How to Write an Argumentative Paper

The time has come just like you knew it would. After all, the professor did warn you that you would have to write one. So here are some "How to Write Argumentative Paper" guidelines.

Although there are various effective ways to structure an argumentative paper, you should try to follow two general principles. First, make sure that your overall organizational theme is very obvious to the reader. Second, you should clearly state your thesis early in the paper before you start providing support and objections. Your reader should not have any doubt as to your position on the issue.

Typically, an argumentative paper consists of five main sections:

1. Thesis

This is where you present your main idea. It may be in the form of a claim or a proposition. You must do more than simply provide information about your topic in an argumentative paper. Try to choose a specific topic which could easily be argued between opposing sides. Avoid using the first person in your writing as it tends to weaken your argument.

2. Context

Here you should give your readers some background information about the issue your paper is discussing. Typically, you should include one or more context paragraphs in your argumentative paper. Depending upon the subject you are addressing, these paragraphs can be located immediately after your thesis paragraph or before the paragraphs that discuss your reasons and counter-arguments. At times it may even be appropriate to weave the context throughout the entirety of your paper.

3. Reasons

You need to provide evidence to support your thesis. Combining your reasons with your thesis forms the argument which is the basis of your argumentative paper.

However, reasons can sometimes be conclusions of their own. For example, you might include a topic sentence which expresses a reason to support your thesis. Then the remainder of the paragraph might consist mainly of elaborations on that topic sentence. Be sure to write in a manner that clearly explains how the reasons relate to your thesis.

4. Counter-arguments