations and 5 responses refutations, answers to objections. These ingredients can be put together or organized in a good many different ways. In a very short, very simple argumentative paper, the last two may not appear at all so the absolute minimum ingredients are: thesis, context, and supporting reasons and the thesis should appear prior to the reasons it will also usually be restated after the reasons. As you plan and write your argumentative paper, keep these things circulating in your head! thesis context reasons objections responses thesis. without a good thesis. Typical characteristics of a good thesis: specific not overly general , accurate not vague , and arguable.

Arguable means that the thesis is a statement that a reasonable person might disagree with – or at least, might disagree with prior to reading your brilliant defense of it! a good thesis is not merely descriptive, is not merely factual. After doing a full draft of your paper and reflecting what you've said overall, you'll usually need to revise or polish up your thesis. context. you need to provide your readers with some background about the issues your paper deals with. In a very short, simple argumentative paper this can sometimes be given in the introductory paragraph, prior to your thesis statement but typically you will need one or more context paragraphs after your thesis paragraph, sometimes before your reasons and counter argument paragraphs, sometimes interspersed among them. reasons. your reasons plus your thesis form an argument with the thesis as the argument's conclusion hence, an argumentative paper. But reasons can also be conclusions – there can be reasons for reasons! arguments within arguments! if x is a reason for y, and y is a reason for z, that makes y both a reason in relation to z and a conclusion in relation to x. Typical supporting paragraph structure goes like this: topic sentence, which is a reason for your thesis or for a subconclusion then the rest of the paragraph consists largely of reasons for or elaborations of the topic sentence.

Remember to make liberal use of inference indicators so it will be clear what is a reason for what! counter arguments objections. imaginatively put yourself in the place of those who might disagree with your thesis, or disagree with some of your supporting reasons. Then articulate the strongest objections you can think of to your thesis or to some of your reasons. Impressive papers present strong objections – and then respond to them convincingly! it's often very helpful to get someone else to look over your draft and suggest counter arguments. Be aware that considering counter arguments can have unexpected consequences: you may discover that you don't have effective responses! in other words, you may find that a counter argument is better than your own initial argument! then you'll need to make some significant revisions or add some qualifications to your own thesis, subconclusions, or reasons. responses to counter arguments. these are your answers to, or refutations of, the objections you've presented to your thesis or to some of your reasons. One is straightforward refutation: explain why a counter argument's reasons are false or at least, suspect , or that it's reasons, even if true, do not adequately support it's conclusion.

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Another, more subtle, approach is to concede that a counter argument does have some merit, but then you explain why it doesn't really undermine your own arguments – it only appears to do so at first glance. A counter argument might be that he was an alcoholic supported by several eyewitness accounts of his drunkenness , and how can an alcoholic be an outstanding commander? your response might be that, yes, he did have a bit of an alcohol problem – but only during periods of military inactivity, so it didn't affect his generalship. As you plan and write your argumentative paper, keep these things circulating in your head! thesis – context – reasons – counter arguments – responses for special paper writing advice, click here ! ways to organize an argumentative paper there are various good and effective ways to organize or structure an argumentative paper, but there are two general principles you should follow. one is that whatever your overall organizational scheme is, it should be pretty obvious to a reader. In longer papers it may be advisable to describe, in a short paragraph or a sentence or two, how the rest of your paper is organized.

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The second general principle is that you should clearly state your overall thesis early in the paper, before you start providing your support for it. Argumentative papers should not be like mystery novels with surprise endings! here are several example general organizational approaches there are others each part thesis, context, etc. Writing a persuasive essay is like being a lawyer arguing a case before a jury. The writer takes a stand on an issue either for or against and builds the strongest possible argument to win over the reader.

In a persuasive essay, it’s the writer’s job to convince the reader to accept a particular point of view or take a specific action. Persuasive essays require good research, awareness of the reader’s biases, and a solid understanding of both sides of the issue. A good persuasive essay demonstrates not only why the writer’s opinion is correct, but also why the opposing view is incorrect. Persuasive writing is a fixture of modern life found in advertising, newspaper editorials, blogs, and political speeches.

Often persuasive writing assignments and test prompts concern contemporary issues, for example: the school board is debating on whether or not to ban cell phone use in school. As shown in this persuasive writing prompt, the main purpose is not to inform, but to persuade or convince an audience the school board to think or act a certain way. the five step writing process for persuasive essays at time4writing, we believe the five step writing process is the best approach to learning how to write a persuasive essay. Prewriting for the persuasive essay the prewriting phase of writing a persuasive essay is extremely important. During this phase, students should plan every aspect of the essay: choose a position. students should think about the issue and pick the side they wish to advocate. understand the audience. in order to write an effective persuasive essay, the writer must understand the readers perspective.

Is the reader undecided or inclined to favor one side or the other? do the research. a persuasive essay depends upon solid, convincing evidence. identify the most convincing evidence, as well as the key points for the opposing view. organizing the persuasive essay: outline and structure next, create an outline.

If the teacher has specified an essay structure, incorporate it into the outline. Typically, the persuasive essay comprises five or six paragraphs: the principles of argumentation by johnie h. Scott, assistant professor pan african studies department california state university, northridge one of the major modes of discourse, argumentation can be applied to virtually all assignments involving critical reasoning no matter the subject or discipline. As it involves a higher level of reasoning than associated with descriptive writing, or narrative writing, or expository writing per se, it is crucial for the successful university level student to understand and master the principles, indeed the concepts that drive the critical thinking skills associated with argumentative writing.

It also is built around a major premise in this instance, called the proposition rather than the thesis statement. Additionally, there is a definite pattern of organization used in developing the argument. In this instance, the term argument refers to a reasoned attempt to convince the audience to accept a particular point of view about a debatable topic. Looking more closely at this definition, we observe that the argument is not irrational it does not depend strictly on passion or emotion.

Rather, argumentation represents a reasoned attempt, that is, an effort based on careful thinking and planning where the appeal is to the mind, the intellect of the audience at hand. Why? the answer to this is that one wants to convince the audience to accept a particular point of view. The key concept here is to convince the audience, that is, you must make them believe your position, accept your logic and evidence. Not only do you want them to accept the evidence, but you want that audience to accept a particular point of view that point of view, or perspective, is yours.