How Do You Start An Argumentative Paper Text

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Shares saves without a good topic, an argumentative paper will fall flat, no matter how well it is executed. If you have chosen your own, determine if it is truly debatable and realistic for your assignment. To do this, turn your topic into a question this is your central or research question. So you can present opposing views in your paper accurately, answer their concerns, and show why your side makes the most sense or is the best solution.

How much research you need to do depends on the topic, your base of knowledge and how long you have to complete the assignment. You will probably need to know more than will actually end up in your paper so you can write with confidence and make choices about what is best to include. While you need not create a formal outline with roman numerals, it helps to create an informal, or scratch outline, to guide you as you write.

Every essay should have an introduction, a body composed of several major points supported by your logic and evidence, and a conclusion. Make sure your outline indicates what you will discuss in each of these sections and organizes the body points. A common way to organize the body of the argument is to present the opposing views first and respond to them as you present your own views. Another approach reverses that order: your argument comes first, then the opposing views, followed by your response to them. For example, you might compare and contrast gun buyback programs in several cities before you argue how they should be run, if you advocate them.

The outline will help you stay on track, but if you are inspired to add a new point or piece of evidence or to reorganize your points, feel free to change the outline. For example, you may begin a gun control paper by describing a neighborhood shooting. The introduction is the place to give background information things the reader should know at the outset. While there are some argumentation styles that withhold the thesis until later in the essay, unless your instructor has asked you to do that, your best bet is to end the introduction with a thesis statement , a single sentence no more than two clearly stating your answer to the central question. For instance, instead of writing gun buyback programs have limited impact on guns in american cities, you might write, despite the popularity of gun buyback programs, in order to significantly decrease the number of illegal guns on our cities' streets, we need to attack the problem's root: illegal gun trade.

Giving voice to opposition ideas shows that you are knowledgeable and have looked at the problem from various angles. If you present opposing ideas respectfully and fully, it will also show that you are fair minded and dealing with the issue logically rather than emotionally, so your tone is critical. If gun buyback programs have been wildly successful somewhere, say so, even if you plan to argue that they do not address the issue sufficiently. While it's best not to refute the opposition as you present their ideas, responding to them should be a part of arguing for your beliefs. For instance, their solutions may create other problems, or perhaps ignore part of the problem. You might suggest that gun buyback programs give communities a false sense of security and cite gun crime that follow such events. With well organized and well supported points, make your argument, addressing readers' concerns as you do.

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use a variety of types of evidence such as authority quotes, statistics and examples, and include more than one type per point. In a short essay, there is no need to run through the points you've already made unless the subject is quite technical and the audience needs the reminder. Some of the same strategies you use for an introduction can also be used as part of the conclusion, such as a gripping quote or a startling statistic. For instance, if you've identified gun trade as the real problem, you might briefly suggest how we begin addressing that problem. If you've told part of a story in your opening, finish it at the end, giving a sense of having come full circle the argumentative paper 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.

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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. 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. 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. The best way to start an argumentative essay is to have a strong thesis already in mind. One of my favorite ways to start an argumentative essay is to tell a little story or quote a. After writing the body of the paper, you should be ready to write the introduction. в the introduction should probably be the last aspect of your paper that you write. the attention getter в  в  в a good story в  в  в an authority's opinion в  в  в an interesting or startling statistic with explanation в  в  в a personal experience b. the tie in to the topic sentences you should have a couple of sentences that explain the attention getter and its relevance to the topic.

introduce the topic indicate the importance of the topic, its relation to any long term problem if needed, a brief definition can be given here. the thesis or argumentative claim this should be one of the best sentences in the paper. A second sentence can include the aspects of the topic that are going to be discussed. в of course, the number of sentences does depend on the how long you make your attention getter.в grab the reader's attention. в look for the most interesting way to introduce your topic.в there are several how to write an introduction answers on enotes. в в like 0 dislike 0 writing an argumentative paper what exactly is an argumentative paper? an argumentative paper is constructed around a limited thesis. You begin with a topic mdash an area of interest to you, such as gender roles in a particular novel.

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