Argumentative Essay Guide

Writing an essay opens up the mind of the writer and showcases their creativity. Argumentative Essay writing requires skills such as research, analytical thinking and good writing. You should also have skills to substantiate your arguments and bring them to a logical conclusion. The techniques develop overtime and with practice you can become a perfectionist in framing high quality argumentative essays. As a writer you need to win over the readers and make them accept their point of view. If you are writing an argumentative essay it is important that you write on a topic which you have knowledge about and you feel that you can win over the audience with your arguments. Examples of some controversial topics are abortion, capital punishment and euthanasia. There are pros and cons of writing about these controversial topics. One disadvantage is that the evaluator is already familiar with the topic and knows the arguments that you are most likely to give. So he reads the essay with a definite mindset which may be difficult to change. The advantage is the topic itself. There are many points that you might bring out in favor of the topic.

Now let us understand how you should write an argumentative essay. If you have the liberty to choose the topic it is advisable that you choose a well thought out controversial topic. Research the topic thoroughly by going through the latest magazine, visit libraries, watch news channels and discussions on television. Doing these exercises will definitely help you to get clear ideas on the topic. You need to be affirmative when you state the argument topic. If you are writing on outsourcing the first sentence can be “Outsourcing Information Technology to lower cost destinations is definitely going to help American companies gain competitive edge and win market share from their European and Japanese competitors”. If you start it by saying “Outsourcing may be of help to American companies” it does not create the kind of impact that is expected of an argumentative essay. The essay should all along have a moderate tone. If you take an aggressive and harsh approach the reader may reciprocate with equal vengeance. All along your essay should convey the message that you respect the reader’s point of view but keep insisting on your argument. This can help you win over the reader and bring about a change in his mindset.

An argumentative essay should be well researched and it should be composed strategically broken down into paragraphs. The first paragraph should have general introduction to the problem and statement to your opinion. The second and third paragraph should have a history to the problem, past attempts which were made to achieve a solution. It should also mention the sources referred. The third and fourth paragraph should give the seriousness of the problem and the repercussions if the problem is not solved. The final paragraph should draw the conclusion and summarize the main ideas of the topic. Following the steps above you can definitely compose an argumentative essay which will get appreciation from the readers.