Download Argumentative Essays

Argumentative Essays Hand-out
ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAYS:
*In an argumentative essay you state your opinion on things that matters. It is how well
you can support a claim on a topic that has two reasonable sides.
*In an argumentative essay you are free to voice your opinions. You are free to say
whatever you would like, as long as you can back it up and support it with research.
*Argumentative essay have a thesis statement. The thesis statement is that
sentence in your text that contains the focus of your essay and tells your reader what
the essay is going to be about.
*EXAMPLE:
Consider the following working thesis. Would it be an appropriate thesis for an
argument?
Hip hop lyrics contain a lot of violence.
You, as a listener, can go through different types of hip hop songs and find many that
contain violent references and lyrics, so the claim that there are songs with violent
content make this a factual statement, not a debatable claim. The author is not making
an argumentative point here, so there is little to discuss. Your readers might think.
“Yep, there are violent lyrics in some hip hop songs. So what? What is your point?
Why am I reading this?
Consider the following revisions that offer two different legitimate viewpoints on the
same topic:
1. Since many hip hop lyrics contain a lot of violence, listening to this sort of music can
be damaging to young listeners. (it is harmful – bad for young listeners)
2. Even though many hip hop lyrics contain a lot of violence, it is not a glorification of
violence, but it is an artist’s expression of actual occurrences, and it is the best way to
end the violence in a certain American cities by exposing it to a vast audience.
(harmless – beneficial to society)
It is the main point of these last two examples that takes the factual statement that there
is violence in some hip hop lyrics, and it makes it debatable. One claim that violence is
harmful to its listeners, and claims it.
TECHNIQUES OF ARGUMENT:
*Personal Experience:
Using the impact of personal experience may not have scientific merit or statistical clout,
but it can be very convincing.
Still, citing personal experience is seldom enough to make a truly compelling and
convincing argument. If personal experience is all we have to go on, our argument could
be dismissed as being merely anecdotal or idiosyncratic. Personal experience can
accompany or reinforce an otherwise sound argument, but it is seldom entirely
persuasive in itself.
*Statistics:
A well-placed statistic can be very helpful in convincing an audience of the validity of
your argument. Knowing how people are often cowed by a writer with math at her
command, it is, in fact, tempting to overwork the power of statistics.
As everyone knows, the trouble with statistics is that it's so easy to lie with them. Citing
the average annual household salary in the state of Connecticut — approaching
$100,000 — makes it sound like everyone in the state is rich. The real truth behind that
statistic, however, is that there is an alarming disparity between those who "have" in
Connecticut and live in some of the nation's richest communities and those who "have
not" and live in some of the nation's poorest neighborhoods. Averages sometimes don't
mean very much. A graphically represented statistic can also be made to lie.
*Facts:
The ability to distinguish between fact and opinion, between fact and interpretation or
judgment is paramount to successful thinking and writing strategies. In an
argumentative essay, it is essential to know what is fact and what is only asserted as
fact.
What kinds of statements can we make that our readers cannot reasonably dispute?
*Historical Truths
*Scientific Facts
*Geographical Truths
*Analogies:
When we argue from analogy, we say that something is like something else. For
instance, we could argue that having two women's professional basketball programs —
the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the Women's National Basketball
Association (WNBA) — is a big mistake for the future of the sport. We can say this is
like the experience of the two men's leagues in professional football in that back in the
early 60s the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL)
were killing each other off in terms of divided fan support and media attention until they
decided to merge and combine the merits of both leagues into one super league.
The writer must be fair in claiming likeness. Example: Is there something different
about men's and women's sports that would make two leagues in a women's sports
feasible where it wasn't in a men's sports?
*Being Logical:
Most of the time, we use good logic and demand good logic from others so should your
essays. : If something gets categorized with something else that is "guilty" of something
awful, there is a tendency for everything to be tainted by the guilty party.
Example: Remember how unfair it seemed when Mother accused you of stealing Mrs.
Young's necklace just because you hung out with Jerry Biggsloff, who she knew was up
to no good?
*Anticipating the Opposition:
Writers of an argumentative essay must consider what others will say to refute their
argument. This is the source of energy for this kind of paper. Raising the objections of
your opposition and then — carefully — showing how your way of seeing things is better
reveals you, the author, as a thoughtful, reasonable, thorough individual.