Argumentative Essays

1. ARGUMENTATIVE
ESSAYS
Sonia Sánchez Beneitez
Complementos para la formación disciplinar en lengua inglesa
Máster en formación del profesorado en Educación Secundaria – Universidad Isabel I

2. INDEX
What is an argumentative essay?
Planning an argumentative essay
Structure
What strategies can we use?
Types of arguments
Do’s and Don’ts
Useful Internet resources

3. What is an argumentative
essay?
In an argumentative essay, the writer wants to persuade
the reader with arguments or examples that contributes to
support the main topic.
An argumentative essay combines sometimes narration or
description, but normally, the argumentative essay is
combined with exposition. Thus, you can inform the
reader and give him facts before trying to convince him.
In an argumentative essay, you should present arguments
in favour and against (those against are called
counterarguments).
In that way, your essay will appear more objective and then
you can lead the reader to the central idea you are
defending.

4. Planning an argumentative
essay
Some of these points will help you to plan an
argumentative essay:
First of all, make a mind map or a diagram
with arguments (in favour and against)
related to the title of your essay or to the main
topic you would like to discuss.

5. Planning an argumentative
essay - cont.
Read some literature and articles related to the
topic, so you can gather solid arguments before
the writing stage.

6. Planning an argumentative
essay - cont.
Then, order these ideas in a coherent and
logical manner and in the way it could be
more convincing to the reader. When doing
this, you should start deciding what to put in
the introduction, in the body and in the
conclusion.
Select the specific vocabulary of your topic
and the specific discourse markers that will
be useful for your essay.

7. Planning an argumentative
essay - cont.
Add examples that
can support your
arguments.
Finally, start
writing your first
draft!

8. Structure
Introduction: in the introduction you present the
topic or thesis statement and you try to catch the
reader’s attention.
Body: here you present your arguments and your
counterarguments, as well as developing more
information about your topic and the necessary
explanations to convince the reader.
Conclusion: in the conclusion, you take into account
all the information given and you conclude the text by
making some references to the main ideas and/or the
main topic.

9. What strategies can we
use?
When trying to give an argument, we can make
use of different argumentative strategies as
we have to give reasons that should not be
questioned by the reader. Some of these
strategies could be:
The use of quotations from experts to support
your point with an element of authority
The use of examples
The use of cause- effect ideas

10. What strategies can we use? –
cont.
The use of analogies
The use of statistics
The use of facts
The use of surveys

11. Types of arguments
In Chapter 18 titled Strategies of Argument from the book
“The Scott, Foresman, Writer” by Ruszkiewicz et alt.
(2010), we can find that there are 5 main types of
arguments:
Argument of fact. In this argument you present
ideas that actually happened and are accepted by
society (Muñoz-Basols, J., Pérez Sinusía Y. y David
M, 2011).
Argument of definition. After giving some definitions
from different resources, you contrast them to support
your arguments.

12. Types of arguments – cont.
Argument of evaluation. Here, you present your
argument or idea and give your point of view
afterwards, what can be called “criteria of evaluation”.
Causal argument. In this argument, you express the
relation that exists between the cause and the effect
of your argument (Muñoz-Basols, J. et al., 2011).
Proposal argument. In your essay, you can propose
some problems and then move gradually to find a
solution. As Ruszkiewicz et alt. defined: “Proposal
arguments represent attempts to solve problems”.
(Ruszkiewicz et alt. , 2010, p.170)

13. Do’s and Don'ts
DO
use first person plural (“we”) or
impersonal/passive sentences.
a logical transition between arguments and ideas.
use counterarguments or objections in some of
your paragraphs to strengthen your arguments.
give ideas that are well developed and
exemplified.
quote responsibly and fairly from your sources.
take a deductive or inductive approach in your
arguments.

14. Do’s and Don'ts – cont.
DON’T
use the first person (“I”) or second person (“you”)
be superficial in your arguments or conclusion.
give far-fetched examples.
choose a topic that is difficult to debate.
give too many ideas that are not well developed
or unrelated.
develop your ideas in a disorganised way without
any logical order.

15. Useful Internet resources
http://www.mycollegesuccessstory.com/academic
-success-tools/agumentative-essays.html
http://homeworktips.about.com/od/essaywriting/a
/argument.htm
http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/argument/

16. Bibliography
Sánchez Lobato, J. (Coord.), Cervera Rodríguez, A. y
Hernández García, G. (2006) Saber escribir (pp.377-
388). Instituto Cervantes, Madrid: Santillana.
Muñoz-Basols, J., Pérez Sinusía Y. y David M. (2011)
El texto argumentativo. En Developing writing skills in
Spanish (pp.109-142 ). Londres: Routledge.
Ruskiewicz, J., Seward, D., Friend, C., Maxine, E.
(2010). Strategies of Argument. En The Scott,
Foresman, Writer. Recuperado de:
http://www.pearsonhighered.com/showcase/sf/assetts
/cp18.pdf